Tiger Woods reacts as he wins the Masters golf tournament Sunday, April 14, 2019, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) ORG XMIT: AUG198
MAY 9, 2019
BY JOSHUA LOWE
After a fresh win at the Augusta National Golf Club that ended his 11-year title drought, former World Number 1 Tiger Woods looks set for another meteoric rise. Earning his fifth green jacket, the 43-year old Woods was candid about his past struggles and the challenges he had to overcome to get back to top form.
Of course, all that seems to be in the past as Woods gears up for another PGA Tour. Speculation has even risen over how much he’ll achieve and of course, who could potentially challenge him for the #1 spot.
One potential challenger comes in the form of Rory McIlroy. Yahoo! Sports writes how the 30-year-old Irishman has earned comparisons to Tiger Woods after achieving 15 PGA Tour titles ¬– a feat surpassed only by Jack Nicklaus and Woods himself. Despite it, murmurings of whether McIlroy has yet to achieve his full potential still abound.
By the age of 30, for example, Woods had already achieved 10 major wins. In comparison, McIlroy has just managed 4, meaning that he will have to play catch-up if he ever hopes to match Woods’ legacy. Furthermore, Woods at age 30 had achieved almost double the number (46) of overall titles that the Irishman currently holds (24).
Yet McIlroy is not without credentials of his own. The current world number four has the distinction of winning his 2012 US PGA Championship with a record margin of eight shots, all while holding the lowest 72-hole score in a US Open (268 shots back in 2011). If McIlroy keeps up the pace, pundits anticipate that Woods’ legacy could very well be overtaken sooner than expected.
Similarly, Dustin Johnson has also been named by pundits as a potential challenger to Tiger Woods. Speaking on who he thinks could keep up with Tiger Woods, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee said, “It’s Rory and it’s Dustin Johnson and it’s Tiger Woods, but Tiger’s simply not going to play enough to get the points that he needs to get.” Head-to-head, Sports Illustrated points out that Johnson even laid claim to the Number One spot for 64 consecutive weeks back in early 2018. Coupled with the fact that he has six victories at World Golf Championships under his belt, it should be no surprise if the 34-year-old wins one more major in his remaining years in the sport.
Omitted from Chamblee’s assessment, however, is the 36-year-old Francesco Molinari. The native Italian has often been marked as one to watch out for, with bwin Golf News reporting how his odds for the 2019 Players Championship were just behind that of eventual winner Rory McIlroy’s. In fact, Molinari even had better odds (+2200) than Woods (+2500), as the superstar was still recovering from an injury scare. Additionally, the Italian has demonstrated an ability to get back to his top form after closing with 64 to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational and is now at +2000 odds for the US PGA Championship. Coupled with a metronomic drive, the Italian could still pull a few surprises.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – NOVEMBER 18: Francesco Molinari of Italy poses with the Race to Dubai trophy following the final round of the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates on November 18, 2018 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
In this new era of golf, it seems that there are still too many contenders to firmly say who is the sport’s new best ever. But with the rest of the PGA Tour yet to unfold, the debate could be settled in a matter of weeks.
