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The 82-time PGA Tour champion has broken many records, set many up, and tied a few. However, even with so many achievements to his name, what Tiger Woods has failed to match in his 27-year-long career is the ever-coveted 18 major win record set by the golf legend Jack Nicklaus.
Hailed by Woods as a dear friend and an inspiration, Nicklaus is undoubtedly one of the best golfers in the history of the sport, and his unbeatable major wins record stands testament to that. And even though Woods needs three more to just match that feat, he once claimed that he had “beat them all”! So what exactly did the PGA Tour star mean? Well, as it turns out, Woods sees records differently than laymen.
Soon after turning 40 in 2015, Tiger Woods sat down with the Time’s Lorne Rubenstein and shared various aspects of his personal and professional life. Now, just hours before his 48th birthday, 8 years after his sit-down, one boastful statement he made still draws massive attention—his declaration of beating “all” of Nicklaus’ records!
Did Tiger Woods lie about beating all of Jack Nicklaus’s records?
In the interview, when Rubenstein asked the then 40-year-old if he had beaten most of Jack Nicklaus’s records, he responded with a bold, “I beat them all. I beat them all.” Woods, of course, hasn’t really beaten all of the retired golfer’s records on paper. Although in many areas the 82-time PGA Tour pro has beaten the 83-year-old, besides his major wins, Woods has also never won the California Amateur Championship.
What, then, did the golf legend mean by his statement? Well, as he clarified moments later, the PGA Tour star didn’t perceive records as they’re written, as stats; instead, he looked at them based on age. Hence, when he said he beat all of Nicklaus’s records, he meant that he beat the age at which they were created.
He explained that the records he looked at were “the first time he [Jack Nicklaus] broke 40, the first time he broke 80, the first golf tournament he ever won, first time he ever won the state amateur, first time he won the U.S. Amateur, and the first time he won the U.S. Open.” They were all time and age-related, and Woods wanted to beat the age at which the “best of all time” had achieved those. And he did.
Undoubtedly, Woods would still want to beat Nicklaus’s 18 major wins record, and if he does do so, perhaps the ever-alive GOAT debate between the two may come to an end. After all, the soon-to-be 48-year-old would have both the most major wins and the most PGA Tour wins. But is that really a viable dream? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
