possibly a soon to be age old question

[prutkows]

so with all the talk of tiger dominating, obviously he just doesnt have the kind of competition nicklaus, or arnie, or any of the other greats had.

its been discussed time and time again, but do you think its because tiger is just too good? or because nobody is rising to the challenge?

if i knew how to make a poll, i would have. im sure one of the admins will do it for me if they see fit.

[georgep]

Actually, I honestly think that there is stronger competition today. That is, there's a larger portion of players on any given week in the PGA who have a chance of winning. I think in the Nicklaus - Palmer - Player - Trevino days, there was a smaller group that could play with those guys. I think the Nationwide and European Tours are largely responsible for the parity that does exist on the PGA Tour. Just to get to the PGA, you pretty much have to be ready to win. But there is still an elite group that Tiger leads.

I think players have risen to the challenge, but have not been able to sustain it. Tiger plays at the highest level virtually every week he's in the field (as Nicklaus did -- look at all those 2nds). Vijay's had great seasons, Mickelson's had great months ... Tiger's had a great decade.

[iacas]

so with all the talk of tiger dominating, obviously he just doesnt have the kind of competition nicklaus, or arnie, or any of the other greats had.

I disagree with the premise - that Tiger doesn't have the competition Jack had. Arnie's career was 7 years long, basically. Player and Watson were really the stiffest competition he had. Jack's career overlapped a lot of others, but we'll see the same thing from Tiger's career when he's done.

Tiger, meanwhile, has Phil, Vijay, Ernie, Duval (for a short while)... Retief Goosen, etc. I've also said this before... Jack only ever had to really worry about five or ten players winning tournaments any given week. Tiger has to worry about a FAR deeper field, week in and week out, and competition at the top just as stiff as Nicklaus faced in his day. So, again, I disagree with the premise. Besides, you're the same prutkows who said it should be "expected" that today's athletes should be breaking records sooner - that certainly seems to agree with me that Tiger's competition is better than those that Jack faced.