Greg Norman has never been afraid to ruffle feathers with his statements over the years, but in 2004 he managed to make a prediction about Tiger Woods that proved to be impressively accurate.
For much of Woods’ career, the big question concerned whether he was going to be able to overtake Jack Nicklaus’ record as the most successful male golfer ever.
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As the sun set on the 2001 Masters, Woods had already won six majors. In fact, not only had he already completed the Career Grand Slam the previous year, but the then 25-year-old also held all four titles at the same time.
What Greg Norman said about Tiger Woods overtaking Jack Nicklaus in 2004
Two more major titles would follow in 2002. At that stage, it seemed almost inevitable that Woods would overtake Nicklaus’ tally of 18 major victories.
However, Greg Norman saw it differently.
Speaking in a Golf Digest interview in 2004, the Australian expressed a concern that Woods was going to find it much tougher to keep winning at such a rapid rate.
Photo by Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty Images
“Tiger is almost halfway to Jack’s record in the majors. I’ve got a feeling the second half will be much harder than the first,” he said.
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“See, great players have always appeared every 10 years. Arnold Palmer is 10 years older than Jack, who’s 10 years older than Watson. Bobby Jones was 10 years older than Nelson, Hogan and Snead, who were the same age. Somewhere there’s a kid—maybe several of them—exactly 10 years younger than Tiger, who’s 28. They’re working hard on their games and dreaming of nothing else but being the best. In five years they’re going to make it very, very hard for Tiger. Will he break the record? Time will tell.”
The players who capitalised as Tiger Woods struggled to maintain his dominance
Woods would, of course, continue to dominate the game from 2005 until his 14th major victory at the US Open in 2008. Few will forget how he essentially won at Torrey Pines – after 91 holes of golf – on one leg.
But it would be more than a decade before he won another of the game’s four biggest events.
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Obviously, Woods’ decline came about due to injury and issues away from the course. But when he did return to the game’s summit – his last run as world number one came in 2014 – he did find himself coming up against some fantastic players.
Rory McIlroy won four majors between 2011 and 2014, while Jordan Spieth won the first two majors of 2015.
Brooks Koepka has won five times within the last decade. And of course, it seems inevitable that Scottie Scheffler will push towards double figures in the years to come.
But perhaps Norman’s comments about Woods more than 20 years ago act as a warning to those expecting Scheffler to leave all of his rivals behind.
Most of us probably have absolutely no idea about who the game’s next big superstar is going to be.
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