{"id":1376,"date":"2022-06-30T15:35:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T19:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/?p=1376"},"modified":"2024-01-10T08:56:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T13:56:52","slug":"measuring-greatness-jack-tiger-and-the-young-stars-on-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/measuring-greatness-jack-tiger-and-the-young-stars-on-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring Greatness: Jack, Tiger, and the Young Stars on Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Jack and Tiger: A League of Their Own<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Major Championships and Tour wins define a player\u2019s legacy, making cuts and recording Top-10\u2019s are the most revealing measurement of success in professional golf. Not surprisingly, Jack and Tiger set the high-water mark for these criteria as well, and they are the standard of comparison when looking at the current group of highly talented young stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the graphic below, Jack\u2019s numbers include the entirety<\/em> of his career, through his retirement at age 65\u2014and it is particularly impressive that his percentage of Top-10 finishes remains so much higher than any player other than Tiger, even when his twilight years on Tour are included.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Athletes peak at different ages, and unfortunately, injury also plays a significant role. For Jack, his percentage of Top-10\u2019s actually increased <\/em>throughout his 30\u2019s (his Top-10 percentage was 71.8% on his 30th<\/sup> birthday, and 74.5% when he turned 40). Tiger<\/span><\/a>, on the other hand, built the bulk of his record in his 20\u2019s, with serious physical issues beginning to impact his play almost immediately on turning 30. He lost significant portions of the 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015 seasons, so although Tiger\u2019s Top-10 percentage stood at 66.0% on his 30th<\/sup> birthday, it fell to 60.4% when he turned 40. And then he lost the entire 2015-2016 season following another back surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Current players are at different stages in their career, so the best way to view performance is by looking at percentages, rather than just the totals. As shown in the graphic below, there is a vast gulf in Top-10 percentage between Jon Rahm<\/a> and Rory McIlroy<\/a> (No.\u2019s 1 and 2), and Dustin Johnson (No. 3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rory McIlroy and John Rahm: Separating themselves from the Field<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jon Rahm, at 27 years old, is only just entering the peak performance years of his career, and Rory, at 33, is at the height of his ability. Collin Morikawa<\/span><\/a>, 25 years old, with the same Top-10 percentage as Dustin Johnson and a significantly higher cut percentage, has virtually his entire career before him. It will be fascinating to track the progress of the current group of talented young PGA Tour stars over the next decade and more, when viewed against the eye-popping numbers that Jack and Tiger put up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Collen Morikawa: Two Majors at 25<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Movers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although Scottie Scheffler has the look of a much more \u201cseasoned\u201d pro, he only just turned 26 on June 21. On top of his Masters victory in April, and strong performance at the U.S. Open (T2), Scottie has made the cut in 18 of the 20 events he\u2019s played this year while recording 9 Top-10\u2019s (including 4 wins). When The Open Championship<\/span><\/a> gets underway at St. Andrews in July, it\u2019s a pretty safe bet that Scheffler will be on the leader board come Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scheffler, Thomas and Spieth: Moving the Needle<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, boyhood rivals with 5 major championships between them, are both at the top of the list when it comes to making cuts and Top-10 percentage. Still in their 20\u2019s, each is a lock for the World Golf Hall of Fame<\/span><\/a> when the curtain comes down on their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Zalatoris (No. 8), at 25 years old, has already recorded 6 Top-10\u2019s in major championships. While he has yet to record his first Tour victory, his ball striking is second to none. Should Will begin to putt with more consistency, the possibilities are virtually limitless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players with Hall of Fame talent<\/span><\/a> who have yet to reach 25 years of age include Victor Hoveland (No. 20), Sungjae Im (No. 23), and Joaquin Niemann (No. 28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With so much talent currently on the PGA Tour<\/span><\/a>, challenging the records of Jack and Tiger would seem an impossible task\u2014but it makes for tremendous excitement week in and week out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LIV<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While LIV<\/span><\/a> has picked off 7 of the Career Top 30, closer inspection reveals that the Tour hasn\u2019t given up a whole heck of a lot. As a group, the PGA ex-pats played a total of 99 events in the 2021-2022 season, making just 66 cuts (66%) along with a grand total of 10 Top-10 Finishes (10%). Surprisingly, the star of the show is Abraham Ancer with 3 Top-10\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mickelson, Johnson and Koepka: 4 Top-10\u2019s combined in 2022<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it\u2019s mostly related to age, with just one defector under 30 years old (Bryson DeChambeau). Two are soon to be 40 (Louis Oosthuizen–39 and Dustin Johnson–38), Sergio is 42, and Phil just turned 52.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phil and Dustin have already punched their ticket to the World Golf Hall of Fame, but with only 1 major and 6 Tour wins, Sergio has become an extreme long shot (although his 22 worldwide wins give him an outside chance). Pat Reed with 1 major and 9 Tour wins, has removed himself from any consideration. Koepka, with 4 major championships, has closed out his PGA Tour career with a total of  only 8 wins\u2014so his chances of getting to the Hall are now very much in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Saudi\u2019s have paid a boatload of money with this venture, but the quality of their purchases have thus far been questionable to say the least.          <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Major Championships and Tour wins define a player\u2019s legacy, making cuts and recording Top-10\u2019s are the most revealing measurement of success in professional golf. Not surprisingly, Jack and Tiger set the high-water mark for these criteria as well, and they are the standard of comparison when looking at the current group of highly talented young stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[469,473,470,471,472],"tags":[115,270,80,208,57],"class_list":["post-1376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-measuring-greatness-jack-tiger-and-the-young-stars-on-tour","category-measuring-greatness-jack-tiger-and-the-young-stars-on-tour-john-rham","category-measuring-greatness-jack-tiger-and-the-young-stars-on-tour-jack-nicklaus-players","category-measuring-greatness-jack-tiger-and-the-young-stars-on-tour-tiger-woods","category-measuring-greatness-jack-tiger-and-the-young-stars-on-tour-rory-mcilroy","tag-jack-nicklaus","tag-john-rahm","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-tiger-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1376"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5090,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376\/revisions\/5090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golfday.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}