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Jack Nicklaus vs. Tiger Woods: Let's take a major dive into the numbers

ken willis, daytona beach news-journal
·5 min read
2

Tiger Woods turned 48 in late December.

Jack Nicklaus flips those numbers and turns 84 Monday.

While other immortals — Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen among them — make everyone’s top-10 list of best-ever golfers, Jack and Tiger (or Tiger and Jack) sit 1-2 on practically everyone’s list.

Though their careers indeed overlapped, it was at the beginning of Tiger’s PGA Tour career and in the ceremonial stage of Jack’s — he was 56 when Tiger turned pro in 1996. Fairly contested head-to-head comparisons weren’t possible, so we’re left with historical numbers.

By almost everyone's estimation, the two greatest golfers of all time.
By almost everyone's estimation, the two greatest golfers of all time.

Lots and lots of numbers.

Perhaps the fairest way to measure the two golfing giants is to compare their major-championship achievements, as professionals, up to their 48th birthday. For Jack, that represents 1962-87; for Tiger it’s 1997-2023.

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Major starts: Jack Nicklaus was an iron man, Tiger Woods not so much

Major Starts

Jack: 104

Tiger: 85

You want durability? From the ages of 22 to 58, Nicklaus didn’t sit out a major championship. In fact, after turning 50 in 1990, he also teed it up in 35 of the next 36 senior majors (he won eight of them, by the way).

A laundry list of health issues has sidelined Tiger for 19 majors, including eight of the last 12. His streak of 46 straight (as a pro) famously ended after he won the 2008 U.S. Open on a damaged leg.

Major victories: Jack Nicklaus, at 18 majors, remains the standard

Tiger's reaction to his tournament tying putt on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Open.
Tiger's reaction to his tournament tying putt on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Open.

Jack: 18 (winning percentage: 17.3%).

Tiger: 15 (17.6%).

When Tiger won his 14th major, at the 2008 U.S. Open, he was just 33, at the peak of his game and, frankly, aside from the leg issue he appeared to still be peaking.

Everyone with working eyeballs assumed he’d blow past Jack’s 18, go deep into the 20s and maybe even threaten 30 majors. Or beyond.

Jack was also relatively young — 35 — when he won his 14th in 1975, but he won just one more before turning 40.

Oh so close: The runner-up finishes

They would call it "The Duel in the Sun," Jack's 1977 British Open loss, by one, to Tom Watson.
They would call it "The Duel in the Sun," Jack's 1977 British Open loss, by one, to Tom Watson.

Jack: 19

Tiger: 7

That’s right, Nicklaus finished either first or second in more than a third (36%) of his majors through age 48.

Some of Nicklaus’ most memorable majors were those where he was beaten late — by Lee Trevino and Tom Watson at the British Open, by Watson at the U.S. Open and Masters, by Hal Sutton at the PGA.

Tiger’s most consequential runner-up came at the 2009 PGA Championship, when the unlikely figure of Y.E. Yang became the first golfer to overtake Tiger on the Sunday of a major. Three months later came Tiger's infamous crash — it involved a fire hydrant and eventually a doomed marriage.

Top-5 finishes in majors: Tiger, Jack were fixtures in the hunt

Jack after putting out on 18 on Sunday of the 1998 Masters, when he made a serious run at age 58.
Jack after putting out on 18 on Sunday of the 1998 Masters, when he made a serious run at age 58.

Jack: 56 (53.8%).

Tiger: 33 (38.8%).

Nicklaus’ first top five in a major was a win (1962 U.S. Open). So was his last (1986 Masters). He did finish sixth in two more — the Masters in 1990 and again in 1998, at age 58, when he was actually within two of the lead through 15 holes on Sunday.

Missed cuts: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods missed few weekends

Jack: 6

Tiger: 12

Tiger, in his last year as an amateur, missed the cut at the 1996 Masters, and didn’t miss another major cut until the 2006 U.S. Open.

Nicklaus, who missed just one cut in all of the 1970s, didn’t miss another until 1985. That run included the 1981 British Open, where he'd dug quite a hole for himself at Royal St. George's.

The day before that ’81 Open began, Nicklaus’ 18-year-old son, Steve, had been arrested for drunk driving in Columbus, Ohio — on the Jack Nicklaus Freeway, by the way. Jack shot 83 on Thursday and it appeared he’d be heading home Friday evening to deal with things.

Instead, he shot a Friday 66 to make the cut and ended up a respectable 23rd on Sunday.

Withdrawals: Tiger Woods WDs have been very recent

Jack: 1

Tiger: 2

Tiger Woods at the 2023 Masters, which he wouldn't finish.
Tiger Woods at the 2023 Masters, which he wouldn't finish.

The lone WD on the Nicklaus timeline came at the ’83 Masters, when back spasms before the second round sent him home to North Palm Beach.

Tiger’s two WDs are very recent — the 2022 PGA and ’23 Masters, when he was done in by the aftereffects of his 2021 car crash in Los Angeles

Majors missed: Tiger Woods has missed 5+ plus years of majors

Jack: 0

Tiger: 22

Jack Nicklaus was 22 when he played, and won, his first U.S. Open as a pro. It would be another 36 years before he missed a start in a major championship.
Jack Nicklaus was 22 when he played, and won, his first U.S. Open as a pro. It would be another 36 years before he missed a start in a major championship.

More than any other category, this one tells the Tiger Woods story.

Leg injuries, sandwiched around spinal woes (including fusion surgery) — with an assist from the personal travails in 2009 and a while thereafter — derailed what appeared to be an inevitable march to 20 majors and beyond.

Conversely, Jack Nicklaus was 58 before he started sitting out majors, and even then it was voluntarily.

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Tiger Woods vs. Jack Nicklaus | Wow, look at those major numbers