Capelle On Golf

Tiger Woods’ third knee surgery and the prognosis that his knee could be an ongoing problem has thrown a monkey wrench in those predictions for 22-25+ majors. 19-20 is looking a whole lot better.

Let’s assume Tiger finishes with 19 majors at the completion of his 19th season. In the same number of seasons Nicklaus won 17 majors. From that point on, Nicklaus was far less effective due to outside interests and age, as Tiger might be. And then there’s that business with his knee.

You might think Tiger could be at a disadvantage over the later part his 19 years because of his knee until you consider Nicklaus’ history with his left hip. It became a problem early in 1963, his second season on tour, and it remained a concern throughout his career. Here’s part of what Nicklaus had to say about his hip in My Story:

“Over the years ahead, that hip tendon problem would recur more often than I have cared to publicly admit. Eventually, I figured out that it was probably caused, or at least aggravated by my right leg being about a quarter inch shorter than my left, which exerted added pressure on the left hip during the golf swing.”

Let’s call the affects of their injuries even, although we don’t know for sure what will happen with Tiger’s knee in the years ahead.

Now I’m going to throw in one variable, the golf ball. In 2000 Nike hired Rock Ishii to design the perfect ball for Tiger. Woods put Ishii’s first creation to work at the Memorial in May of 2000, which he won by five shots, and then went on to win the Tiger Slam. Considering the advances in balls and testing, and Tiger’s obsession with his equipment, he might have benefited from the ball. Certainly there is no reason to believe that a substandard ball ever cost him a major.

As for Nicklaus, a case can be made that the lousy balls he used throughout his prime cost him several majors. At least that’s the opinion of Frank Thomas, who for 26 years tested balls for the USGA. In his recently released book, Just Hit It, Thomas had this to say about the ball Nicklaus used:

“Because only a few players were using the MacGregor ball in 1977, I had to ask Jack Nicklaus and some others for samples to test. Jack gave me several sleeves from his bag, and we learned through testing with a mechanical golfer that the balls were so poor – their performance was so inconsistent – that I’m convinced he would have won several more majors if he’d used a different, better ball.”

Johnny Miller and Greg Norman have both previously voiced the same sentiment as Thomas regarding Nicklaus’ record.

Which brings us back to our argument: whose record of major titles would be better? Jack with 17, or Tiger with 19 – both after 19 seasons?

Let’s add two wins to the Nicklaus column to compensate for the lousy balls he played with. That seems fair considering that he lost 10 majors by a stroke (or less) in this period. We won’t deduct any wins from the Woods column to compensate his personal ball scientist, but Ishii’s creations might made the difference in one or two majors. And the final result? A dead heat at 19 each.

Let the debates begin!