The current argument over the best ever concerns golf: Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus?

Woods’ victory in the British Open gives him 11 major professional titles to 18 for Nicklaus. Actually I feel, and so do a lot of golfing experts, that Nicklaus has 20 major titles, including two U.S. Amateur titles. Woods won the U.S. Amateur three times, so he may be only 6 major titles behind Nicklaus, not 7.

Be that as it may, a case can be made for either man, but I still come down on the side of Nicklaus, at least pending the end of Wood’s career by which time he may have made all the arguments moot or made them even more heated.

I have no argument with those who feel Woods is the best (he may very well be), but I ask them to consider some history and some context.

And I do that, not by talking about the records of Woods and Nicklaus (they are eerily similar at the same age), but the records of those Woods is competing against now and those Nicklaus competed against in the past. I don’t think Woods has faced the quality of competition for the top spot that Nicklaus did.

Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin and Raymond Floyd. Those men are all hall of famers or will be. They are the men Nicklaus competed against throughout his career. When he came up, it immediately became the “big three” of Nicklaus, Palmer and Player. Arnold Palmer has 7 major titles, Player has 9. Later on Nicklaus had to go through Irwin, Floyd, Watson and Trevino to win major titles. Those four men have 21 major titles between them.

The top two competitors for Woods in recent years have been Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. Both have three major titles and probably will be hall of famers. However, no serious golf historian would ever mention either of them in the same breath with Trevino, Watson, Floyd or Irwin, let alone Palmer or Player.

Many have argued that Woods is so good that no one else has a chance to be a Trevino or Watson. That may be, but when Woods has faltered (he’s only human, he doesn’t win every major) no one else has stepped forward. The majors not won by Woods have been mostly won by a succession of good golfers, who had their moment in the sun and then quickly faded away. There is certainly no Palmer, Player, Watson or Trevino in the bunch.

You can say, and I would agree, that the last player on the PGA tour now is better than the last player when Nicklaus broke in. In other words, the tour is stronger top to bottom. However I believe there is no way you can argue that the top ten golfers now are as good as the top ten faced by Nicklaus through the majority of his career.

Having said all this, Woods is phenomenal and that word may not be strong enough. He intimidates the opposition and when he’s on top of the leader board on Sundays, no one seems to step forward and challenge him. Nicklaus was feared too, but again, those names I mentioned above did not back off as many seem to be doing now.

Nicklaus played in 154 major tournaments. He finished in the top three in 48 of them, nearly one third. Woods has finished in the top three in one third of those he’s played so far, but Nicklaus finished in the top third for his career, despite not being in contention all that much in the last 20 years. Woods may win more majors than Nicklaus, but if he plays, as Nicklaus did, past his 60th birthday, it will be very tough to match Nicklaus’ overall record of excellence in major events.

This is all interesting for water cooler talk and may mean nothing ten years from now, but it does continue to amaze me how quickly some people forget some things. A year or so ago, AOL and the Discovery Channel ran a telephone poll asking Americans to vote on the greatest American ever. Ronald Reagan won the poll. I consider Ronald Reagan a great man, but I would never, and more importantly no historian would ever, place him above the presidential giants of Washington, Roosevelt and Lincoln. But Reagan had passed away shortly before the poll was taken and his name was very much in the news.

Woods deserves every accolade he is given, but I think something similar is happening now. He’s very much in the headlines. Nicklaus’ day is past, but certainly should not be forgotten. Let’s wait awhile and see what happens.

MOVIE OF THE WEEK

“Northwest Passage” 1940

I have always considered this a hidden gem. It stars Spencer Tracy as Maj. Robert Rogers who founded Roger’s Rangers (the forerunner of today’s Army Rangers). It takes place during the French and Indian war in 1759 and concerns a raid on an Indian village by the Rangers to avenge a series of raids on settlers. The raid actually happened and books have been written about it.

Tracy is considered by many to be the finest male actor in the history of American film. Robert Young, who would go on to be Marcus Welby on TV stars with him, along with Walter Brennan, the very definition of a character actor with three Oscars. It’s in magnificent color and sheds light on a period and incident in American history that very few know about.