Is Anyone Paying Attention?

Let me take you back EIGHT years ago to when Tiger Woods had the greatest golf season EVER. Can you believe that was so long ago? Well now he is is playing better than ever. That is a remarkable feat for someone who could have rested on his accomplishments nearly a decade ago.
Here is my point. Even though Tiger gets plenty of attention, it may still be the case that he is underrated. Here are a couple of reasons why:

1. Winning in Golf is underrated. People don't understand how difficult it is to win a golf tournament. People forget (or never knew) that this is a sport when top ten finishes is an important statistic. Forget about top tens though. Tiger WINS. Imagine having to go out and beat 100 other competitors week after week. How good do you have to be to do that twice in a row? Forget about that too. Tiger has won 4 in a row. More importantly, he has won 16 out of his last 30 tournaments. This is one of the great accomplishments in sports history. But no one is paying attention.
   
2. People underrate the numbers. No one is paying attention because people don't understand the numbers behind the winning. The mere fact that Tiger is batting over .500 in his last THIRTY tournaments when he has nearly a hundred competitors each time doesn't register to people. But maybe this registers. No individual athlete in the history of sport: A) competes this often (on average every other week during the season), B) competes against that many competitors (usually 70-100) at one time while C) winning at such a high rate (life time win rate of 25%). Period. No one athlete does all three of the aforementioned as well as Tiger.

This is why he is the most dominant athlete to ever compete in an individual sport. Those are big words I know. Go ahead give me your best shot.

Edwin Moses you say? He didn't lose a hurdles race for 8 years. That is impressive. How many opponents does he face in a meet? Maybe thirty after all of the heats. And how often is there a meet? Once every few MONTHS?

Lance Armstrong won 7 Tour de France's in a row against over 100 competitors each time. That happens once a year. We never see saw him in any other event the whole year.

Michael Phelps maybe the greatest swimmer ever but has the Edwin Moses problem of not enough competitors and not enough of the time.

Oh, Roger Federer you say? That one is not close. For that one you can check out my article at http://www.dcsouth.com/

Click under articles.

And finally Jack Nicklaus. Here is what Nicklaus said about a young Tiger Woods: "I wouldn't be surprised if the kid won 10 green jackets one day." Nicklaus has 6 green jackets in a 26 year career. Tiger already has 4 in an 11 year career.

OH! Did I mention he was BLACK?????? (regardless of what he thinks he is). He is a black man that is going to be hailed as the greatest athlete in a sport where blacks weren't even allowed to play 30 years ago. If that isn't a reason to be paying attention then I don't know how you can call yourself a sports fan.

If you come up with a more dominant athlete please let me know.

Peace and Love,

Dr. Aris Winger
awinger@dcsouth.com
www.dcsouth.com