Dan Jenkins On Tiger Beating "Nobodies"
/There seems to be quite a bit of anger over Dan Jenkins' Q&A with the Fort Worth Light & Shoppers' Mac Engel, but I'm really sure Dan said anything he hasn't written.
From the Q&A, talking about Jordan Spieth:
Incidentally, there’s much more talent at the top (and the bottom) than there was during Tiger’s peak years. Tiger beat a lot of nobodies to win most of his majors.
Yeah, there was Phil [Mickelson] and [Ernie] Els around, in and out, but go back and look who was second to him in those majors and tell me where they are now.
Did we take Tiger Woods’ dominance for granted, and will he catch Jack Nicklaus’ record for majors?
I never took Tiger’s dominance for granted. The media loved him because he was golf’s only rock star, only dynasty, and people like dynasties in any sport. People also like to see dynasties crash and burn. Every golfer hits a wall eventually. Tiger has hit his, in more ways than one. He’s lost his game and putting stroke and his head. It happens. And I’ve only seen one player lose it all and come back. That was [Ben] Hogan, who damn near died in the car wreck. He came back and won six more majors. Tiger seems more confused about it than anyone I’ve ever covered. Maybe that’s partly because it came so easy for him in the beginning....
Obviously saying Tiger's wins came easy is probably too strong. No major win comes easy. But some, in hindsight, meant beating less stout leaderboards and courses than others.
And this is where I would differ from Dan: the course and setup means as much as the competition. Tiger won at an Augusta National seemingly rigged to stop him from winning annually. He won at a Torrey Pines playing much firmer and faster than he was used to (and which Phil Mickelson has struggled on post-redo). And he won at the Old Course against some pretty stout leaderboards.
**Steve Elling counters Jenkins by defending Woods in a GolfBlot post.
Actually, some are still playing, and winning. Others are on the Champions Tour. You know, because some of this stuff happened nearly two decades ago.
Apparently, the 90-plus others in the Grand Slam fields that Woods beat during those 14 weeks, who didn’t happen to finish second, don’t count as being vanquished. That would include multiple major winners Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington or Retief Goosen. Former British Open champion David Duval is a former world No. 1 who played during Woods’ prime, too.
Mickelson, Els, Goosen and Duval all finished second to Woods at majors. So did Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Thomas Bjorn, who have had lengthy, productive careers. Just because lesser-knowns like Bob May, Rocco Mediate, Chris DiMarco and Shaun Micheel finished second at a handful of Woods’ major wins doesn’t mean the top guns weren’t around, or that he didn’t kick their butts.
