Who is better right now (April 2012): Phil or Tiger?

[Chas]

What we need on this forum is a blasted card-carrying statistician, to keep us honest I mean. Do we even know if pro golf data are Gaussian in distribution? I know, it will depend on what's being measured ....

[MEfree]

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I feel bad for overlooking another Hall of Famer in my analysis.

I agree that Phil has probably been #2 over the last 20 years, but I think that I should have included Ernie Els in the same class as Vijay and Phil.  Els has 18 PGA Tour wins but another 21 on the Euro Tour and 64 world-wide.

His PGA Tour numbers are more similar to Vijay than Phil, but mostly fall between the two (other than win % where he ranks 3rd).  A few more cuts made than Phil, but not so dramatic to support Phil as substantially more erratic IMO.

Ernie Els	PGA TOUR Wins	2nd Pl Finishes	3rd Pl Finishes	Top 10 Finishes	Top 25 Finishes	Events Played	Cuts Made	Cuts Missed	Playoff Record	Money
CAREER	18	17	18	119	194	330	285	--	--	$42,726,835
	5.45%	5.15%	5.45%	36.06%	58.79%		86.36%

Of course you could point to the fact that Phil has both a substantially higher win % and slightly higher missed cut %, so yes, more erratic compared to Els and Vijay, but overall Phil still ranks pretty high on the list of MADE CUTs, so less erratic in a bad way than probably 90-95% of the pros who have played 150+ Events the last 20 years)

[brocks]

I guess this puts to bed the Tiger/Phil "who's better now" issue, and basically annihilates any comparison of Tiger to Rory this year.

Rory just shot 74-79, far worse than Tiger's worst this year, and missed his second cut in a row, which Tiger has never done in his pro career. Just sayin. Rory also treated us to a club-throwing tantrum yesterday. And he seemed like such a nice young man. Still well behind Tiger in that category, though. And I have great news for everybody, I'll be out of town for the next four days. See you Tuesday, maybe.

[bplewis24]

Rory is finished.  He'll never win another tournament again, and the PGA Tour should seriously consider suspending him because he is bad for the game and a horrible role model for children everywhere.

Did I do good?

[iacas]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Did I do good?

No. You forgot the subtle hint of racial undertones and the inter-continental squabbling between the Euros and the U.S. I give you a B+.

[Wally Fairway]

Better right NOW????

Jason Dufner FTW!!!!!!!

[bplewis24]

I'll head to the range and work out the kinks.

[Motley01]

Originally Posted by iacas

No. You forgot the subtle hint of racial undertones and the inter-continental squabbling between the Euros and the U.S. I give you a B+.

Uh oh, you must be talking about the guy who's username starts with an 'S' ????

[ajst22]

Phil. Tiger has not played at least half decent since Bay Hill and hasn't played half decent for a good year or so before that. Mickelson is always consistent and you can count on him to at least make the cut each time.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by ajst22

Phil. Tiger has not played at least half decent since Bay Hill and hasn't played half decent for a good year or so before that. Mickelson is always consistent and you can count on him to at least make the cut each time.

Tiger played much better than "half decent" before Bay Hill.  And Mickelson isn't the guy I would think of when using the word "consistency."

As far as the answer to the question, I'm not sure I have an opinion on it.  Tiger was very good the first 1/4th of the year, but not so much since.

Brandon

[stogiesnbogies]

the record speaks for itself...Phil....by a large margin....

[bplewis24]

lol

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by brocks

Rory just shot 74-79, far worse than Tiger's worst this year, and missed his second cut in a row, which Tiger has never done in his pro career. Just sayin.

Rory also treated us to a club-throwing tantrum yesterday. And he seemed like such a nice young man. Still well behind Tiger in that category, though.

Again, thanks for resurrecting a weeks-old post and proving it wrong because I couldn't see the future.  I really need to get my crystal ball serviced.

When I posted that, there was no question who had the better year up to that point.  I never anointed Rory the next coming of 1945 Byron Nelson, so not sure why you felt the need to quote my post as if you were refuting it.

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by stogiesnbogies

the record speaks for itself...Phil....by a large margin....

Back to the actual subject of this thread...

Phil has played 12 events, has 5 top-10s, and has been outside of the top-26 three times with one missed cut.

Tiger has played 9 events, has 3 top-10s, and has been outside of the top-26 four times with one missed cut and a WD.

Tiger's last 3 events are 40, MC, 40; Phil's last 3 are 26, 25, 7.

Looks like Phil is slightly better overall this year, and is trending much better than Tiger.  Let's see what happens this week.

(PGA Tour stats only, and I chose 26 because Phil has two #26 finishes, as well as a #24 and #25.  25 is a more conventional cutoff for measuring "top finishes", but it seemed skewed to leave those two out.  Tiger has no finishes between 18-39, inclusive, so I'm not deliberately skewing the numbers against Tiger.)

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by k-troop

Looks like Phil is slightly better overall this year, and is trending much better than Tiger.

Agreed.

[sean_miller]

Recent head to head play has Phil by a large margin. Against the field it's a wash. Neither player is exactly playing to his potential, but what that potential is at this point is to be debated (with Phil's arthritis and Tiger's knees).

[Beachcomber]

Feel any different about your answer after today?

[Beachcomber]

What about now?