This thread compares Tiger to Jack at the same point in their respective careers.

EDIT 2015: Jack takes the lead by one 15-14.

EDIT 2019: Tiger pulls back to within 2. 15-17





T6, 2nd and 1st in his last 3 is a pretty strong statement by Tiger!

There was a time when I thought Tiger would win 25 and making a run at 30 wasn't out of the question. Now, whether he gets to 19 is still very much up in the air. That said, if Tiger's health will hold up, his best chance at making up ground is a productive early 40's when Jack wasn't doing much of anything vs. most top players today are still in great form in their early 40's. Now that's a big IF given Tiger's health history already, but I do think he'll still be strong enough to make up ground there and I think will still beat out Jack - but barely.

[This message has been edited by Danny Duberstein (edited 4/11/2011 10:18a).]

I don't think he'll catch Nicklaus for all the reasons that have been stated over and over.

Check out how many times that Nicklaus was in the running. Call it 2nd place finishes or top 5. Nicklaus has much more impressive resume than Woods. Throw out the wins and Tiger still has bunch of great results in majors. But it doesn't touch Nicklaus.

I also used to think that Tiger would get 25ish majors. That isn't going to happen, but I don't think 19 is out of the question either. I think he's got one more Tiger-esque run in him. I saw flashes of it on the front 9 yesterday.

Jack had 37 top 5s at this stage in Tiger's career. Tiger has 29.

I still can't believe he's never come from behind to win a major (Tiger). That's pretty shocking.

I will be very surprised if Tiger doesn't win 2 of the next 8 majors.

If you ain't first, you're last.

25 is still very much in play for Tiger. And had he won yesterday, everyone would be back to saying that. To me, even though he didn't win, I feel like he's finally made real progress, not smoke and mirrors progress. For the first time since everything happened, I really feel like he was good enough to win. I think he's over the hump of just trying his heart out to even be relevant, and now I think he's going to be back out there realizing that his swing right now is good enough to win (which it is, no question). And with that realization in his mind, he will now be out there expecting to win every time. I also think once he throws up one or two victories, people will be intimidated again. I don't buy the notion that that aspect is just gone forever. Just my thoughts...

He's made progress on finding his swing, but I never doubted he would. However, the issue that has bothered me the most about his game over the past year is still an issue - the flatstick. Between Saturday and Sunday, Tiger missed an incredible # of putts that old Tiger just didn't miss. Tiger was a freakin machine at sinking those - so automatic that it was unfreakinbelievable. That's not been the case for the past year, and it's the biggest reason he's not wearing green jacket #5. I think he finished 33rd among those that made the cut, and he had 6 freakin 3 putts - which doubled or tripled most players that made the cut and tied Justin Rose for most 3-putts.

[This message has been edited by Danny Duberstein (edited 4/11/2011 4:55p).]

No way in hades he wins 25. He'd have to win almost as many as he has in his 14 year professional career, and he has 5 good years left to do it. He may sprinkle in a few major wins in his 40s but not many if any. You can mention Tom Watson all you want but the bottom line is Watson has not won a major since he was 33 years of age. Tiger is 35, and is 4 months away from going major-less in the past 3 years.

I still think Tiger has a decent chance to win 19 but if he doesn't win one in the next 2 years he can forget 19 and concentrate on trying to tie Jack instead of passing him.

One thing in his favor, if you can call it that, is that his major droughts have been for 10 consecutive starts, then he won 3 or 4 in pretty short order. If history repeats itself, Tiger doesn't win the U.S. Open in two months but then wins the British Open a month later and goes on a run.

Time is ticking, he needs to get this deal done sooner than later. Old man river stops for no one, and any lurking injuries he may have move closer to being exposed with each passing year.

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and he has 5 good years left to do it.

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Why on earth does Tiger's career end at age 40? Golfers now days can play championship level golf until they're 50, or at least 45.

I didn't say Tigers career would end at 40 and I don't exactly see how you could confuse my comments. I said he has 5 "good" years left. Meaning the rest of his years after that will start to become "average". And I also didn't say that a golfer in these average years couldn't win a major.

All that said, don't even begin to think a guy over 40 can consistently play like he did in his 20s and 30s. To wit, the Top 10 oldest players to win a major:





http://www.pga.com/openchampionship/2008/news/oldiesgoodies.html

Note that this list does not span 50 years, 75 years or 100 years. It spans 144 years, and it tells us that only 10 players in almost a century and a half, age 43 1/4 or older, have won a major. That's one every 14 years. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for winning many majors in your 40's. Yes, you can still be competitive in your 40's and 50's but second place doesn't count. If it did, Tiger would never catch Jack.

Forget about his 40s. Tiger better start figuring out how to win in his mid-30s.

quote:

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Golfers now days can play championship level golf until they're 50, or at least 45.

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The question about Tiger though is the fact he's a pretty old 35. Injuries have already cost him majors in his early 30's. Forget the crap with Elin, if he's healthy for the second half of 2008 and all of 2009, I don't doubt he would have won another major in there. That five-time-cut-on knee isn't getting any younger, and is naturally going to continue take plenty of abuse for as long as he plays competitive golf. Then there are other leg injuries, like the achilles, springing up that I have no doubt are partly related to compensating for the gimpy knee. Now I think he'll still win majors in his late 30's and his 40's, but not 11.

And one of the biggest concerns I see for him isn't injury related. It's about what's going on with the flatstick. Now I'm not going to blame that on age - yet, but according to Jack and many others, it's the touch on and around the greens that is actually first to go - which is somewhat counterintuitive. It's concerning to see that part of his game springing huge sustained leaks. With as many things as Tiger has tinkered with, he never messed with his putting equipment and he never tinkered much with his putting stroke, but his putting issues have been significant enough for him to do both now. That is very concerning.

[This message has been edited by Danny Duberstein (edited 4/11/2011 9:46p).]

Tiger will have to do it the next 2 years. These young guns are getting a lot more experience and it's gonna be tough from here on out. you gotta think that there will be at least 2-3 that will be highly competitive for each major. tiger's best bet will be winning a couple more masters. as we saw last year, he can score on that course at his worst times. only way i think he can win another open is if the conditions are near impossible because i still think he can play any shot at any time.

Going to be lots of fail in this thread. I'll never remember to ttt it though.

He will get 20 if he wants to. He might quit after he breaks Jack's record.

Add another DNP for Tiger.

A couple of my buddies have a $500 bet with each other on the O/U of 25.

David, give me their numbers, I'd love to get in on that.

Updated with today's announcement.

ttt, spreadsheet updated as Tiger is in the hunt at the Open.

Bump.

So knotted up 14-14 and Jack is about to win 3 in 3 years.

15-14 and Jack is going to win 2 in the next 2 years.

(This thread was started in 2011)

Yeah, I got the initial date. I was off one year in my tally and thinking Jack would take the lead in 2015, not that he already had it going into the year.

BUMP

Tiger pulls back to within 2 and he has 3 years left before Jack adds his 18th.

I forgot Tiger won 7 out of 11 majors in 1999 - 2002. So ridiculous.