What Does Tiger Have Left to Prove?

Since turning pro in 1996, Tiger Woods has dominated the sport of Golf in a way that few people have ever dominated anything. He's won 71 PGA Tour events¹, 14 Major Championships and been PGA player of the year 10 times. He’s earned more money than MontyBrewster could spend in 3 lifetimes, formed the Tiger Woods Foundation to help under privileged kids, broke down one of the last racial barriers in American sports and elevated the popularity of golf the way Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan did basketball.

What does Tiger have left to prove?

The obvious answer is he still needs to win another 5 Majors to pass Jack Nicklaus. But does Tiger really need to win more Majors then Jack to be the greatest golfer of all time?

The 14 to 18 Majors say yes but the rest of the numbers say no.

If he never played another competitive round, most people would consider Tiger the best to ever swing a club.

He will likely pass Nicklaus's 73 PGA Tour wins this year and should surpass Sam Snead's 82 relatively easily. Even if he doesn't though, Nicklaus tallied his wins over a 25 year career, Snead in 30, and both did it against much smaller and arguably weaker fields. Tiger has accumulated his wins over an injury plagued 15 years.²

Nicklaus won his 18th Major Championship in the 107th one that he played in-17% of the time he came out on top. Tiger won his 14th in the 46th Major that he entered, giving him a winning percentage of 30%. The ladder is more impressive to me.

Tiger dominated the PGA Tour to the point that they "Tiger-proofed" the courses in an attempt to level the playing field.

He had 2 different stretches where he held the number 1 ranking in the world for more than 5 years. TWO. From the day he turned pro in August of 1996 through October of 2010, Woods spent 623 of 736 weeks at number 1. For 85% of his first 14 years he held the Championship belt.

While Tiger is still nipping at the heels of Nicklaus in both Major and non-Major tournament wins, his level of dominance is unprecedented. That makes his resume more impressive to me.

It’s debatable, but if you’re going to use the '18 is better than 14' logic then you also have to say that Bill Russell was a better basketball player than Michael Jordan, right? Russell won nearly double as many NBA Championships (11 to 6) but not even die-hard Celtic fans make the argument that he was better than Jordan.³

Jordan is inarguably the greatest of all time. And if you did a poll on 'Who is the best golfer of all time?' between golf fans and non-golf fans alike, the overwhelming majority of them will answer Tiger Woods.

Perception is reality.


Even if it’s not though, how are we so sure that Tiger even cares about catching Nicklaus or cementing the 'greatest of all time' title? I don't know that I would and I think it would be tough for him to.

He’s made more money than any athlete in history, which is not insignificant. As much as their competitive natures drove guys like Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and golfers from earlier generations to continue playing, they also still needed to provide for their families. Tiger has earned over a billion dollars in his career. His great grandchildren's children are set for life.


Jack was also one of Tiger's childhood heroes. Maybe in the back of his mind he wants Nicklaus to be on top. How cool would it be if he got to 18 and then retired leaving both of their names atop a mountain that will likely never be topped?


More than anything though, it takes an amazing level of dedication, determination, focus, perseverance and drive to dominate anything the way Tiger Woods has golf.

He had all of those in abundance early on. A desire to prove himself fueled by racism and elitism that he’s helped to all but eradicate from competitive golf.

The only thing left for Tiger is 19 (Majors). That’s the type of thing that would motivate Michael Jordan but Jordan is also sick in the head. He’s the most competitive person our generation has ever seen. There are legendary stories of MJ's competitiveness. His inability to accept losing is what made him great.

It has also made him one of the most notoriously miserable multimillionaires in the world. The guy who has it all has never been able to find happiness. Proving that it truly is something money can't buy.

If Tiger decided to retire today, not only would I support him, I would applaud him.

I love watching him play golf. When Tiger's on his game Sunday golf is as exciting as any NFL or NBA game out there. As much as I would miss seeing him play, more than anything else I want to see him find the happiness that Jordan never could. If 19 Majors will do that for him, great! If getting deeper into the Buddhist culture does it, fantastic! If sleeping with all the women he couldn't pull in High School and College brings it to him, go for it!

Almost my entire life I wanted to "be like Mike" but I really hope that Tiger Woods isn't.

1. 71 wins out of 230 PGA Tour starts. Meaning he has won nearly 1 out every 3 events he has entered. An absolutely ridiculous stat. He also has 58 non-PGA Tour wins (Europe, Asia, etc) 2. Really 12 when you consider that he’s been out from multiple knee surgeries for the past 2.5 years 3. When Russell entered the NBA in 1956 there were only 8 teams. It was a different sport back then.