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Tiger Woods vs. Jack Nicklaus: who is the greatest player of all time? There has never been a better time to compare

Golf Digest, Dec, 2002 by Jaime Diaz

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"I would have liked to have played other sports, especially baseball, but I don't know how good an all-around athlete I would have been," says Woods. "Probably around JV [junior-varsity] level. I certainly wouldn't have been any Jim Brown, that's for sure."

Normalcy: Nicklaus grew up in a tightly knit, upper-middle-class family in Columbus. His father was a successful pharmacist who was his son's biggest fan and best friend. Jack took up golf at age 10, but until he won the Ohio Open in 1956, his golf exploits were limited to mostly local junior events. Later, when he became a two-time U.S. Amateur champion, his intention to eschew professional golf and make a living selling insurance sparked little public debate. "I didn't even decide that golf was a significant part of my life until I was 19," he says. "By that time, Tiger was public property."

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Since moving to Florida in 1965, Nicklaus has lived in the same one-story home in North Palm Beach, and all five of his grown children and 15 grandchildren live within 10 minutes. Last year when he followed son Gary at the Memorial Tournament, Nicklaus moved easily among people from his hometown. "As abnormal as Jack's success has been, it has never overpowered all the very normal things about him," says Ken Bowden, Nicklaus' co-author on 10 books. "He has never lost who he is."

Woods also had a stable upbringing and close relationship with his parents, but from the age of 8 he has led a highly structured life geared to success in competitive golf. Woods has made an uneasy peace with being a public figure; almost in surrender, his favorite pastimes have become solitude-seeking escapes like scuba diving and fishing. "No autographs underwater," he says, marveling at Nicklaus' run at having it all. "What's so remarkable about Jack is the balance he retained in his life while staying the best for so long," Tiger said in 2000. "I can already see how difficult that's going to be for me."

`Playing badly well': Over three decades, Nicklaus garnered the majority of his victories while compensating in various ways for a flawed swing. He called it "playing badly well."

Nicklaus often has said he probably swung the club better as an amateur than as a professional. The 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills and the 1960 World Amateur at Merion are two events in particular where he achieved sensations of effortless control and power that he never was able to recapture.

As a pro, Nicklaus found that the constant travel and changing conditions of tour life made it harder to maintain a groove. Thereafter, he mostly relied on well-conceived band-aids and management skills to bring his game up for the biggest moments.

Nicklaus' knack for self-correction had its source in teacher Jack Grout, who, after imparting the fundamentals, liked to see his students employ trial and error to understand how and why their swings worked. Nicklaus was further encouraged in this approach by Bobby Jones, who had not considered himself a good player until he could diagnose himself. Nicklaus' emotional control also was vital to accepting less than his best.

Tiger Woods vs. Jack Nicklaus: who is the greatest player of all time? There has never been a better time to compare

Golf Digest, Dec, 2002 by Jaime Diaz

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