In an interview with Golf.com, five-time major champion Phil Mickelson made headlines by saying the present group of golf’s young stars is not close to the level Tiger Woods reached during his prime, adding that we are "decades away" from someone matching Woods’ feats.
Mickelson couldn’t be more right, and we should stop trying to compare the game’s modern stars to a player none of them will ever be able to match up against.
In a sports culture in which we tirelessly search for the next great star and rush to justify why he or she is the greatest player we have ever seen, it’s important to put things in perspective and realize that what Woods did during his prime will never be replicated.
One example was on display last weekend, when 22-year-old Jordan Spieth, the two-time major champion drawing the most comparisons to Woods, missed the cut in the Northern Trust Open.
It was his 16th missed cut in 87 events, which is pretty decent if you understand the inconsistent nature of golf. Even for the game’s top players, it’s tough to be great in every round each week.
Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, 26, is around the same level, missing 11 cuts in 102 events.
The most recent major winner, 28-year-old Jason Day, has missed 35 cuts in 174 events during his career.
These are the three brightest stars in golf and the men many claim will emerge to become the next Tiger.
But compared to Woods, these numbers look like those of amateurs.
In 327 career events, Woods has been cut just 23 times. Seven of those came before he turned pro in 1996, and another eight have come since 2012.
In between those two years, which consisted of 17 seasons, he missed just eight cuts.
From 1998 until 2005, Woods didn’t miss a single cut, a span that included 142 PGA sanctioned events — easily a PGA record.
The magnitude of that number is mind-blowing and can’t be understated. For all the stats Woods put up during his period of dominance, from the 10 major wins before turning 30 to his staggering 68.17 scoring average in 2000, this consecutive cuts record most represents the force that Woods was.
There were no peaks and valleys in Woods’ game like every other mortal golfer goes through. He was in top form every week, and you were surprised if he somehow found a way not to win every tournament in which he participated.
It’s not fair to judge Spieth, McIlroy, Day and others by such a lofty measuring stick, and it’s disrespectful to Woods to put them in the same category.
No golfer will ever reach the same level of dominance again, and we shouldn’t expect them to live up to that standard.
Contact Graham Hack at ghack@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @graham_hack24.
FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2015, file photo, Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the second hole during the final round of the Wyndham Championship golf tournament at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C. Tiger Woods has posted a video of him swinging a 9-iron in a golf simulator. His agent says the video was posted to rebut rumors on social media that he had taken a turn for the worse following two back surgeries last fall. Mark Steinberg of Excel Sports Management said Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, that the rumors were ridiculous. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)
