Golfnutgalen

I guess it depends on what timeframe we're looking at. If we go 2004-2009 his average is +0.70 which is not far off Scottie 4-year average of +0.92. Add in Tiger's early years which everyone agrees were stronger and you can see it easily approaching the same number. Even weaker years like 2001 or 2003 are going to be ahead of his 2004 numbers (+0.41) while the other years are probably all in the elite category of around +1 or better.

They're both so ridiculously good on approach shots. Scottie's also even better off the tee though I think if we had more of Tiger's early years it would be pretty close. And of course, that's comparing Tiger's decade plus streak to Scottie's 4 year run like you said. Not really fair to either player.

That's the average through 2009 instead of 2013.

What I really wanted to find were the figures from 1996-2013 and that data is available, but not on that page so you have to add it in yourself by looking up each individual player which is a real pain. As such this may be missing a player who excelled in 1996-2003. Jim Furyk's high placement seems crazy, but it makes sense. He was 2nd in Mark Broadie's book which only covered 2004-2012. ------------- Datagolf True Strokes Gained 1996-2013 Rank Player Events Wins % SG Total 1 Tiger Woods 326 90 28% 2.95 2 Phil Mickelson 410 40 10% 1.80 3 Jim Furyk 447 16 4% 1.74 4 Ernie Els 457 35 8% 1.71 5 Vijay Singh 488 35 7% 1.71 6 Sergio Garcia 367 20 5% 1.51 7 Luke Donald 312 14 5% 1.49 8 Rory McIlroy 166 10 6% 1.35 9 Adam Scott 310 21 7% 1.28 10 Davis Love III 411 11 3% 1.27 11 Zach Johnson 286 13 5% 1.20 12 Stewart Cink 467 9 2% 1.13 13 Lee Westwood 457 29 6% 1.11 14 Steve Stricker 374 11 3% 1.10 15 David Toms 438 13 3% 1.09

I was able to find the SG numbers for the top players on Datagolf from 2004-2013 and I thought some of you stat junkies might appreciate it. You need a scratch membership to filter custom dates and it's kind of pricy but what the heck I was willing to get it for 1 month. And if you want me to I can post different periods here as well. I checked TW's numbers through 2009 for example and at that point he was +3.28 with the next best being Phil at +2.01

JT hasn't done anything special in majors lately either and yet he's #4 in the OWGR. Anomalies like this happen. In terms of SG in majors only over the past 2 seasons he's +0.60 while Niemann is +1.13

5/17 29% actually. Although of course that was probably posted in gest.

Yeah, I thought Tiger and Scottie were closer. I calculated Tiger's average from 1996-2009 as well and that amounted to +3.12. Take out his first 3 years and start in 1999 and it's back up to +3.33. Crazy stuff. If I start Scottie in 2020 his first year on tour his average is +2.40

I was surprised Bryson didn't show up in that earlier table. Here's majors only.

Here's Tiger as well for comparison. It's a shame that the data doesn't go back any further than 2004 on this stats page.

This place seems as good as any to post some datagolf stats. I got the premium subscription because I've always loved stats but only for 1 month. Here's Scottie from 2022- current. There are about 4 players within 1 stroke of his SG average. Cantlay is close enough, just a hair over 1 stroke:

9 year window actually, maybe you were thinking of Arnie who won them in a 7 year window? Even Hogan is a pretty narrow gap of 8 years including the lost 1949 season so really 7 years. Gene Sarazen is the opposite with 3 early major wins followed by a huge 8 year gap and then another 4 more. Jones and Hagen mostly cleaned up during that stretch.

Scottie has finished in the top 10 in 11 straight PGA Tour events. A while back I looked at Tiger and Jack's best: Tiger's best was 11 straight in 2007-2008 - he won 9 of them.... Jack's was 13. He did it twice in 1971 and 1973

Scottie has blown past everyone to be fair. Rahm also had another 8 wins on the Euro Tour and of course there was that Memorial fiasco. Point is he was very good and had 4 early wins in 2023. Crazy to think Scottie only had 6 wins at that point.

There is one other player. Jon Rahm. Before LIV he went 2 straight seasons in 2020 -2021 averaging +2.48 sg. You did say active player and I'd say he still qualifies even if he only plays in the majors. As for Scottie, as good as he is he's still a good half stroke behind Tiger 1999-2009 (vs Scottie 2023-2025). Is that cherry picked? Maybe but it's still a very long period of sustained dominance. I'm not even saying that proves Tiger is better because SG is measured against the field and I totally agree that the fields are stronger today.