Tiger v. Jack v. Snead: leveling the playing field

[brocks]

Just to stomp on the author of [url=http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2012-06/jack-nicklaus-tiger-woods-pga-records#ixzz1x8fXcAyi]this[/url] a bit more, he presumably would have given Tiger more credit for winning the St.Jude last week for the first time, than for winning the Memorial for the fifth time. But if you look at the field strength, Tiger got 68 OWGR points for winning the Memorial, while DJ got 34 for winning the St.Jude, so by the best objective measure we have, Tiger's win was twice as strong. Westwood won against an even weaker field at the Nordea Masters, collecting only 26 points.

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by brocks

Just to stomp on the author of this a bit more, he presumably would have given Tiger more credit for winning the St.Jude last week for the first time, than for winning the Memorial for the fifth time. But if you look at the field strength, Tiger got 68 OWGR points for winning the Memorial, while DJ got 34 for winning the St.Jude, so by the best objective measure we have, Tiger's win was twice as strong.

Westwood won against an even weaker field at the Nordea Masters, collecting only 26 points.

I think any claim that Tiger's wins are concentrated on too few courses, or in too many of the same events, is obliterated by the fact that he has 3 grand slams, including one consecutive slam.  He won the PGA Championship on 3 different courses, the Open Championship on 2 different courses, and the US Open on 3 different courses.  That's Major wins on 9 different courses of every conceivable style.

Once you figure in that, does it really matter whether his PGA wins were scattered over 30 different courses or 50?

[jerryleal]

Phil_the_Author :
In the 1929 U.S. Open playoff at Winged Foot, both Jones and Espinoza reached the 12th hole, a 497-yard par-five in two. Hope that helps.

[jerryleal]

We have 4 majors, the Players (which many call the 5th major) the WGC events leading to an event with a 10 million dollar purse or a "race to Dubai" and an endless list of fancy titles...world series, world championship...!!!???     my point is that there is an attempt to have each and every event treated like a major, but there still are only 4 majors and the winner of one -----like Kaymer or Schwartzel or McDowell or Ouimet, immediately joins an elite group like no others. Computer analysis of the strength of the field does not calculate the pride that players take in winning a major and how they work all year to peak for that moment or 1 of those 4 moments.

We all, to one degree or another, form some of our opinion before looking at the facts, it's human nature.