Tiger's Streak of 7 More Impressive Than Nelson's 11

[bmacsys]

Tiger's Streak of 7 More Impressive Than Nelson's 11


There are a lot of things people can say about Tiger Woods' recently-ended "streak" of 7 consecutive wins. Yes, he failed to win non-PGA tour events during that "streak." Yes, it came over two years. A streak, in the most rigid definition of the word "streak," it was not.

I understand that, and believe me, I'm not looking at Tiger's seven consecutive Tour wins as some kind of a legendary mark. It's not a big deal to me.

But still, Tiger's 7 are more impressive to me than Byron Nelson's 11.

It's not at all a criticism of Byron Nelson, but he just didn't have a lot of competition in 1945. For one thing, there weren't a whole lot of great golfers on the planet back then; barely even a fraction of what exists today. Golf today is a global game, and in any PGA Tour field, there are a couple dozen guys capable of catching fire and putting up crazy scores. Today's fields are just far deeper and more capable than the fields of 60 years ago.

And secondly, most of the best golfers around during Nelson's streak were called into military service for World War II. While Nelson was mopping up the PGA Tour, most of his contemporaries were half a world away, attempting to put bullets in Germans. It's not Nelson's fault, but ... the absence of competition is pretty helpful to a streak.

The level of domination that Tiger Woods achieves against the level of competition that he competes with ... apologies to Byron Nelson, but it blows his streak away.


Not to mention Tigers Grand Slam at 24 in 1999-2000. Not bad for being overated and erratic.

[pumpster]

Moron "Bmacsys" and his 13" arms apparently can't tell the difference between Tiger playing great as he's been for a a long while now, and his less than inspired play prior to his Dad's death. From a point of view of performance, his dad's death was a huge gift.


The Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson is The Next One.

Every sport needs a great rivalry, and a challenger to its greatest champion.

Tennis: Borg-McEnroe
Formula One: Prost-Senna
Basketball: Bird-Magic
College Ovalball: Ohio State-Michigan
Football: Argentine-Brazil

Et al.

Tiger Wood and golf has had its contenders:

Duval, Els, Garcia, Mickelson...

Many have been expected to become the player who would become Tiger's "McEnroe".

His arch rival.

Els came closest.

But he's a few years older and from a different generation. Thus, he doesn't play the same way that the new generation does.

Despite his extreme length.

Henrik Stenson, winning the Match Play Championships, the fifth major in many ways, has the length and all the other qualities, the mental aggressiveness of the new generation.

[canadian_husker]

stenson? please......don't you think that's a little premature?