Tom Watson: 'Tiger is the best golf player of all time'

Published on Sunday 8 April 2007 00:19

IF TOM Watson is any judge - and we have to assume that he is - then Tiger Woods is going to win the Masters tonight. Respect to the rest, says Watson, but it's Tiger all the way. More than that, Watson says that not only is Tiger best positioned to win yet another green jacket, he has also already assumed the mantle of greatest player that's ever picked up a club.

"What Tiger has done is he's raised the bar so high that nobody else can reach it," said Watson. "Before, Jack Nicklaus had the bar above everybody but we may have the perfect specimen for golf in Tiger Woods. The Achilles' heels of all the other great players in the game, Tiger doesn't seem to have them. Everybody in the history of the game has had some weakness. But he doesn't."

Watson has spoken about Woods a million times but he has rarely been as definite. Usually there were qualifications and reservations. There were favourable mentions of Nicklaus and Sam Snead and Ben Hogan, who he views as the holy trinity. But now Tiger's surpassed them, in his view.

"I thought it was improbable that somebody could change the game as much as Jack did. Not impossible but improbable. But Tiger's done it. When you boil it all down, the advancement of technology, the golf ball and all that other stuff, Tiger is the best that's ever played. I think Jack would agree with that, and since he is the next guy in line it would be a strong statement coming from him."

"Jack, Snead and Hogan might be all thrown in there if you were debating the greatest ever, but for me it's Tiger. I mean, he wins when he's not playing well and he wins when he's playing well. He doesn't back down. He rarely loses when he has the lead. Sure, the game has changed but we've got almost a superhuman golfer out here.

"Tiger just doesn't have the weaknesses that all the other great players have had at certain times in their careers. The press say, 'what's wrong with Tiger? He's only won five times'. Before he came along the press would look on five wins as extraordinary. Your expectations of Tiger are a lot higher now. What does it take for Tiger to have a great year? It takes a lot. More than any other player that's ever been judged.

"I wouldn't surprise if he did the four in a row again. Wouldn't surprise me at all. Somebody once asked me 'would anybody ever eclipse Jack's record' and I said, yes, someday somebody will come along and do it. If they'd asked me would somebody win the Grand Slam I'd have said it was improbable but, I guess, not impossible. Of course, the Tiger Slam has been done and now he's working on another one. This young man is just a unique individual."