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Do Jack and Tiger Stand Alone? |
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Written by Bryan Spitzer
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Monday, 14 April 2008 |
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Many people say to me they wish Tiger had a consistent "challenger" to his domination as Jack had Arnie and Gary. I usually would reply yes that would make it more interesting and certainly provide drama, like the kind we witnessed this past weekend at Augusta. Having thought about it for a bit though, i began to wonder with the number of Major wins and years played together in the peaks of each of their careers, did Jack really have a consistent contender in Jack and Arnie or do we just see it that way now as they have gone down as three of the greatest to ever play the game.
Jack Nicklaus, sits atop the Majors leaderboard with 20 (Two US Amateur titles and 18 Professional Major Championships - 6 Masters, 4 US Opens, 3 Opens, 5 PGA), Arnold Palmer has 8 (1 US amateur and 7 Professional Major titles - 4 Masters, 1 US Open and 2 Opens), Gary Player has 9 Major Championships (3 Masters, 1 US Open, 3 Opens and 2 PGA) and throughout these 35 Major titles including US Amateurs the three fierce competitors only locked horns to decide the winners 9 times. The remaining 26 victories were at the hands or falter of others, where at many points the other two were not even in contention as Nicklaus, Player or Palmer rose to grab another Major.
These stats beg the question - Was Nicklaus just as dominate as Woods has been without a real perennial contender? In his career Nickluas has been challenged in Majors by many other players more times that he was by Player and Palmer was the runner up only three times. He defeated Bruce Crampton four times between 72-75 and Doug Sanders twice at the Open Championship 1966 and 1970 and a host of others twice or singularly.
The event which marks the beginning of this "rivalry" is the changing of the guard at Oakmont in 1962 where the 22 year old rookie took down the "king" in his hometown on Americas most precious US Open gem in a Monday Playoff that will never be forgotten. Then, the plot thickens in '65 when he takes down the "King" and "Black Knight" at Augusta to capture his second green jacket and set the scoring record that would remain intact until 32 years later when the "tiger" born to play this game emerges on the Major Championship stage at the age of 21.
Out of those two events the "lore" has been cast and grown into something of a phenomena. That being said, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player are two of the greatest Champions of all time and Jack owes much of his career and the success of golf around the world to these two men, whose charisma, poise and character blossomed the sport in the dawn of the TV era. Arnie with his Army and Gary in all black looking to slay on and off the course are well beloved by all, but they also may not have been the perennial contender to Jack as we all have grown to love them to be.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 16 April 2008 )
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