Next 20 to 25 years will determine whether
Woods matches Nicklaus
By Ed Sherman / Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO - Bobby Jones was the greatest of all time. Then came
Jack Nicklaus.
Jones never imagined he would see a golfer of Nicklaus' talents,
a player who was so much longer off the tee and so precise on
the green. When Nicklaus won the 1963 Masters, a tournament founded
by Jones, the legend passed the torch.
"He plays a game with which I'm not familiar," Jones
said of Nicklaus.
Now it is 1997. Nicklaus posted records so extraordinary that
if you put the careers of Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Tom Watson
together, they still don't match what the big kid from Ohio achieved.
Then came Tiger Woods.
Like Jones, Nicklaus never imagined he would see such a prodigy,
a golfer who can hit the ball even farther than he did in his
prime.
Fittingly, when the golf world went to the oracle to put Woods'
performance in the Masters in perspective, Nicklaus harkened back
to Jones.
"It's a shame Bob Jones isn't here," Nicklaus said.
"He could have saved the words he used for me for this young
man, because he's certainly playing a game with which we're not
familiar."
The next 20 to 25 years will determine whether Woods can match
Nicklaus in the record books.
Nicklaus' career actually began at about the same time as Muhammad
Ali's. But while Ali now is a mere shadow of his old self, Nicklaus
still is able to compete in the game he loves. Even at 57, the
old flame occasionally flickers, as witnessed by his eighth-place
finish at the Memorial tournament earlier this month and his showing
at the U.S. Open, when he became the oldest player ever to make
the cut.
Woods, meanwhile, has been white-hot, electrifying the sports
world with a game from another galaxy. His record 12-shot victory
at the Masters already is the stuff of legend. Woods has been
so good that even when he stumbles, as he did at the U.S. Open,
his game underwent psychoanalysis: What's with Tiger? The answer:
Nothing.
Woods, 21, is the most exciting player to arrive on the scene
since Nicklaus, the golfer who set the standard.
Nicklaus built a mountain of records. Now Woods wants to climb
that mountain.
"I know my goal obviously is to be the best," Woods
said. "I know that's a very lofty goal, but I think if I
try to accomplish that goal, I can get there. If I don't, at least
I tried. I expect nothing but the best for myself, and I think
as time goes along, hopefully that will happen."
The biggest of the big think it can.
"I think he can win almost anywhere," Arnold Palmer
said. "I don't think there is anything to stop him."
"If anybody's got a chance, he's probably got the best
chance," Nicklaus said.
This is what Woods is chasing:
-Nicklaus won 70 tournaments, and finished second in 58 more.
-According to statistics compiled by Nicklaus' biographer,
Ken Bowden, Nicklaus won one out of every five events he entered
during his peak years from 1962 to 1978. He finished among the
top three 41.8 percent of the time and averaged 3.8 victories
a year. Nicklaus won 14 tournaments in 1972 and 1973.
-Nicklaus went seven years and 153 tournaments without missing
a cut from 1962 to 1968.
"The focus shouldn't be on the number of tournaments he
wins, because Tiger won't play as much," said David Fay,
executive director of the United States Golf Association. "Look
at the majors."
Fay is right. In the majors, Nicklaus made everyone else look
like minor-leaguers.
Nicklaus has a record 18 major victories, and it is 20 including
his two in the U.S. Amateur. The roll call: six Masters titles,
four U.S. Opens, three British Opens, and five PGAs.
From 1962 through 1980, Nicklaus finished third or better in
41 of the 76 major championships, a 54 percent average. When it
was prime time, it was peak time for Nicklaus.
And yet to those who say those marks are untouchable, remember
that Aaron hit 755 homers, 41 more than Ruth.
To beat Nicklaus, Woods would have to win at least one major
every year for 19 years. Well, he's already 1 for 2 in 1997.
"Can Tiger do better than Nicklaus?" Fay said. "There's
a danger in saying that he won't, because he goes out and does
it. He's off to a great start."
It was Nicklaus who first raised the bar for Woods after a
practice round with him and Palmer at the 1996 Masters.
"Arnold and I both agreed that you could take his Masters
titles (four) and my (six) Masters, and add them together, and
this kid should win more than that," said Nicklaus.
Back then Nicklaus' prediction sounded ridiculous. Not anymore.
Nicklaus rarely is wrong, especially after what he saw the young
amateur do on the par-5 13th during that practice round.
"I drove it out around the corner. Tiger hit a 3-wood
to the right, at least 40 to 45 yards behind me. He took out an
iron, and Arnold said, 'He's laying up,' and I said, 'Noooo, he's
not.
"This kid is the most fundamentally sound golfer I've
seen at almost any age. He hits the ball 9 million miles and without
a swing that looks like he's trying to."
They talk of Woods' length, and it certainly is astounding,
allowing him to hit soft, high 9-irons into greens while other
golfers are using 5-irons. But Woods is much more than a big hitter.
His short game is impeccable and inspired. At the U.S. Open, he
used a 3-wood to chip from off the green and knocked it into the
hole. On the most dangerous greens in golf, Woods didn't have
one three-putt in 72 holes at Augusta.
"There's no telling how much this young man will win,"
said Chi Chi Rodriguez.
In a diary he kept at the Masters, Paul Stankowski, 27, wrote
that the only positive he could find was the respective golfer's
ages; "I'm six years older than him. That means I'll be on
the senior tour six years before he's eligible."
"Tiger knows if he plays his best, he will win,"
Nicklaus said. "At this point in his career, his only rival
is himself."
Woods did beat himself at the U.S. Open, playing a game that
was too aggressive for the course. But even when he was way off
the lead, Woods still played to bigger galleries than the leaders.
The Western Open this week will break records, with as many
as 250,000 fans to jam Cog Hill during the tournament.
"He's great for the game," Rodriguez said. "Somebody
needed to take Jack and Arnie's place. Tiger is that player."
Golf has been defined by eras. There was the Jones era. The
Byron Nelson era. The Ben Hogan era. The Palmer era. And the Nicklaus
era.
Now the clock has begun on the Tiger Woods era. He might be
that once-in-a-century golfer, the player who becomes the greatest
of all time.
"I'm going to enjoy it for as long as he's here,"
Fay said. "Everyone should feel fortunate to live in a time
when Tiger Woods played golf."
(c) 1997, Chicago Tribune.
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