25 years ago Tiger Woods won the first of his 5 Green Jackets,
1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019
Trailing only Jack Nickalaus who has 6 Green Jackets.
Like I said, doubt Tiger Woods at your peril!
Agreed, but Iâm not sure what you mean about the bad guys fixing the results, no matter how I have tried to understand it. Could you please explain?
I thought the Playerâs Championship might well be the best field in golf and indeed it is. I had always thought that the PGA might be, but it is not. But the PGA is the hardest tournament to win and the hardest major to win, which I did know. Iâm not sure how the Players has the deepest field but the PGA is the hardest to win. I am attaching a link to one data analysis that maybe someone can make better sense of than me.
https://datagolf.com/whats-the-strongest-field-in-professional-golf/
The PGA includes many local teaching pros that obviously couldn't make the Players Championship . The teaching pros do great work but they are not playing pros .
Unlike you I hope that Tiger canât play and I doubt he will. The elevation changes at the Masters are among the most severe of any course the pros play. Most people were never aware of this until HD came along and now it is even more evident with 4K and 401k and everything else they have. Still, anyone who goes to Augusta National for the first time, including players and announcers, always say that you canât really appreciate the elevation changes on almost every hole unless you are actually there in person. I think the elevation change from high to low point of the course is 176 feet. I am attaching a report with some diagrams.
https://golf.com/news/tournaments/breaking-down-elevation-augusta-national-golf-club/
As to being the GOAT, that is highly debatable. For one, the rampant and long term PED use rule him out for me. He also statistically canât match Jack Nicklaus and probably never will. There is also a string argument to be made for the gentleman Bobby Jones, who retired at his peak at age 30 and was one of the architects of Augusta National and the founder of the Masters. Jones is still the only golfer to win the calendar year Grand Slam and might always be.
Your proof for that statement is ?
True, but in spite of this it has always statistically been the toughest major to win. It has the deepest field via world rankings. The Masters is the easiest due to the small size of the field, normally around 90 players. The other three majors all have full 150 plus player fields which are far deeper in quality players. The US and British Opens have significantly more entries from qualifiers, who may be better than most of the PGA pros you mentioned, but there are significantly more of them and therefore the field is weaker. Neither the PGA pros or the qualifiers have a realistic chance of winning and neither do the amateurs invited to the Masters. The PGA has been the red headed step sister of the major tournaments for prestige and kudos, but it has always been the hardest to win and had the toughest field.
There is actually as much or more proof than the proof that sunk Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens and many others. There are no public drug tests that sunk any of them, yet they are all considered guilty. Same for Lance Armstrong until they actually retested an old sample with new technology years later.
Just look at Tigerâs body development. Exactly like Bonds. All of the signs of PED use. Super scrawny to impossibly muscled almost overnight. A complete body breakdown at a relatively young age in line with many of the clinically proven side effects of prolonged PED use. Testimonials by those who knew him. Huge wealth to silence people from talking and to buy the best drug masking technology available. Generally being an irritable prick like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, another well known side effect. Most importantly he was caught more than once sneaking around with the drug doctor to the stars who regularly and secretly visited him at his residence for many years. I canât remember his name offhand but have an article somewhere ( that I canât access on my phone right now) that explains their relationship and the lame excuses Tiger gave to explain it.
Unfortunately the PGA tour, like the NHL and unlike MLB, has foolishly maintained that not one person has a PED problem and any drug discipline, such as that received by Dustin Johnson (for recreational cocaine use- not PEDâs), is not made public. As I said, there is more proof against Tiger than the proof that has kept Bonds and Clemens and Sammy Sosa out of the hall of fame and I am firmly in that camp and am the kind of person that needs evidence before taking such a stand so I do not do so lightly. The accumulated evidence, in my opinion, is overwhelming. Many insiders are aware of this but the PGA tour would never kill itâs cash cow. It is my guess that the only two majors he won while clean were his first and last Masters in 1997 and 2019, and I am not even sure about those.
Plus there is this picture:
âŚthat doesnât look realâŚis that real?
No itâs photoshopped. Not by me. Found it years ago.
Didnât know that, interesting. But I am rooting for Tigerâs health for him to come back as close to normal as he was before the accident. Starting to get up there in years though, it would be amazing for him to be able to compete again on the PGA tour after an accident like he had.
Come on, that photo of him photoshopped, no way!
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/317861-tiger-woods-and-steroids-or-hgh-could-it-be-true
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/new-book-says-tiger-woods-paid
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/sport/article/tiger-woods-performance-enhancing-drugs
Above are some links to some stories regarding Tiger Woods alleged PED use. There are many more. We also know that Tiger has addictions to various drugs including painkillers and that he admitted receiving treatment for that, but that is different from the PEDâs I am talking about, although it shows he is not averse to pumping drug cocktails into his body if he thinks it will help his golf game.
We will probably never know the entire truth. The PGA tour is the worst major sport for drug testing, being the latest to the party and testing only urine rather than blood, which apparently has no chance of uncovering designer PEDâs. It also does generally not reveal its discipline and the commissioner has wide ranging discretion in that regard. No doubt they protect their cash cows and that had Woods ever tested positive we likely would never know. The PGA never disclosed Dustin Johnsonâs positive cocaine test and suspension even though it is common knowledge that occurred. I consider that to be far different than PEDâs as recreational drug use is not performance enhancing.
The evidence, as I have pointed out, is at least as strong as the evidence against Bonds, Clemens, Sosa and Armstrong before he was actually caught. What clinched it for me is his association with drug doctor Galea. There is no other reasonable explanation for him paying tens of thousands of $ to fly in a Canadian doctor known chiefly for providing state of the art drug cocktails to elite athletes. Yes there isnât the smoking gun drug test in Tigerâs case, but then there rarely is. Many have been convicted in the court of public opinion for drug use with far less evidence. As some of the articles I have read point out, many people love Tiger and bury their head in the sand when dealing with allegations like these. You of course can be your own judge, but taken as a whole, if Bonds and Sosa and Clemens are guilty, and I believe they are, it is impossible to arrive at a different conclusion in Tigerâs case.
There is also absolutely no question that Tiger is willing to cheat and that he feels he is above normal rules and laws that apply to regular human beings, a point made by many pundits. It is not difficult to take the leap that PEDâs would be considered something acceptable to him. If you lie and cheat the person that is supposed to be the closest confidante in your life, it is relatively easy to do that to anyone else.
So why show the phony picture ? Woods has 82 career wins . Jack has 73 . Woods has 15 majors and Jack has 18 . 2 great golfers in 2 different eras . Who played against the tougher competition ? Iâd say Woods simply because he faced larger fields of quality players .
One thing we could probably agree on is that Tiger faced many more obstacles than Jack had to overcome .
Jon, tell me more about how Tiger Woods has ruined the the game of Golf!
Sure, he wasnât squeeky clean like Arnie and Jack, but câmon
The picture is meant to be funny.
Yes Tiger probably faced more obstacles and faced more quality players, but he didnât have to travel with other players jammed into a â57 Chevy from tournament to tournament or ever have to worry about money. And Jack didnât take PEDâs. I would in fact put Bobby Jones above both of them. But different eras as you say.
You are entitled to your opinion, but my opinion is that a liar and a cheater is a liar and a cheater. Doesnât matter the person, the background, the sport or whether it is in business or any other walk of life. Hitting a golf ball very well doesnât exempt someone from valid criticism.
So, In your opinion,
Tiger should change his name from Tiger
to ⌠Lion Cheetah!
I never said Tiger ruined the game of golf. In fact we all know that he brought more money and exposure to the sport than any other golfer except Arnie.
I just donât like his arrogance and cheating and nastiness to his fans. Until recently Tiger never signed autographs, routinely passing by children that idolized him, ostensibly because he didnât want his autograph sold on the internet. Pleeeze!
Arnie personally returned mail from his fans for decades and when he could no longer do so he paid people to do so. He was famous for answering every piece of correspondence he ever received. He never refused to sign an autograph. Phil was the closest to following in his footsteps, never refusing a childâs request for an autograph. After famously blowing the US Open in 2006 at Winged Foot, devastated as he was, he signed autographs for 2 hours. Tigerâs habit after a poor round was to vamoose, usually not even fulfilling his obligation to talk to the press and even when he did, often pulling a full Tortorella.
Arnie and Jack were no saints either, but they cared about their fans and the game in a much different way and certainly did not act as it was all about them or money. Ironically it is Arnie, not Tiger, that became the richest athlete in history.
I get that you guys like Tiger, and most people do, but I do not for the reasons given. I also think it is a shame that we will never know how many tournaments or majors he would have won had he been clean.
Hey, that would work! He could consult Ben Johnson for commercial tips.
Has Tiger ever tested positive for PED's?
Answer - NO
You havenât understood what I have been saying. Has Bonds or Clemens or Sosa? No.
Has Tiger? We donât know because of PGA secrecy and donât forget they didnât test for PEDâs until 2017. Hardly a convincing argument. And I am not saying it is 100%, but certainly on a balance of probabilities. And I am not anywhere near alone on this one.
Please examine some of the evidence and his relationship with Galea. You can come to a different conclusion that I do, but I donât see any point in us arguing about it any longer. It is all out there for anyone to see or not to see.