Seeing Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus go head to head at their best is sadly something that Father Time was never going to let happen.
With Nicklaus and Woods playing in completely different eras, we as golf fans have been robbed of seeing the two greatest of all-time go at it.
Of course, we’ve seen the duo appear on a golf course together sporadically but in terms of actual competition, it’s never happened.
However, we did come as close as we might ever get to seeing how Nicklaus and Woods would fare against each other all the way back in 2009.
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Ahead of The Memorial Tournament that year, Nicklaus and Woods took part in a ‘Skins Game’ on the day before the tournament kicked off properly. And it was during that Skins Game that Nicklaus noted something about Woods.
How Tiger Woods impressed Jack Nicklaus ahead of the 2009 Memorial
It’s safe to say there is a burning respect between Nicklaus and Woods and clearly, the idea of hitting the fairways at Muirfield Village in 09 was something they weren’t going to pass up on.
In the practice game ahead of the actual tournament, Woods went on to win as he chipped in on the 18th hole to take four skins and the overall victory.
However, for Nicklaus at the time, it was more about how Woods was driving the ball.
“Tiger through most of his career was not a particularly accurate driver,” Nicklaus said. “But I remember we had a sort of a Skins game shootout for the tournament and Tiger was really swinging well. And I think he had 52 of 54 fairways that week,” Nicklaus recalled.
“That’s pretty good, to hit 52 of 54 fairways at Muirfield Village you got to drive your golf ball. Tiger did and Tiger won the tournament.”
What Jack Nicklaus said about Tiger Woods’ driving
It’s well known in golfing realms that Tiger Woods wasn’t always the most accurate with the big stick.
His power and length were immense, but at times, he was more than erratic.
Indeed, Nicklaus himself even said he fancied himself as a better driver of the ball than Woods.
“Well, I don’t know. I think I was a better driver of the golf ball than Tiger,” Nicklaus responded when asked who was better at golf’s fundamentals,” Nicklaus recalled.
“I think we were both good iron players and I think he had a better short-game but we were both good putters. It’s really kind of funny because I didn’t think about this until right now but I sit next to Tiger every year at The Masters dinner and we’re sitting there and he says ‘how many senior tour events did you win?’. And that question only came out for one reason…because he wanted to know what his goal is.”
We’ll never know the answer to the Woods/Nicklaus debate.
But those who witnessed the 2009 Skins Game will no doubt have a lasting memory that few of us have.
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