ESPN: Is Tiger the World's Best Athlete?

[leftyben]

So on ESPN interesting discussion on TW. http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?...tfiction/week10

Thoughts? How is the golf swing different from a baseball swing in relation to athleticism? So Barry Bonds breaks supposedly the most hallowed record in sports and he as a DH does pretty much what golfers do (swing a stick at a ball). Yea TW doesn't sprint to his ball between shots or take hits from linebackers when hes in the rough, toss a breaking ball from a pot bunker or throw down a windmill jam into the cup from 3 feet and in but as far as hand eye coordination pretty sure golf is up there with baseball and basketball and soccer (footwork). Now raw skills such as jumping, sprinting, strength, endurance not a chance but thats what the olympics are for.

So my question is golf considered a sport? Hale Irwin played dback at Colorado, and Nicklaus was no slouch in other sports either. Are the best golfers in the world considered athletes the same as other major sports? In 10 years when the tiger generation and elite athletes choose golf will it be considered a legitimate sport as far as athleticism? Jordan said if he could choose golf over bball as a kid he would have. Is it just a matter of having the best athletes playing golf?

I wanted to hear some golfers who actually a clue about the game compared to the blowhards in the ESPN comments section. By the way i would consider multi sport athletes like bo jackson, deion, jim thorpe or carl crawford the best and NBA ballers the best athletes on a whole. Now dominate athletes, yea Tigers gotta be neck and neck with Federer and in the same category as his airness, ali and the great one.

i guess i should apologize to the grammar police in advance...

 

[Whiteflash]

Has anyone ever seen Tiger play any sport other than golf? He seems to me that he would be uncooridinated in any other sport. No facts to support my opinion but just a feeling.

 

[mcflog]

To put him as a world's greatest athlete is a stretch. He is certainly highly conditioned, but his sport doesn't fully demand that level of conditioning although it certainly helps overall I'm sure. Mentally he has that thing that other greats share, if he had pursued any other avenue I'm sure he would have excelled there as well. To me to be a world's greatest athlete you would have to be in an arena that was showcasing talents in multiple venues, I know the Olympic decathlon no longer carries the prestige it once did. But you would have to be in that kind of mold to claim that title. Otherwise to me your simply... Worlds BEst Golfer... best tennis player, best bball player etc....

The only major athlete in the last 30 years that I think could have claimed that title was Bo jackson, cause he succeeded in at least 3 venues.

 

[spider]

How about..."The Worlds most dominate athlete/competitor in their sport/endeavor!" Could be currently for that particular sport and/or compared to all other sports. However, is Tiger even the most dominant player in Golf ever...YET?

Personally I think he is the most dominate athlete and competitor in sports currently.

 

[golfwolf]

How about..."The Worlds most dominate athlete/competitor in their sport/endeavor!" Could be currently for that particular sport and/or compared to all other sports. However, is Tiger even the most dominant player in Golf ever...YET?

Personally I think he is the most dominate athlete and competitor in sports currently.

What about Roger Federer? He will most likely beat Sampras' record of major titles. The difference is that Tiger will have a longer career.

 

[bendet3]

Great question. I know that the year Mike Weir won the Masters, he was voted Canada's Male athlete of the year and there was some debate up here on call in shows as to whether golf was a sport and a golfer worthy of being called an athlete. My own personal opinion is yes, I don't see a whole lot of difference between them and some baseball players.

On a side note, I had heard of one study done to find out which sport was the hardest (or most physically demanding, I can't remember which) to play and the scientists concluded that boxing was number one and hockey was #2. As an MMA fan I would put them at the top personally. Off topic a bit, sorry.

 

[holeout]

How is the golf swing different from a baseball swing in relation to athleticism? So Barry Bonds breaks supposedly the most hallowed record in sports and he as a DH does pretty much what golfers do (swing a stick at a ball)..

Bonds is actually NOT a designated hitter; he's in the NL, not the AL. He plays left field, and was a Gold Glover for a few years if I'm not mistaken. A great athlete, not just some big slugger.

Tiger might have the best MIND of any other athelete. Hardly anyone else has ever delivered with the consistency Tiger has, and in the big situations. His win percentage on the PGA Tour of around 25% or so speaks volumes.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

There is absolutely NO WAY to quantify the best athlete across ALL SPORTS.

If you want to talk about the best athletes, i'd look at those iron man/woman competitions or how about Bo Jackson? He was one of the most successful DOUBLE PROFESSIONAL athletes ever. If he didn't have that horrible knee injury (which i saw) he would have been a HOF running back for sure.

 

[Bigwill]

"sport (spôrt, sprt)
n.
1.
a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.
b. A particular form of this activity.
2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
3. An active pastime; recreation.

-------------

ath·lete (thlt)
n.
A person possessing the natural or acquired traits, such as strength, agility, and endurance, that are necessary for physical exercise or sports, especially those performed in competitive contexts."


Technically, by strict dictionary definition, Tiger is an athlete, and golf is a sport. But most sports fans don't feel that way. When we think of an athlete, we think football, soccer, basketball, track & field etc. Golf seems like something different.

 

[Bigwill]

There is absolutely NO WAY to quantify the best athlete across ALL SPORTS.

If you want to talk about the best athletes, i'd look at those iron man/woman competitions or how about Bo Jackson? He was one of the most successful DOUBLE PROFESSIONAL athletes ever. If he didn't have that horrible knee injury (which i saw) he would have been a HOF running back for sure.

Wasn't it Bo's hip?

Anyway, you're right. Different people will use different criteria to determine which athlete is the best, and all of them could make good arguments. There will always be some type of "who's the best" or "greatest ever" debate, as long as there is sport.

 

[djm]

Yes, it was Bo's hip. As for the difference between Bonds and Tiger, nobody fires the golf ball at Tiger at 90+ MPH before he hits it. In terms of golfers as athletes, to paraphrase Tiger, you don't see many guys who look like Lumpy Herron in other professional sports.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

My bad...i just remember the game he got injured (i was young but do remember) and he went down so hard i cringed and it's burned in my memory.

It "looked" like a knee injury at first the way he was tackled from behind. Thanks for the clarifcation though

 

[bergsey]

AFL has to be the world's toughest sport

Lifted from another site -

"Australian Rules Football is unquestionably the most difficult sport in the world.

The average AFL player will run the equivalent of a half marathon every game. That's 24km every week for 22 regular season games a year.

The average AFL player is 6'2" tall and weighs about 230lb...all of it pure muscle. They jump as much as NBA players, they kick the same distance as NFL punters up to 20 times a game, they tackle opponents of similar size up to 20 times a game (without any padding) and they are required to kick the ball between two sticks roughly 20" apart after being hit on a consistent basis."

Do yourselves a favour if you've never seen a game

http://www.afl.com.au

 

[lia41985]

bergsey--Wow, thanks for enlightening me.

 

[Chris Sturgess]

Federer has actually been more dominant than Tiger. He won 3 majors in 04, 2 majors in 05, and 3 in 06, and is currently working on his 3rd in 07 as we type.

I would like to see Federer play golf against Tiger and Tiger play tennis against Federer.

I always find it really funny when Jim Nantz or somebody who knows nothing about strength says how Tiger is so strong when he hits a shot out of deep rough. He's strong for a pga tour player but compared to other sports, especially football, he's a joke. The difference between an NFL linebacker and Tiger is extremely big. Strength is just not that important in golf, look at Davis Love, he hits the ball 320 when he wants to and sometimes he can barely stand up in a 20 mile an hour wind. I can't remember the stadium but I remember when Tiger took batting practice with an MLB team and he could not hit a home run. And when Michael Jordan is asked if Tiger can play basketball he always starts laughing and says no. How well a person plays multiple sports sounds like a good way to judge an athlete. I heard Ernie Els was a top junior tennis player in South Africa, he could be a better athlete than Tiger for all we know. Bo Jackson, Jim Thorpe, guys like that I think would have to be the best athletes.

How great would it be to see multi event superstars style competition with Tiger in it. And some other golfers too. We know Phil has a huge vertical from that Masters jump. Jordan and Barkley and other guys always play in the celebrity golf events, so wouln't it be great to see a 3 on 3 basketball game between let's say, Tiger, Phil, and Furyk versus Ernie, Vijay, and Padraig Harrington. That would be unbelievablty entertaining.

 

[Jared Willerson]

This has been discussed before but...

There is a big difference between athletic ability and physical ability. I have seen great football players look absolutely clumsy, they had great PHYSICAL ability, meaning they could run fast and jump high.

ATHLETIC ability, being able to do stuff like hit a golf ball, shoot a basketball really good and kick a football, doesn't really have to do with physical skills per se, just being able to "do it" eye hand coordination or whatever.

Different sports require different mixes of athletic and physical ability. Golf doesn't require a whole lot of physical ability, but a high level of athletic ability.

 

[tourdeep]

Let's just have the best athletes in the world, no matter how defined, to compete in an array of events with the winner declared as the best superstar...or did abc already do this in the past?

Tiger Woods is the best known athlete in the world, but too many variables to say that we can equate this title to being the best athlete in the world as well...

Bo jackson, Michael Jordan's, the jim thorpe's would not count since they are has beens. maybe if we're talking of all time. That argument will always be debated.

I get jollies when, within my circle of friends whom I consider to be extemely talented athletes, no matter how defined, get so frustrated and irritated when given a club, a ball, a set of rules, and can't hit the ball further than my little girl, and can't putt worth a hoot compared to the fanciest of all blind men! They then can appreciate Tiger's endurance and his gamesmenship, but will still question him as an athlete.

 

[birdie_man]

How about..."The Worlds most dominate athlete/competitor in their sport/endeavor!" Could be currently for that particular sport and/or compared to all other sports. However, is Tiger even the most dominant player in Golf ever...YET?

Personally I think he is the most dominate athlete and competitor in sports currently.

Good post. As for dominance the only others really (or at least that I am aware of) are Federer or even Annika for the women.

He is the world's best golfer. I don't know why anyone feels they have to take it any further than that. Best golfer simply does not automatically mean best athlete even if you win every tournament you ever play in your whole life. You have to be able to do a hell of a lot to be able to be the best athlete in THE WORLD because 'athlete' has a lot of different facets and meanings to it.

I really really do not think you can start calling him the world's best athlete whether he does happen to be a good one or not. (and surely he has some kind of ability but let's not go crazy here until we actually have some evidence)

"Best golfer."

 

[birdie_man]

There is absolutely NO WAY to quantify the best athlete across ALL SPORTS.

If you want to talk about the best athletes, i'd look at those iron man/woman competitions or how about Bo Jackson? He was one of the most successful DOUBLE PROFESSIONAL athletes ever. If he didn't have that horrible knee injury (which i saw) he would have been a HOF running back for sure.

BO knows.

 

[leftyben]

Very true, my bad on Bonds as a DH, though hes pretty much a glorified DH nowadays. He was a great fielder and baserunner back in the day (gold glover, 40/40), but has pretty atrocious range in LF (no knees) with a solid cannon.

I guess one has to differeniate between skill (hand eye?) and athleticism. Golf is up there as far as skill but very low on the totem pole for athleticism. However, the golf swing is just as much if not more dynamic then a baseball or tennis swing as far as speed and margin for error. Imagine if baseball bats were flat (cricket?) and the ball had dimples, is that gonna make it harder to hit it? They always draft these nba ballers or baseball prospects on potential, meaning they have great tools (athleticism) but lack refinement in their hand eye coordination.

Yea, I love how people say Tiger is huge and on roids and hgh, hes like 6' 175, decent not great bodyfat %. Please anyone who has been lifting moderately for almost 12 years SHOULD look like that with half a clue. I realize Tiger isnt bodybuilding nor wants or has any need, but guys like Zuback are huge (former pharmacist! haha) like 5' 8 220 and so are other long drive guys.

So my question, say if Kobe, Wade, Lebron or Jordan played golf since the age of 2, and with their hand eye and size do u think they would be freaks at golf (with the short game and control to go along)? With their exlosive frames and ft fibers they are gonna generate some clubhead speed regardless.