Jul 12, 2009 3 min read

Burning question: Who is the best golfer of all time? Being a history major in college, I have become somewhat of a golf historian. Older golf courses and players of bygone eras fascinate me. This week I want to write about an email I received from a younger person (14) asking me who I thought was the best player of all time. It is really difficult to rank players from different eras, but it is fun also, so I will try to answer the question in this column.

I believe that the best player in history is not Tiger Woods. I know many people believe so, especially with the ESPN era acting as if nobody played any sport, golf included, before 1982. But I have a pretty sound reason, I think, as to why Woods is not the best.

Ask yourself, aside from Woods, to name a top ten players of all time. I do not care to rank them, just name one. Nicklaus, Hogan, Snead, Palmer, Jones, Hagen, Watson, Nelson, Trevino are all logical choices. Now ask yourself whom your pick had to beat on a regular basis in order to achieve their lofty status. Nicklaus had to beat Trevino, Watson and Palmer. Hogan had to beat Snead and Nelson and Jones had to beat Hagen and Sarazen. Basically any top ten players had to beat someone on the top 50 lists.

Now ask yourself who does Tiger Woods have to beat? Phil Mickleson is a possibility, but not a top 50 player of all time. This makes one look at the top player of all time argument from a different angle, does it not? The fact that Tiger Woods makes his mark by beating lesser opponents than the other top players of all time has got to reduce his standing somewhat.

Please do not make the argument that he beats them all into submission and holds his competition down. This argument actually bolsters the argument that Woods is somewhat overrated. It is really hard to imagine today’s tour player working hard enough to regularly challenge Woods due to monetary and societal differences.

The top 50 argument does bolster Woods in one category: he could have competed at any time throughout history. But the one thing we all know is that you have to beat the best to be the best, and Tiger Woods does not hold up under that scrutiny.

So the original question still remains: who is the best golfer ever? In my opinion the rankings look like this: Hogan, Nicklaus, Jones, Player and Sarazen, in no particular order.

I am not saying that Woods does not belong on this list, in fact he probably does, but as I said, I am more “old school” than most so I tend to minimize some of his accomplishments. I do, however, place much stock in the top 10 and top 50 argument outlined above. Look at it independently and think your lists through, it seems as if this is the most logical way to evaluate history, and right now, Woods does not add up.

Rich Conwell is the PGA Head Golf Professional at Uniontown Country Club. Rich is an avid teacher of the game of golf and has developed numerous scholarship winners, one state champion and two regional/national event winners. Rich is also extremely proud of his work with beginning players and junior players. Rich Conwell’s column appears in Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. Conwell may be contacted at richconwell@atlanticbb.net