Tiger V. Jack: Golf's Great Debate
By Bob Harig
St. Martin's Press; 304 pages; hardcover, $30.00; Ebook, $14.99; available today, Tuesday, May 5th
Bob Harig is a writer for Sports Illustrated, formerly of ESPN and the Tampa Bay Times, who has covered Tiger Woods since the very beginning of his career nearly three decades ago. Harig is one of the few authors who has conducted dozens of one-on-one interviews with Tiger, and is the author of Tiger & Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry (click here for our review from April 2022). He is also the author of Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods (our review from May 2024). Harig is an active member of the Golf Writers Association of America.
Jack Nicklaus was always the measuring stick for Tiger Woods as he embarked on his remarkable professional golf career in the mid-1990s, especially the 18 majors that The Golden Bear won. During the first decade of his career, it appeared Tiger would certainly eclipse it, but injuries and other favors halted his chase, as he is currently at 15 major titles.
In Bob Harig's riveting new book, Tiger V. Jack, he examines this great golf debate, and who really is the elite golfer based on their full records, rivalries, statistics, and the context of their careers, including their intangibles that made them among the greatest to ever play the game.
Woods was known as a golf prodigy from a very young age, when he appeared on television at three years old putting on The Mike Douglas Show. It wasn't long after that, when Tiger was just 13, that he was winning junior tournaments, including the Rolex and five Junior Worlds
By the time Woods was 15 years old, he was the best junior player in the United States and had his sights set on being the greatest golfer ever. He became the youngest to win the Optimist Junior World in the 15-17 age division, won the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section individual title, and two events on the American Junior Golf Association circuit. It all led up to Woods winning the 1991 U.S. Junior Amateur at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Florida.
1991 would also mark the first time Woods met Nicklaus, at the Friends of Golf fundraiser. In a symmetry of where they were in their careers, Woods was 15 years old, while Nicklaus was 51, five years removed from his historic Masters win, and one year removed from coming in sixth. Nicklaus also won multiple times on the senior tour at that time, as well.
While each had a main rival - for Jack, it was Arnold Palmer, and for Tiger, it was Phil Mickelson - what would a matchup between them in their primes looked like?
Harig observed the latter years of Nicklaus' career and the totality of Woods' career, so he can study these two in a way all his own. The dominance of these two giants of golf over their eras is shown by how many near-misses they had. Nicklaus came in second in 19 majors, so if some of those went his way, he really could have eclipsed 30 major titles. Similarly for Woods, he won 15 majors and came in second seven times, so there's a realistic chance he could have surpassed 20 championships.
This is the 40th anniversary of when Jack Nicklaus won The Masters, which is known from the clip with his clinching putt and announcer Verne Lundquist calling out, "Yes Sir!" Nicklaus was 46 when he won it, and he is still the oldest to win a Masters, but Mickelson eclipsed him for majors overall when he won the PGA Tour in 2021 at 50 years old.
In this excerpt, from the Introduction, Harig writes about a Woods' encounter with Nicklaus when he was still in his prime: On June 3, 2012, Tiger Woods walked off the 18th green at Muirfield Village Golf Club, cheers and chants ringing in his ears, the entirety of those around him engulfed in jubilant hysteria. Awaiting him behind the green - where he always resides on Sundays at his tournament - was Jack Nicklaus, with a knowing grin and a hearty handshake.
Nicklaus' look was one of amazement but also acceptance. Woods had just birdied three of the last four holes to win the tournament the Golden Bear had founded in the 1970s, when Woods had barely graced the earth. What had occurred was unbelievable and yet understandable. Nicklaus was used to seeing the incredible out of Woods, who produced it yet again.
"He had to rub it in my face right here, didn't he?" Nicklaus joked later that day.
And that certainly was Tiger. He had a flair for the dramatic, even if it had been lacking to a large degree at that point in his career.
But there he was during that final round in Nicklaus' backyard of Dublin, Ohio, charging up the leaderboard with four front-nine birdies, falling behind with a couple of bogeys, seemingly out of it with a few holes to play - all but dead when his approach shot to the 16th green went long.
And then, Woods somehow hit a flop shot that rolled in for a birdie that shook the Central Ohio ground.
Nicklaus called it one of the best shots he'd ever seen under the circumstances, and who was anyone to argue?
You don't get that ball close, from that location, let alone hole it. But Woods did.
And it set up his 73rd PGA Tour win, which tied Nicklaus on the all-time list, nine behind leader Sam Snead.
Yeah, Tiger had a thing for doing that, too, his career exploits compared to Nicklaus's since the time he was a teenager, and often in jaw-dropping fashion.
Four times, Woods won a major championship where Nicklaus was making his last appearance.
At the 2000 U.S. Open, Woods won by 15 shots as Nicklaus - a four-time winner of the tournament, waved goodbye at Pebble Beach after missing the cut on Friday.
Two months later, the two were paired for the only time in a major championship, playing the first two rounds together at the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club. Nicklaus narrowly missed an eagle pitch on the last hole that would have helped him make the cut in his last PGA; Woods went on to win in dramatic fashion, beating Bob May in a playoff, for his third straight major title and fourth overall.
Another five years went by before Nicklaus played his 45th and final Masters Tournament, missing the cut, as Woods went on to win what was his first major title in nearly three years. It was his ninth major title, putting him halfway to Nicklaus' record 18.
That summer, Nicklaus, then 65, made his major championship farewell. Playing in one of the game's biggest tournaments for the 164th and final time, Nicklaus waved to the masses as he crossed the Swilcan Bridge at the Old Course, the entire town of St Andrews and seemingly all of Scotland there to witness his last journey on one of golf's grandest stages.
As Nicklaus was holing a birdie putt on the 18th green to conclude his second and final round, Woods could see it as he walked from the R&A clubhouse to the first tee, where he would begin his second round and go on to win what was his second Open Championship and 10th overall major title.
Understandably, he was asked about Nicklaus.
"First of all, he's the greatest champion that's ever lived," Woods said. "There's nobody that's been as consistent for as long a period of time as Jack. From the time when he won his first major to his last, no one's ever been that consistent. Just look at this championship alone, 15 years and the top six right in a row. It's hard to imagine being that consistent, because you can always get the bad end of the draw one time, you figure. But he played right through it and was always in contention.
"But he's been the benchmark for every player that's ever played the game, at least in my generation. When I started playing, his prime was probably already over. He was certainly the benchmark, like before him was probably Bobby Jones."
Woods was well aware of his golf history and pursued many of Nicklaus' exploits from his earliest days.
A year later, he won two more majors, added one each in 2007 and 2008, and stood just four behind Nicklaus' all-time mark.
Then injury derailed him. And scandal. And another injury. And when he won that tournament at Jack's Place in 2012, it was just his second win in three years, bringing him even with the legend in all-time PGA Tour victories, but still chasing those elusive majors.
It was a feel-good moment for all, one expected to put Woods back on track. The shot, of course, was the talk of the tournament, too.
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