Opinion: Tiger Woods, No. 1 athlete in sports

Jake Rinehart explains why Tiger Woods deserves the title as most dominant athlete of the last 20 years

Jake Rinehart
Staff Writer

ESPN released their list of the 20 most dominant athletes of the last 20 years on Tuesday. The top five most dominant athletes of the last 20 years on that list, in order from first to fifth most dominant, were Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR Driver) and Roger Federer.

While I disagree with a few of the rankings on this list, there’s no doubt in my eyes that Tiger Woods should be ranked No. 1 in the list. What Tiger did for the game of golf in the early 2000’s has never been, nor ever will, be duplicated on the same stage ever again. In his prime, Tiger would average 5.8 wins per year. The best players in golf prior to Tiger’s era averaged 3.1 wins per year.

Tiger was winning everywhere he went in the early 2000’s. Tiger would go on to win 13 of 35 majors from late 1999 to mid-2008, while no other golfer would win more than three times during that same span. On three different occasions, Woods went on a winning streak that would span over five or more consecutive tournaments.

What is most amazing is the crowds that Tiger would draw, whether in person or via television. According to the Nielsen Company, television ratings for the final round of the Masters would be 20 percent lower when Tiger was not in contention. The average number of people watching golf on a Sunday with Tiger in contention would be approximately 11.9 million people. When Tiger was not in contention, that number would drop to an average of 9.5 million.

What is remarkable about Tiger is that even though he has not been dominant for all of those 20 years, and had off-the-course issues, he still has managed to play extremely well.

In the last few weeks Tiger has been in contention on every Sunday. During the Valspar Championship that took place from March 8-11, Tiger was able to secure sole position of the lead for the first time since 2013. Tiger would go on to a second-place finish.

With Tiger in contention on the final day of the Valspar, crowds tuned in. Nielsen reported that 6.9 million viewers tuned in to see Tiger. To put this back in perspective, the 2017 Valspar Championship without Tiger only drew 2.3 million viewers.

Excluding all majors, it was the highest rated PGA Tour event since the 2013 Players Championship, which Tiger won.

When Tiger took the driving range at the Arnold Palmer Invitation on Friday, so many people tuned in that the PGA Tour stream crashed.

Tiger was in contention for most of the tournament, finishing the final round with two unfortunate bogeys that pushed him eight shots off the lead. Although he did have this late mishap, he did finish fifth.

While Tiger in the later years started to have problems with his personal life, and his continuous problems with injuries starting to creep up on him, there’s no doubt that he’s still a living legend, not only in the game of golf, but also in all aspects of the sports world.