Tiger out for rest of year...

[Baxter]

Well my wife is happy...less golf that I will watch on TV...If you win and Tiger is not playing...Does it really matter???To me NO

[B Nation]

Perhaps if Tiger and his handlers had been more forthcoming about the nature of his injury prior to the tournament none of this speculation would have happened....

None of what speculation? If anything it would have magnified all the events of this past weekend considerably.

If Tiger came out and let everyone know how injured he was prior to playing he would get critisized so much for "playing up" the whole thing. Instead he took the high road and kept tight-lipped about how much pain he was in and how serious his injury really was.

[jeffc]

agreed. Disclosing the injury and Tiger's desire to play despite his Dr. recommendation prior to the tourney would have added considerably to the media circus that already existed. They did the right thing by keeping it quiet.

[Old Man]

“Show longevity” Funny statement since Bobby Jones played only a selected number of tournaments, never turned Pro and called it quits at a young age yet you consider him the best. Don’t forget that Jones won the “Grand Slam” where no Pro golfer had a chance to do since two of those tournaments were amateur tournaments.

USAmateur
USOpen
Brit Open Amateur
The Open

Jack has won 18 majors and 2 US amateurs.
Woods won 14 majors, 4 straight majors at a professional level (Record still standing), 3 straight USAmateurs (Record still standing) and 3 straight junior USAmateurs (Record still standing). All that in a 17 year stretch.

Tiger is still not there yet in my less than knowledgable opinion! I just look at the stats.
Jones did do that as an amateur and it does still count.He played against pros and had no equal.What would have been his record if he had not walked away from the game?Also check the amount of second place finishes and top ten in the majors for Jack .
When you compare wins and finishes for all three side by side you see the differences.In Jones case what are his stats compared to Tigers for the amount of years played in numbers of games and top 10 results over that same time period.
Tiger will beat Jones in number of years played but in amount of games played to Nichlaus, will he ever play the same number of games or will his body break down in the process.Now modern golfers play less and thus deny the fans the sight of more battles between the top pros head to head .

[jeffc]

Tiger is still not there yet in my less than knowledgable opinion! I just look at the stats.
Jones did do that as an amateur and it does still count.He played against pros and had no equal.What would have been his record if he had not walked away from the game?Also check the amount of second place finishes and top ten in the majors for Jack .
When you compare wins and finishes for all three side by side you see the differences.In Jones case what are his stats compared to Tigers for the amount of years played in numbers of games and top 10 results over that same time period.
Tiger will beat Jones in number of years played but in amount of games played to Nichlaus, will he ever play the same number of games or will his body break down in the process.Now modern golfers play less and thus deny the fans the sight of more battles between the top pros head to head .

I am not sure of your point? Tiger wins 1/3 of the tournaments he enters and if I am not mistaken, has won 10 of his last 13. 2nd place finishes are not really relevant and could be taken 2 ways, either he was consistent, or he couldn't close the deal? Regardless it's wins that count. Ask the Buffalo Bills about 2nd place finishes.

I predict Tiger will beat Jack's records by the time he is 35 in terms of majors and tourney's won. If Tiger played more he would win more - simple as that. I believe the demands on his time are way greater than golfers 30 years ago.

As for Jones, I have no idea what his record would have been if he hadn't retired so young. we can only guess.

[PJ Jr.]

Heres a stat...Tiger 2000 US Open winning margin 15 strokes, blew the record away. Jones won two of his four US Opens in playoffs, the other two by a grand total of 3 strokes.

[Hacker]

I don't think you can compare the 1920's and 30's to modern day......how many people played golf back then?? How many tournaments could actually boast about having the majority of the best players in the world in the field?

Bobby Jones was the best golfer is his era, but I don't think you can even begin to compare him to the best of the modern day players like Tiger and Phil or even the best from a generation ago like Jack and Arnie - Apples and Oranges....Period!

[Chambokl]

To Rmisterr,

You are so right. I don't know how many people (kids, wife, non-golfer) talked to me about the last tournament. People that don't even know where the golf course is were mentionning how awesome was and that they couldn't wait for Monday's round.

Saturday night, NBC had a 13 share which is comparable to an NFL game. One of the Golf Channel expert said that Tiger is worth 5 points on the TV viewership rating. Man, this is a big blow to the Network. I am sure there is a protection for the advertizer if Tiger is not playing. I don't think the coverage will be as good because with less revenue some cuts will have to be made. Rick (Golfbum), yes you will be affected even if you don't think so...

[mberube]

Tiger is still not there yet in my less than knowledgable opinion! I just look at the stats.
Jones did do that as an amateur and it does still count.

Yes it does count but what Tiger did was alot harder. He won 4 straight Pro major events. Jones won two pro major events and two Amateur event’s. That is not even comparable. He was a pro caliber player competing against amateurs. It would be like Tiger or Jack playing the USAm every year.

He played against pros and had no equal.

Only in two of his majors.

What would have been his record if he had not walked away from the game?

Irrelevant. What Ifs are no good since he decided to call it quits voluntarily. For all wee know he might have never won again considering his illness.

Also check the amount of second place finishes and top ten in the majors for Jack. When you compare wins and finishes for all three side by side you see the differences.

Never said anything about Jack. Jack is a valid contender as the best that ever played the game. Right know he owns the records although Tiger is on a better pace then Jack for the moment and Tiger hase done things that jack never did.

In Jones case what are his stats compared to Tigers for the amount of years played in numbers of games and top 10 results over that same time period.

7 Pro majors in 8 years, 13 tournaments total and that includes amateur tournaments. That’s what I found. That’s below Tigers average.

Tiger will beat Jones in number of years played but in amount of games played to Nichlaus, will he ever play the same number of games or will his body break down in the process.Now modern golfers play less and thus deny the fans the sight of more battles between the top pros head to head .

Jones played only 3 months a year.

[mberube]

I don't think you can compare the 1920's and 30's to modern day......how many people played golf back then?? How many tournaments could actually boast about having the majority of the best players in the world in the field?

Bobby Jones was the best golfer is his era, but I don't think you can even begin to compare him to the best of the modern day players like Tiger and Phil or even the best from a generation ago like Jack and Arnie - Apples and Oranges....Period!

You are absolutely right. He was the best amateur golfer ever to play the game and will own that prestige for ever in my opinion. Not money players can ignore the money that they can make on Tour if they are up to the test. We will probably never see another amateur stay at that but with a pro caliber.

You are also right that you can’t compare Tiger and Jones but you can compare what they have accomplished. They can’t play each other but you can compare their stats when playing against their peers. Technology is the same for everyone playing against Tiger, Jack or Jones. They are playing against the best in there era. That’s comparable.

This is a debate that will never die in any sport.

[pheenster]

Well my wife is happy...less golf that I will watch on TV...If you win and Tiger is not playing...Does it really matter???To me NO

Well, I guess we'd better call Tim Finchem and ask him to suspend the Tour for a year or so until Tiger comes back.

As for watching less golf, I guess you weren't watching a lot in the last few years anyway. Tiger hasn't actually played on a lot of the PGA Tour in a couple of years now. He plays:

• the Majors;
• the Players;
• the WGC events;
• anything with Buick in the title;
• as many of the FedEx Cup playoff events as he needs to win it; and
• a few invitationals, including his own.

And that's about it. Had he been healthy this entire season, he would have played a maximum of 18 real tournaments (I don't count silly season events). Between the opening event in Hawaii and the end of the fall series there are 44 events if I counted right (not including opposite-field tournaments). If you're only watching the ones Tiger is in, you're not watching what I would call a lot of golf.

But I guess the winners of those other 26-odd events don't "matter" anyway.