Tiger Woods listed four people when discussing the greatest players in golf history.
The American would likely top many lists himself, considering the way in which he rapidly popularized the sport in the 1990s, commanded sponsorship deals with the likes of Nike, and permeated pop culture like no other golfer had really ever managed. And that doesn’t even touch on the 15 major championships — the last of which, his success at The Masters in 2019, was arguably the greatest achievement of an already-great career. And that is because it was a comeback for the ages. Woods hadn’t been competitive for years because of injuries, and personal scandal. Yet, at 43 years old, he outplayed a new generation in the biggest tournament of the year. It was a victory of extraordinary resilience, discipline, and mental tenacity.
When pushed on the topic of golf’s greatest about the title of GOAT, Woods told Dwyane Wade in 2021: “I’m not the GOAT. I’m not there yet. I’m not done.”
So that leaves other players for the title of golf’s greatest player. And Woods has, through the years, shouted out three distinctive athletes for that honor.
3 Players Tiger Woods Considers as Golf’s Greatest
Woods named three golfers through the sport’s illustrious history
The athletes Woods cites as having parts of their game that are superior to everyone else in the field, include:
- Jack Nicklaus
- Ben Hogan
- Seve Ballesteros
- Ben Crenshaw
Woods spent years studying Nicklaus — golf’s 18-time major winner, the most of any player in history — before he was even a teenager. Long-regarded one of Woods’s biggest fans, Nicklaus himself touted Tiger as being capable of winning more Masters tournaments than he and Arnold Palmer combined, according to The New Yorker. Woods ended up winning five, one more than Palmer, and just one shy of Nicklaus himself.
“Obviously, Jack Nicklaus was the greatest of all time.”
Tiger Woods’ best at Majors
Competition Best result
Masters W (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019)
PGA Championship W (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007)
US Open W (2000, 2002, 2008)
The Open W (2000, 2005, 2006)
But, though he tipped Nicklaus as the No.1 player in golf’s history, Woods also singled out Ben Hogan, Seve Ballesteros, and Ben Crenshaw when it came to other aspects of the game, chiefly, when it came to driving, short game, and putting, respectively.
“Ben Hogan was the greatest driver there ever was. Seve Ballesteros probably had the best short game. Ben Crenshaw putted the best.”
In the same The New Yorker article, from 2000, a younger Woods explained how he didn’t just study the sport’s history, to be able to determine who did what the best, he modeled his own game after the legends.
“What I did was analyze every different player’s game and try to pick the best out of each and every player and try to look up to that,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to look up to just one person.”
