Tiger Woods: What would a full career have looked like?

Tiger Woods missed a large chunk of his 30’s. If he stayed healthy and on the course, what would the career of golf’s greatest talent have looked like?

I fall into the end of a sweet spot for kids growing up watching sports. I was born in 1988, which means I still got to see a lot of Michael Jordan’s career (even if my first memory of him is probably Space Jam), I got to see a ton of Ken Griffey Jr, especially since I live in Washington, and I got to watch Tiger Woods come to prominence as I started to take note of the world of sports.

All three of these fantastic players, who even have their own arguments for G.O.A.T. in their sports, missed a fair chunk of their careers. Michael Jordan left for the majority of two seasons to try and play baseball. The Kid was traded to Cincinnatti, and injuries derailed the path that he was on to running away with the conversation of greatest to ever do it.

When it comes to Tiger Woods, he missed more time than both The Kid and His Airness combined.

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In the 2000s, Tiger won 56 tournaments. 56! There are only four other players in the history of golf that have more career wins than what Tiger was able to do in a single decade. Sam Snead has 82, Jack Nicklaus has 73, Ben Hogan has 64, and Arnold Palmer has 62.

Tiger’s life went away from golf at the end of 2009. From injuries, addiction, and personal issues, Once the decade turned, the main conversation around him changed from “When will Tiger break the Majors record”, to “can Tiger break the record?”.

At the start of 2012, it looked like we might be seeing a return to Tiger Woods. He was able to take home three victories and followed it up with an even better 2013. He took first five times, including wins at the Arnold Palmer and The Players.

It was short-lived though, as what would follow would be the longest winless stretch of Tiger’s professional career. He would go just over five years between wins, from August 4th, 2013 to September 23rd, 2018.

Woods is still held in the conversation of the greatest golfer of all-time. It’s incredible to see him there, considering he only played about 25% of the time throughout this most recent decade.

What could he have accomplished if he never went away from the world of golf?

If Tiger was able to avoid the terrible trifecta that he ran into of personal issues, addiction, and injuries, all of which fed into each other, what he accomplished would have only been reasonable to expect from video games.

Tiger Woods during the 2000s was one of the greatest stretches of all-time, and we cannot truly expect or predict that he would have done the same thing during the 2010s.

What we could predict would be for him to obtain and achieve somewhere around 70-80% of what he did in that past decade. If you knew that Tiger Woods was still playing the same amount of tournaments throughout his 30’s, you would expect him to take home multiple wins per year, taking down more and more majors, and still turning in a couple of miraculous seasons that haven’t been seen from any other players in the history of golf.

During the 2000s, I mentioned that Tiger won 56 times. Not only that, but he also won an astounding 12 majors. He was taking home over a major a year!

Let’s look at two scenarios. We will start off with the floor side of it. Imagine Tiger plays at 50% of what he did the previous decade. 28 wins, 6 majors.

Let that sink in for a second. He could accomplish half of what he did in the 2000s, and still win enough to break the all-time record for wins (82) in just two decades, and tie Jack for Major wins at 18.

What about the other side of it. As the new wave of youth is coming in, equipment is getting better, and there is more money than ever. Is it that hard to believe that this could have pushed him even more? That he could have ruined some of these youngsters before they even had a chance to get started, and put himself into a place that no one, in any sport, had ever gone before.

Tiger has always been in incredible shape and has shown the ability to play into his 40’s. If someone told you that Tiger would go through the 2010s and put up the same numbers, it shouldn’t be that hard to believe.

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A healthy Tiger could have come into this most recent winter well north of 100 wins. I have no doubt in my mind that we would have seen him with 105+ wins, 20+ majors, and a healthy grip of the title of the greatest golfer to ever play the game.

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