The State of Golf – From An Outsider
There’s an excellent interview over at CNNSI with the great John Wooden, the greatest college basketball coach in history (in my humble opinion). So what does have to do with golf? The interview, Seth Davis, asked Mr. Wooden some golf questions and here’s an excerpt of some of his answers:
Davis: Is Tiger Woods the most dominant athlete in the history of sports?
Wooden: “I would say Byron Nelson dominated the sport more in his era. Check the number of tournaments — 11 in a row at one time, and I think a total of 18 that year. So I’d say in his particular era, Byron Nelson was the most dominant in his sport. Just like Sandy Koufax for two or three years had the most dominant statistics in his sport. And remember, Jesse Owens once broke four world records in one afternoon. That’s rather amazing.
“I think Tiger could eventually be the most dominant over time,” Wooden continued. “He’s only 30, isn’t he? He might not be in his prime yet. Then again, wasn’t [Jack] Nicklaus second [in majors] 18 times? Let’s see if Tiger at the end can match that total as well. I don’t focus so much on majors. That’s like saying someone isn’t a good baseball player if he didn’t win the World Series.”
Wooden goes to say much more about not only the state of golf, but sports in general. This is coming from a man who’s going to be 97 years young in October, and he’s as in-tune with sports as any other sports fanatic in this country. Wooden has always been a class act and his basketball championships with U.C.L.A. will more than likely never be matched.