Rory vs Tiger at 24

I wonder if Jaime Diaz regrets his collaboration project with Haney.

LOL. Tiger at 24 would kill Rory at 24. Everyone knows that Tiger is undefeated in Fantasy Matches around here.

Sure, all Rory needs to do to keep up is, over the next 9 years, win 12 majors, win 51 PGA Tour events including a dozen WGCs, win 8 Vardons,  Maybe have a season or two where his stroke average is a full stroke lower than the person in second place?

Tiger did it 3 times.  And that is not counting the fourth time he did it, in 2008, in which he played too few rounds to qualify officially (no playing the Jack game where we make up our own criteria and award ourselves the award - by the book).    No one, since 1980, the date the PGA site stats start, ever has other than Tiger.  In fact, over the entire 1980 - 2014 period the highest differential by someone other than Tiger was Greg Norman who had sterling years in 1994 and 1995 posting ,47 and .53, and a very nice .39 in 1990.  The only other people who ever had a differential of ,25 or more were, and this was a surprise to me Luke Donald in  2011 with a very nice .39 and Tom Lehman with .25 on the nose in 1996.  Of the 35 years included in that period, though here is the breakdown of differentials:

 Under 0.10:   10 times

0.11-0.20:     7 times

.21-.30:       7 times (2 of the top 3 being Tiger)

.31-.40:       3 times   ( Tiger, Greg, and Luke)

.41-.50:       1 time (Norman, .47)

.51-.60:       1 time (Norman, .53)

.61+:          6 times (all Tiger: .74, 1.46, .91, .75, 1.5, 1.23, )

So out of the 14 best differentials over that period Tiger had 9 of them.  Including the top 6 seasons.  And not just by a little bit, by a lot.

I do not say this to make an impact on you because I know you to be impervious to facts and logic.  But I just want to remind everyone else just how dominant Tiger actually was - and if Rory hopes to rival his career he will also need to show a similar level of dominance.   It is the combination of the level of his dominance and the length of his dominance that makes Tiger the GOAT IMO.  It s very hard to come up with a measure of dominance that both makes sense and in which Tiger is not head and shoulders ahead of everyone to date.  It is a very very tough target for Rory.

Here is a telling point.  At Rory's current age Tiger had already booked a differential of 74 in 1999 and was well on his way to the all time best qualified differential of 1.46 in 2000.  Rory also has 2 Vardons at this point.  But his differentials were ,03 for 2012 and .13 for 2014.

Rough translation: Tiger & Rory are studs.

Tiger's better than Rory at 24, but it won't take much for Rory to be better than Tiger at 39. It will be interesting to see how history will view look back on Tiger's career. I look at Tiger as someone who in his prime was the best ever, but injuries kept him from having the "best career" ever.

90 professional wins and 10 majors sounds like much to me.

Not talking about overall numbers. Just simply talking about who's a better golfer at 39.

I don't think Rory will ever catch Tiger's overall win total. Rory is good at racking up top-3s, but he just doesn't win enough. However, I do think there's a chance he can catch him in majors, assuming Tiger doesn't win anymore, which I don't think he will.

Ah. Well, Tiger got the rest of the year to make something out of it, but it doesn't look good.

I hope Rory won't have to suffer the injuries Tiger's had.

I think the article is pretty accurate in describing the differences in their personalities and their approach to the game. Tiger was a grinder and was more consistent. Rory has lapses that Tiger never had, like missing numerous cuts. I don't believe Rory will ever win as many events as Tiger, but he has a good chance to win more Majors, especially if he stays healthy. Tiger went three years in the middle of his prime when he didn't win any Majors while he was tinkering with his game, and then he stopped winning Majors altogether when he was only 33. I will be really surprised if Rory ever goes three years without a Major before his mid-thirties.

Tiger was at the top of his game when he was 24. I doubt Rory has reached the top of his yet. As Rory matures, he may start to think about being more consistent and, when the Majors accumulate, he may also start thinking about his legacy.

Tiger in his prime and at 24 had a better short game / scrambling and didn't give away shots around or on the green. Rory could get there - and maybe a slow build there will help keep him mentally engaged like Tiger's swing change 'projects'.

As far as injuries I worry if Rory flares his front toe enough. Square front foot destroyed Tiger's ACL. I expect in time Tiger will be back in top 10, number one again is more of a crap shoot, but possible.

Kinda worried the way he's bulking up. I've always been a beliver that too much bulk is not a good thing in golf. I think it can hurt you in the long run. Everyone has a different opinion on it, but I've heard doctors talk about it and a lot agree. I think it's one of the reasons Tiger's body has breaking down the last few years.

This whole bulk up thing is nuts. Mark McGuire, a guy who took steroids, a guy who is really big plays to a single digit handicap and doesn't look at all like his body is hampering his swing.

Unless a person is taking a ton of steroids to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his body building prime, I doubt the level of Rory's muscle growth will bother him.

Tiger's body broke down because he kept changing his swing and keeps doing that giant squat move in the downswing. When he started talking about Glut Activate in his golf swing. I knew he had delved off the deep end.  I am a firm believer that his injuries are caused by injuring his knee. You start trying to protect one area of the body and another starts to creep up. You see it countless times in other sports when a player becomes injury prone. Look at the pitcher from Miami. He hurt one area of his body, tried to play through the pain by altering his pitching motion and he threw his elbow out.

That sand saves means nothing really. I rather see the scrambling stat. I mean, how often do they get into a bunker versus other short game shots.

Yea, 2000 Tiger was still head and shoulders above Rory. Just the shots that he hit were down right stupid good. I've seen Rory have some glimpses of this when he gets it going for a round or two in a tournament. Tiger was just way more consistent than Rory was. Tiger was a way better putter than Rory.

You can see it in scoring average, a near stroke better per round. On just average play, Tiger is going to win a tournament by 4 strokes over Rory. If Tiger is in his A+ game from 2000 he would crush Rory.

We'll find out in 10-15 years because a lot of these guys bulk up now unlike the past so we'll see how they play when they're in their late 30s and 40s. I know Phil wasn't a body building machine and he's lasted well into his 40s. Maybe it's not an issue, I've just heard several doctors talk about it an it's convinced me that it plays a role Not an overwhelming one, but a role.

Players become injury prone, yes. Not a lot of of players you will see have injuries all over different parts of their body. A lot hurt the same part. Tiger's have been all over the place, from his neck to his wrist to his back to his knee and down his achilles. You could play the game "Operation" with him. It's an unusual case.