Jack Nicklaus makes feelings clear on Tiger Woods | Golf News

PGA Tour icon Jack Nicklaus is widely identified for his conviction that 13-time major champion and Grand Slam winner Bobby Jones is the best golfer in historical past.

Whilst Jones seems untouchable in Nicklaus’s evaluation, he believes a match Tiger Woods would have at least eclipsed his own achievements. Nicklaus appeared in the sales space at the Cognizant Classic, which was received by Nico Echavarria after Shane Lowry’s Sunday collapse.

The 18-time major winner mirrored on his PGA Championship victory at PGA National in 1971, the importance of the match, his perspective on Tiger’s profession, and the world’s top two-ranked golfers, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. He admitted his major report would belong to Woods had accidents not held him back.

“Tiger should have broken my record,” said Nicklaus. “If he’d stayed healthy. But he didn’t.”

Nicklaus outlined his era with longevity and steadiness, while Woods’ stretch of supremacy stays more than ample to be regarded among the best golfers of all time.

Nicklaus captured 18 majors and 19 second-place finishes, and seldom missed an alternative to take part. Woods amassed 15 majors, matching the PGA Tour report with 82 victories and a 21.7% win charge during his peak, which stands as the very best for golfers in over 200 PGA tournaments.

Their careers intersected in 22 major tournaments between 1995 and 2005. The 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla marked a aggressive pairing of the 2. The Tour legend did not make the cut and later conceded that his reign at the top had ended.

Woods emerged victorious, and 5 years later at St Andrews, Nicklaus participated in his remaining Open Championship, while Woods clinched another win.

Nicklaus outperformed Woods in 5 of their shared majors, including the 1998 Masters, when a 58-year-old Nicklaus tied for sixth place, surpassing the defending champion Woods.

Nicklaus not often missed tournaments in his prime years, only skipping majors until age 58 due to back spasms. Woods’ profession is distinguished by his distinctive expertise and his cycle of surgical procedures and comebacks. Notably, he received the 2008 U.S. Open on a damaged leg before present process ACL reconstruction.

From 2014 to 2017, he underwent a number of back surgical procedures that in the end led to spinal fusion. Woods has missed over 20 majors due to injury, including a car accident that shattered his proper leg, a 2023 subtalar fusion, and a 2025 Achilles rupture that prompted him to miss the season.

By the age of 32, Woods had received 14 majors, while Nicklaus did not secure his fifteenth until he was 38 years previous and claimed his 18th at 46 years previous.

Nicklaus once described Woods as the most elementary golfer he’d ever seen and predicted he would break almost every Masters report. Woods has persistently referred to Nicklaus as the best of all time.