Decade by decade, the best of the Masters
By Bill Felber
Masters: Tiger and Phil
Woods and Mickelson obviously were the two dominant players of the decade between 2000 and 2009. Tiger won in 2001, 2002, and 2005, Phil in 2004 and 2006.
In the highly competitive atmosphere that dominated the decade, only 32 players qualified for consideration by having made at least 10 cuts. Mickelson and Woods were two of three to make all 10 cuts, Vijay Singh being the third.
Here’s the decade top 10.
Rk Player Avg. Std. Dev
1. Tiger Woods -1.53
2. Phil Mickelson -1.41
3. Vijay Singh -0.94
4. Retief Goosen -0.88
5. Ernie Els -0.83
6. Angel Cabrera -0.67
7. Tim Clark -0.61
8. Jose Maria Olazabal -0.53
9. Jim Furyk -0.52
10. Davis Love III -0.46
Woods wins a close competition by virtue of supplementing his three victories with a pair of seconds, those coming in 2007 and 2008. He was third in 2006 and fifth in 2000.
There’s not much to choose between the two rivals. Mickelson added annual thirds from 2001 through 2003 to his pair of wins and was fifth in 2008 and 2009.
The dropoff is steep from Mickelson to Singh, who won in 2000. He did have five straight top 10s –none of them top fives – between 2002 and 2006.
The presence of Tim Clark, a journeyman, among the decades’ top 10 illustrates how widespread was the Masters’ talent base – at least below Woods and Mickelson — for the decade. Clark was second to Mickelson in 2006, and although he did not contend beyond that, his five finishes included three among the top 15.