I just saw a mind-boggling stat comparison between Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods that, for me, ends the debate of who is the G.O.A.T.

I’m not saying who is anyone’s favorite, or who is the most exciting player of all time – I am talking simple career stats comparisons in professional tournament performances.

Remember that a statistical comparison was already done to determine which 10 year peak era of either player was the most competitive with regards to opponents, and that the conclusion was that it was a dead heat – meaning neither player can lay claim to have played in a tougher arena than the other.

Let’s just deal with the facts, and boy, some of these numbers of Jack’s are eye-popping.

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We already know that Tiger has won the most Tour events (82 to 73), and that they both have won 3 Career Grand Slams (winning at least 3 of each of the four majors), but aside from PGA Tour earnings, which is not comparable because the two eras paid wildly differing purses – Jack beats Tiger in every other metric!

Keeping in mind that Jack Nicklaus had no one to chase for the majors record after he’d surpassed Walter Hagen’s 11, Nicklaus still got to 18 majors.

Tiger had Jack to chase his entire life, and is still 3 short of that number at 15.

These next stats completely end the debate, or should, if people are going to be honest and not just say, “Well my opinion is,” because:

• Jack had 19 runner-up major finishes to Tiger’s 7.  Not even close.  Almost triple Tiger’s.
• Jack had 73 Top-10 finishes in majors, beside Tiger’s 41.  That, my friends, is a blow-out and nearly double Tiger’s.
• Jack racked up 286 PGA Tour Top 10 finishes to Tiger’s 199 – nearly 50% more than Tiger.
• Jack won 117 pro events, PGA Tour and other, while Tiger has bagged 110 – so even though Tiger won more PGA Tour events, Jack has more pro wins overall when you count all pro tournament victories.

Now, if these stats were the other way around, you might be able to make an argument for Tiger, even though the standard has always been the majors won.

But people, if you’re going to argue that Tiger is the G.O.A.T. in the face of the above four comparisons, you’re not being serious.

Jack Nicklaus also did all of this playing against players who won more majors than Tiger’s competitors, and he did it between fishing trips while barely practicing in non-playing weeks.  And never suffered an injury from swinging a golf club.

“Just Workin’ On My Game…”

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Tiger Woods made training for golf all day long, every day, his life, and he broke his body into pieces chasing Nicklaus’ majors total, but even in all of those other metrics, he still fell way, way short.

I mean, 73 Top 10 finishes in majors?  How many players even play in 73 majors?

19 major runner-up finishes?  Compared to 7?

Do you know why Jack had 19 runner-up finishes? It wasn’t because he choked.

Look at the players in his career who won majors in their own day and who beat him… Jack, with a lucky bounce or two, could easily have won over 20 majors playing against the same players he did.  And there some fabulous players winning majors where he finished 2nd.

You want to know how good Tom Watson was?  He won 8 majors and out of those, Jack Nicklaus came solo or tied runner-up in 4 of those wins.

Lee Trevino won 6 majors, and Jack Nicklaus finished solo or tied runner-up 4 of those times.

Jack Nicklaus was beaten more times (8) for a major by Watson and Trevino, this duo alone, than Tiger Woods has runner-up finishes (7).

Those numbers are mind-boggling, my friends.

I’m sorry.

One man was the hardest working man since Ben Hogan. And arguably the 2nd greatest ever golfer.

The other was a legend in his spare time.  And he is the G.O.A.T.