
Wait, What?
Seriously, is this a joke? Like actually, can someone get back to me on this because I still don’t get it. Did we somehow fast forward to April 1st or did I miss the memo we’re doing April fools in August this year? For those of you who are confused as to what I am referring to, that would be this list released by Undefeated (an ESPN owned and operated sports and pop culture website) earlier this month.
In a partnership with SurveyMonkey, the list counts down the “50 Greatest Black Athletes of all time”. However, there is one glaring omission from the list that should be apparent to even the casual sports fan. Tiger Woods is nowhere to be found. I am honestly still having a difficult time wrapping my head around this. From any angle you want to look at it, Tiger should at the very least be somewhere on this list.
Yes, I get the list was created using public responses to surveys but I don’t really see that as much of an excuse. Granted, the list isn’t great overall considering Steph Curry comes in ahead of LeBron James (clearly more of a popularity contest then a serious ranking of athletic prowess). However, at least both of those guys are on the list. Even if you don’t like Tiger, even if you don’t like golf, there is no denying Tiger Woods in his prime was as good as it gets. Don’t cry me a river how Tiger did this or that and got in trouble because frankly, I don’t care. I’m not here to argue the moral repercussions of Tiger’s decisions off the course. I’m here to lay out a pretty clear argument that when Tiger was on the course, he was one of the best, if not the best.
Tiger’s résumé should speak for itself but I’ll lay it out here anyways for those who aren’t avid golf fans.
He held the № 1 ranking for 281 consecutive weeks. Break that down and it comes out to 1,967 days or almost five and a half years. That alone should speak to his greatness and consistency in the early and mid-2000s.
Only five golfers ever have won all four of golf’s modern majors (a career grand slam) at any point throughout their career. Tiger not only joined Jack Nicklaus as the only other person to win each of the four majors at least a ridiculous three times but Tiger also became the only golfer ever to win all four consecutively (now informally known as the Tiger slam). To add the icing on top, Tiger was the youngest ever to win a career grand slam following being the youngest golfer ever to win the masters and fastest ever to ascend to the world № 1 ranking. In 2000, he set an insane PGA Tour record with the lowest average score throughout the whole year coming in at 67.79 adjusted and 68.17 unadjusted. It wasn’t just that year either, as Tiger holds the lowest career scoring average in PGA Tour history.
From 1999 through 2003, Tiger won an insane 32 times on the PGA Tour. To give that some perspective, no other player won more than eight times throughout that dominant stretch. During that stretch, specifically from the 1999 PGA championship to the 2002 U.S. Open, Tiger was a cumulative 94 under par. For comparison, that was 60 strokes better than anyone else.
A lot of up and coming golfers today draw Tiger comparisons and it really isn’t fair to them. It isn’t fair because no one can live up to those comparisons. The latest victim? How about Jordan Spieth. Spieth has missed 13 cuts on the PGA Tour as a professional. He is 24 years old. Tiger, who turned pro when Spieth was only three years old, has ONLY missed 15 cuts. Tiger’s sustained dominance throughout the 2000s was special. We can compare the new guys to him all we want but no matter how hard we try to replace him, it isn’t going to happen (at least not anytime soon).
Perhaps his most insane stretch of absolute dominance started midway through 1999 and went through the middle of the 2001 season. Woods won a ridiculous 20 out of 38 events he played in and was a mind-boggling combined 472 under. That was over 300 strokes better than anyone else during that stretch. Sheesh.
Finally, he holds what is widely regarded as one of the most impressive feats in all of golf. His 142 consecutive cuts made obliterates the previous record of 113 which was set over 50 years ago. He didn’t just break the old record, he shattered it.
In addition, Tiger has been named the Associated Press male athlete of the year four times. This is for all you who think it is simply because he played golf he was left off the list. Tiger wasn’t just being recognized as a great golfer, he was legitimately recognized as one of the premier athletes in ALL of sports. Let’s see how many times some other black athletes who are on the list have won that award and where they are ranked in the list (they give out one male athlete of the year and one female athlete of the year): George Foreman (35) won it once, Florence Griffith Joyner (33) won it once, Carl Lewis (32) won it twice, Michael Johnson (31) won it once, LeBron James (29) won it twice, Steph Curry (28) won it once, Jackie Joyner-Kersee (27) won it once, Joe Louis (23) won it once, Wilma Rudolph (21) won it twice, Gabby Douglas (9) has won it once, Simone Biles (8) has won it once, Serena Williams (6) has won it four times, Jesse Owens (5) has won it once, Willie Mays (4) has won it once, Muhammad Ali (3) has won it once and Michael Jordan (1) has won it three times. Out of the so called “50 Greatest Black Athletes of all time”, only Serena Williams has been formerly recognized as the leading athlete in the world as many times as Tiger Woods. Yet, she ranks inside the top 10 and Tiger is outside the top 50. This is in no way an attempt to put Serena’s career accomplishments down as she one hundred percent deserves to be in the top 10. This should just further solidify Tiger’s rightful place alongside her somewhere on the list.
From any way you want to look at this, Tiger Woods deserves to be on this list. Whether looking at recognition within their respective sports, recognition in the general sports community, impact on their game or any other qualification, Tiger’s résumé should speak for itself.
