In the mind of any clear-thinking golf aficionado, surely there is no longer
a question of whether Tiger Woods is the greatest player of all time. All you
Jones Junkies, Hogan Huggers and Nicklaus Nuts can put your placards down,
because your boys just aren’t part of the conversation anymore. And please don’t
try to pacify me with that old bromide: “All you can do is evaluate each player
in the era in which he competed.” Sorry, but if Tiger could be beamed back in
time, Bobby, Ben and Jack would be left gawking in his wake along with the rest
of them.
For a while, I was in the “Let’s wait and see him win 19 majors”
camp. Now, I don’t care whether he stays at 13 majors or wins another 13; Tiger
in his first dozen years as a professional has already proved he’s the most
dominant player the game has ever seen.
Indeed, it seems to me that the more
interesting question is not whether he’s the best, but why. Having given it some
thought, I think it boils down to the fact that he is the only member of the 4-H
Club. Yes, that 4-H Club—the one with the kids on tractors. Remember their
motto?
Head, Heart, Hands, Health. Tiger has all four—no other player ever
has—in magnificent abundance.
HEAD
When is the last time you saw Tiger play a foolish shot or blow a
lead? Others may beat him on rare occasions, but he does not beat himself, never
gets in his own way. From the 1st tee to the 18th green his laser focus never
wavers. When he is behind going into the last round he always seems to know the
number to shoot. His record in singles match play—a conspicuously mental game—is
even more impressive than in stroke play.
Jones was probably the most
intelligent guy to play the game at a high level, and Nicklaus’ strength of mind
was surely equal to Tiger’s, but Jones didn’t have a commensurate measure of
Heart or Health—he quit at age 28, thoroughly battered by the rigors of
championship golf. And Nicklaus, despite a long and glorious career, was never
as singleminded as Tiger. As Chi Chi Rodriguez famously quipped, Jack was a
legend in his spare time.
Among Tiger’s current rivals, the guys with the
steeliest minds seem to be Henrik Stenson and Geoff Ogilvy, but neither has a
Head the equal to Tiger’s, let alone his three other Hs.
HEART
Heart is
determination, drive, resilience, and guts. It’s relishing a challenge, never
backing off, posting a good score when your game is not on, and summoning your
best golf when it’s needed most. It’s also a willingness—even a thirst—to work
your tail off, to explore every possibility for the sake of improvement. Tiger
is the epitome of all those things.
Hogan, of course, was the original
poster boy for Heart. Arnold Palmer had fair amount of it, and so did Gary
Player. But Hogan and Player were small guys who had to scratch and claw for
everything they got—they just didn’t have Tiger’s native skill (Hands), and the
go-for-broke Palmer lived and too often died by the sword—he lacked Tiger’s
Head.
Walter Hagen was a clever fellow who also rates highly on the Heart
chart—four consecutive PGA Championship victories at match play are ample
testimony—but the Haig’s legendarily flamboyant lifestyle made him a non-starter
in the Health area.
Among today’s pretenders, Jim Furyk is a gutsy guy who
knows how to manage his game—the problem is that he has palpably less game to
manage than Tiger does. Vijay Singh and Padraig Harrington have the work ethic
but clearly lack other ingredients of mind and body or their labors would pay
off more frequently. Sergio Garcia has the competitive Heart but doesn’t temper
it with a cool Head.
