Tiger Woods is criticized harshly by Gary Player for some of the decisions he made following his 14th major victory.
In an incredible interview about his significant career with KW Golf on Instagram, Gary Player took a harsh stance against Tiger Woods.
Player, 88, had 159 career victories worldwide, including nine significant victories.
Alongside the late great Ben Hogan, that puts him in T4 position on the all-time major win list.
With 15 majors in his career, however, Woods, 48, is three off the record held by Jack Nicklaus and alone in second place.
However, Player believes that if Woods had not messed around with several golf coaches after his successful 11-year relationship with Butch Harmon, which ended in 2004, and his equally successful 11-year partnership with Hank Haney, which ended in 2010, he would have easily had 22 major victories by now.
Woods won eight major titles with Harmon’s assistance, and Haney assisted him in winning six.
After that, Woods worked with Sean Foley for four years, but they were unable to win any significant championships together.
When Woods joined the Chris Como stable in 2017 and stayed there for about three years, the same thing happened.
After that, Woods went solo in 2018, and in spite of multiple back surgeries, he astonishingly won his 15th and final major at the 2019 Masters.
Player feels Woods would have easily eclipsed Nicklaus’ record haul of eighteen major championships if he had not messed around with guys like Foley and Como following his 14th major at the 2008 US Open.
Although there seems to be some misunderstanding regarding Player’s remarks regarding Woods’ 14th major victory (which did not come by 15 shots at the US Open), you can understand the essence of his statement, which was that Foley and Como prevented him from achieving more major accomplishments.
Player was right about that, but as he stated in the interview below, it was not Woods’ fourteenth major victory. For context, Woods defeated Player by fifteen shots to win his third major championship at the US Open at Pebble Beach in 2000.
In a massive 19-hole playoff against Rocco Mediate at the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines, Woods won his 14th major championship.
Interesting words from GP. I think one more thing() added to this ruined Tiger but GP isn’t wrong. pic.twitter.com/JTWpvNxYio
— Jim (@Cakalacman) May 1, 2024
Player told KW Golf:
“Tiger Woods had his career ruined, completely ruined. Tiger Woods has won 14 major championships. He then wins the US Open at Pebble Beach, winning by a margin of 15 shots. Do you know how that feels? Like completing a 100-meter sprint in seven seconds. He’s getting instruction from a man the following week who, I’m not sure if he played in The Masters, could break 80? He was unable to. But this guy is teaching him a lesson. Then he plays another player who, perhaps under duress, was unable to break 85 at The Masters, the British Open, or the PGA on the last day, and he’s learning from him. Tiger did that, but why? He was excellent. However, I can see that he desired to improve. Had he continued as before and never made any changes, he would have won at least 22 [majors], if not more, and be remembered as the greatest athlete the world has ever seen—male or female. However, he made a mistaken choice, which is very simple to make.”
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