Introduction:
It’s the lifelong argument — who was the best ever, the GOAT, whether it’s soccer, American Football, Tennis or Golf. And it is close to impossible to give a definitive answer when the sports stars we compare are often from different eras. Such is the case with golf, where when most people ask who the greatest ever was, it usually comes down to a choice of 2 — Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods. We take an indepth look at their careers to determine who we believe is the greatest of all time, and look to see f there are any other contenders. When looking at Major wins, we predominantly look at the records from 1934, which was the first year of the Masters Tournament. the oldest Major is The Open (The British Open) which started in 1860.
Jack Nicklaus — Majors Record
Jack Nicklaus is often voted the Greatest of all Time (the GOAT) when it comes to golf, and with the record of Major wins (18) it is hard to argue with that. He played in 164 major tournaments, so his win rate is an impressive 11%.
Jack has won 6 Masters, a record he holds outright.
He has won 5 PGA Championships, a record he shares with Ben Hogan.
He has won 4 US Opens, which is a record he shares with Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan.
He has also won the Open (The British Open) 3 times. He is joint 11th on the list of winners of this tournament, although it should be noted that many ahead of him are from a distant era (late 1800’s early 1900's). The most notable multiple winner from the same era as Jack is Tom Watson, who has won it 5 times. FYI — The record is held by Harry Varden with 6 wins.
Apart from his wins in the Majors, Jack has been in the top 10 an incredible 55 times, including runner up (or joint runner up) 19 times.
Tiger Woods — Majors Records
Tiger Woods has won 15 Major tournaments. Many believe, with good reason, that had it not been for his injuries over the years that Tiger would have easily surpassed Jack’s record. But the fact of the matter is that he has 15 which is 3 short of Jack’s record.
He has played 91 major tournaments, so his win rate is an incredible 16%. Remember, Jack’s win rate was 11%, so on this metric, Tiger comes out on top.
Tiger has been in the top ten 26 times, 7 of which were runner up spots.
Tiger is the yougest player in the modern era (since 1946) to have won a major, when he won the 1997 Masters at the age of 21 years, 3 months and 14 days. Incidentally, Jordan Spieth is the youngest in the modern era to have won 2 majors when he won his second at the 2015 US Open at the age of 21 years, 10 months and 25 days, having already won the 2015 Masters about 2 months previously.
Despite his prolific win rate, Tiger does not hold the record for the most wins at any of the 4 major tournaments, and only matches Jack in one (The Open).
Jack Nicklaus — Tour Record
Jack has 55 tour wins (excluding majors) out of 422 tournaments, giving him a win ratio of 13%.
He has come 2nd or 3rd in 94 tournaments including majors. 27 of those was in majors. Therefore his ration of top 3 positions on tour excluding majors is 29%.
Tiger Woods — Tour Record
Tiger has 67 tour wins (excluding majors) out of 267 tournaments played, giving him a win ratio of 25%, far exceeding Jack’s win ratio.
He has come 2nd or 3rd in 50 times, 11 of which were in Majors. Therefore his ratio of top 3 position on tour excluding majors is 40%, again outstripping Jack’s record.
Conclusion
Although many rightly point to Jack’s Major victories as proof that he is the GOAT, Tiger’s record is more impressive looking at win ratio metrics.
As mentioned before, had it not been for injuries, it is at least possible and perhaps likely that Tiger would have overtaken Jack’s major victories record, but we will never know this for sure.
There are other factors that could be taken into account when considering how to rank these great players. For example, what competition they had in their most prolific years. Perhaps Tiger didn’t have the same level of competition as Jack, when you consider Jack’s contemporaries (Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, a young Seve Ballesteros….)
One could argue that Tiger didn’t have as much competition….
Overall however, when you look at the stats and the win rate in particular, I believe that Tiger should be rightly named the greatest of all time in golf.