Living in a Time of Greatness

by dswinder, Sons of Sam Malone

Before I begin, let me just take a moment to reveille in the magnificence that is being a golf fan in the Tiger Woods era. The man isn't human. He is, simply put, unbelievable. 60 wins at the age of 31.

Rather than continue fellatiating Tiger, let's just take a look at just how impressive Eldrick's most recent feat actually is. 60 wins at the age of 31. Tiger has been playing on Tour just under twelve seasons, and he's already racked up 60 wins. That's an average of five wins per year. Some people are glad to win five times in a career.

With Tiger's 60th win he joined a pantheon of golf gods. Only Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer managed to notch 60 wins, and I'm not going to jump to conclusions, but am I going out on a limb to assume that you MIGHT have heard of those guys? But let's break it down further. Let's say Tiger stays at the top of his game until the age of 43. That's reasonable, right? He keeps himself in great shape, and he's really just now hitting his prime (I just shuddered at the thought.) But let's say he stays on top until the age of 43. That's twelve more years. Tiger has, like I said earlier, averaged five wins per year over his first twelve seasons. So 60 wins in twelve seasons. Twelve more seasons. Double 60. That's 120 career PGA wins by the age of 43. Granted, it's not exactly scientific, but is it reasonable? I say yes.

Ok, so let's say Tiger doesn't win again after the age of 43, not likely, but for the sake of this argument, he never wins again. That's 120 wins. The current leader in career wins, Sam Snead, won a total of 82 times on Tour. 120-82...That's 38 more wins than the next closest of ALL-TIME. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but isn't a gap of 38 wins, I don't know, just maybe a little ridiculous. In fact, let's put that into perspective.

Phil Mickelson is a pretty good golfer wouldn't you say? He'll be remembered in history as one of the greats. Phil Mickelson has a total of 32 career PGA Tour wins. If Tiger finished with 120 wins, he will have six more wins between him and Sam Snead, in second place, than Phil has in his entire career. Is it just me, or is that sick?

It's always said that records are made to be broken. You're only the best until the next guy that's better comes along. In the case of Tiger Woods, I'm not so sure that's true. If he manages even 110 career victories, a very likely milestone, Tiger will have launched himself to a status unattainable. So consider yourself lucky. You too, are living in the era of the greatest that WILL EVER play the game.