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TL;DR - Woods revolutionised the game like no one had before him.
A key part of Woods's greatness is based on his numbers:
- 15 Majors (2nd all time)
- 82 PGA Tour Wins (T-1st all time)
- 109 Professional Wins
- 683 Weeks at World Number 1
- Youngest Player to achieve Career Grand Slam
- Only Player to hold all 4 Majors at the same time ('Tiger Slam')
These are just a few of Woods's numerous achievements. However, part of the brilliance with Woods was the way in which he won. When he first came to the PGA Tour, he introduced higher standards of athleticism to the game. Woods in his prime was a supreme athlete, known for his length off the tee. This brought great excitement to his play as he took apart courses with his power. Likewise, Woods was a showman. His ability to shape shots and hole putts in the biggest of moments made golf theatre.
In terms of theatre, Woods's career has had numerous twists and turns. Whether it was his numerous comebacks from injury, most notably his back, or his personal scandals, Woods made golf interesting.
Woods's ethnicity can also not be forgotten. Before Woods, golf was stereotypically a sport synonymous with privilege and played predominantly by white people. Woods has spoken of the racism he faced as a child at country clubs. The fact that he was able to overcome this makes Woods a trailblazer. He helped to reduce the racial bias in golf and have made children all over the world interested in golf.
A trailblazer indeed, and his ethnicity undoubtedly made life harder for him. But these factors do not necessarily make him the greatest of all time. He is not number 1 in terms of majors won, nor did he play in such a competitive era as did Nicklaus. These discussions, interesting as they are, almost always promote the virtues of a current, or very recent player, whether it be be Woods, Messi, Bolt, Federer or whoever. Just because they are more to the forefront of our memories doesn’t necessarily make them the GOAT. Stats can also be misleading: when Djokovic matches or surpasses Federer’s stats, does that make him the GOAT?
The only reason I am against this argument. is because of the wording of the statement.
To say that Tiger Woods is the greatest ever golfer, we would have to accept that no other golfer will reach the same great achievements that Tiger Woods has achieved. This is not saying that Woods is not an exceptional golfer, being currently tied at first place for the number of PGA tours wins with Sam Snead. He also has the lowest average scoring average of 68.17. This is however just to say that it is epistemically impossible to contend this statement is correct. Epistemically impossible meaning that it is beyond our current knowledge of the world for it to be true. A more appropriate statement would be that he is one of the greatest players.
TLDR Ambiguous phrasing
There is no set standard for “greatness”. In my mind, John Daly is the greatest golfer, because he made it bearable to watch. Mathematically speaking, Andre the Giant was the greatest golfer, assuming he ever golfed, as greatness can describe size, and Alan Sheppard is the greatest golfer of all time for playing on an extra-terrestrial surface,
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