Guys a interesting article in Golf Week by Brandel Chamblee.
Chamblee argues that there is “no way, no how” that Tiger Woods can ever be called the best player in history – even if he surpasses Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. He believes that Nicklaus “shut it down” when he topped Bobby Jones’ 13 majors. “If the record were 18, Jack would have got to 22,” he says. Chamblee also argues that Nicklaus played against stiffer competition, noting that Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson averaged seven major titles, more than any of Woods’ contemporaries.
In fact, he’ll go a step further: “The best players were in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. . . . They learned by mimicking and observing – not by looking at any video, not by reading a book, not by any math equation.”
Of late, he has been critical of Woods’ continual swing changes.
“He’s like your neighbor who has a Hummer and Prius in the driveway,” he says. “He can’t make up his mind. You going to be greenor mean?”
Like the best analysts, in golf or elsewhere, Chamblee loves exploding conventional wisdom. Example: He scoffs at announcers who insist that Luke Donald is a great ballstriker.
“I heard a lot of people say that at the Tour Championship,” he says. “I’d think, ‘You guys are not doing your homework, because he is not.’ Great golf swing, but there’s a reason he’s won twice. It’s because he misses a lot of iron shots.”
Donald ranked 180th on Tour in ballstriking – driving distance and accuracy, plus greens in regulation – in 2010. His saving grace, says Chamblee, is that “he’s the best bunker player on the planet. There’s no contest.” (Actually, there’s not: Donald ranked No. 1 on Tour in sand saves in 2009 and 2010.)
strong opinions on the swing have stoked a long-running feud with Stack & Tilt disciples. Chamblee says that when some of them sniped at him on the range at the 2009 Bob Hope Classic, he couldn’t resist putting them in their place.
“You’re the worst ballstrikers on Tour,” he recalls telling them. “The worst. And if you don’t believe me, go to ballstriking (stats), go to the bottom, and I will find every one of you in the first 20 from the bottom. Because I just did it.”