Jack’s the man

First things first. I believe Tiger Woods has already won the Grand Slam of golf.

All this calendar year stuff is spurious. Tiger Woods has held all four the major championships at once – the 2000 US Open, British Open and US PGA followed by the 2001 US Masters.

To me that is a Grand Slam. If he were able to take all the trophies home (which I doubt) and if he does have a fireplace at his home in Windermere, Florida (which is also unlikely given the weather) he would have been able to display all four of them, the silver replica of the clubhouse at Augusta National, the silver trophy belonging to the USGA, the Claret Jug and the Wannamaker Trophy, on his mantelpiece.

So it’s been done. If Eldrick goes on to win the British Open at Muirfield near Edinburgh and the US PGA at Hazeltine on the outskirts of Minneapolis he’ll have just done it twice.

That said, it brings me to all this “Tiger is the greatest golfer of all time” stuff.

He is not. That is a title that belongs to Jack Nicklaus and Tiger still has some way to go before he may lay claim to it.

It may not be perfect, but golf over the years has evolved a measure of greatness and it involves the four majors. To place a player in a scale of prominence all you have to do is ask a simple question: “How many majors has he won?”

The answer provides the ranking and Nicklaus, with 18, leads the pack. Tiger, for all his dominance, has won, at this time, just eight majors which means that Walter Hagen (11), Ben Hogan and, we should not forget, Gary Player with nine apiece are also still ahead of him.

Those caught up in the Tiger is God mania are fond of claiming that he has recorded his achievements against a greater depth of opposition. They point out that with air travel and the organisastion of the big tours Tiger goes up against a greater number of players capable of winning than Nicklaus did.

I beg to differ. Nicklaus set his phenomenal record against an array of players with the game and the mind to win majors whereas Tiger appears to have utterly intimidated his peers.

Nicklaus compiled his victories up against the like of Arnold Palmer (7 majors), Gary Player (9 majors), Lee Trevino (6 majors), Tom Watson (8 majors), Ray Floyd (4 majors), Hale Irwin (3 majors), Larry Nelson (3 majors) and Johnny Miller (2 majors). In addition the latter part of his career overlapped with the like of Seve Ballesteros (5 majors) and Nick Faldo (6 majors).

It is my contention, therefore, that Nicklaus was pitted against more formidable players than Woods has been.

Since the age of the Tiger dawned, when he won the Masters in 1997, there have been just two other multiple winners of major titles – Mark O’Meara (1998 Masters and British Open) and Vijay Singh (1998 PGA and 2000 Masters). Ernie Els, for instance, won his first US Open in 1994 before Tiger was on tour and his next in 1997 – the major immediately succeeding Tiger’s first Masters.

Of the top players ranged against Woods, David Duval, Jose-Maria Olazabal and Justin Leonard have each taken majors but the like of Phil Mickelson (his perennial No2) and Colin Montgomery (Europe’s leading player) have won none.

Tiger’s pre-eminence, in his era, is uncontestable. Since 1997 he has competed in 22 Majors and won eight of them (including seven of the last 11), but he has simply not been up against the kind of opposition that Nicklaus was.

Nicklaus won 18 professional major titles: six Masters titles, four U.S. Opens, five PGA Championship trophies -- all records -- as well as three British Open crowns.

Against this Tiger has three Masters, two US Opens, one British Open and two US PGAs; a simple way of illustrating that when it comes to deciding who’s the best the Bear trumps the Tiger.