Monty: Rory better than Woods ever was

[misty_mountainhop]

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/monty-mcilroy-better-now-woods-ever-was/

"Tiger Woods is going to come back into the frame," Montgomerie told Kicca.com. "Is he going to be able to get back, not just to the levels he was, but better than that? Because that's where Rory McIlroy's taken the standard of golf: to one level beyond where Tiger was."

Monty with an interesting comment. Do numbers back him up?

Hysterical. Monty as self-publicising and ridiculous as ever. Good player in his time but got some serious woodwork on both of his shoulders.

[wmadoty]

I have to wonder what the difference to golf availability from a social/economical perspective play into the differences in the strengths of the playing field. Using your own logic about population size, and I am not arguing the point, it also stands to reason that acceptance of a huge number of "undesirables" could also result in several quality players.

Your US Open comment being one such very uncommon incident. While still difficult, I suspect it is much more common for persons with talent to be able to play today even if they do not live on the right side of the tracks.

[FarWest]

I think Rory is as good as Tiger from a ball-striking aspect, and when he's on his A-game, he'd be able to hang with Woods in his prime on his A-game. I don't know about beat him, but at least hang with him. But the big disparity comes in consistency. Tiger consistently either won or was around the lead almost every week from '99-'08. McIlroy is streaky. He'll win 3 or 4 in a row and then disappear for a while. He'll miss his share of cuts. Almost reminiscent of Phil in a way. Deeper field or not, he's nowhere near Tiger as far as that area goes. Consistency also shows up in putting. Tiger week in and week out was the best putter on Tour. Rory will have his hot streaks with the putter, but then he'll go through periods where he'll constantly miss his share of short putts, like at Augusta every year it seems.

I think the consistency issue has been put to bed over the past year to be honest. Go onto the OGWR site and look at his record in the past year and reassess your somewhat outdated view about Rory's streakiness. Having said that I dont think that Rory has attained the level of greatness that Tiger achieved at the same early age so any comparison is pointless at this stage. However to dismiss the possibility of him doing so in the future is equally pointless, simply because to expect that their respective careers will be linear is ridiculous. For instance, Tiger last won a Major since he was 32, an age when Mickelson, Scott and quite a few others won their first ones, so it would be reasonable to expect that Rory's window of opportunity to accumulate wins will be much longer than Tigers, and therefore he doesnt need to win them at the same pace. You also can't ignore the probability that McIlroy, through simple genetics, has matured physically more slowly than Tiger, and we've seen how he has developed physically in the past couple of years, with a consequent transformation in his consistency of excellence. Or it might all be bo****ks, and Tiger might be considered by all future generations to be 10 times the player Rory was. We might know in 15 or 20 years.

[Crim]

I think the consistency issue has been put to bed over the past year to be honest. Go onto the OGWR site and look at his record in the past year and reassess your somewhat outdated view about Rory's streakiness. Having said that I dont think that Rory has attained the level of greatness that Tiger achieved at the same early age so any comparison is pointless at this stage. However to dismiss the possibility of him doing so in the future is equally pointless, simply because to expect that their respective careers will be linear is ridiculous. For instance, Tiger last won a Major since he was 32, an age when Mickelson, Scott and quite a few others won their first ones, so it would be reasonable to expect that Rory's window of opportunity to accumulate wins will be much longer than Tigers, and therefore he doesnt need to win them at the same pace. You also can't ignore the probability that McIlroy, through simple genetics, has matured physically more slowly than Tiger, and we've seen how he has developed physically in the past couple of years, with a consequent transformation in his consistency of excellence.

This ^

There was nothing streaky about 2014. "Becoming the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to have a perfect top 25 record."

[Lihu]

Rory is pretty amazing.

[colin007]

When Rory is on, he is scary good.

[Lastpick]

Or it might all be bo****ks, and Tiger might be considered by all future generations to be 10 times the player Rory was. We might know in 15 or 20 years.

In 15 or 20 years I won't know, but I won't know that I don't know.

Good post