Dubai: Tiger Woods will never surpass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 Majors, according to world-renowned golf coach David Leadbetter.
The 14-time Major winner will feature in next month’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic in one of his first appearances back from a 15-month injury lay-off.
But asked whether the 41-year-old American can push on from here to overtake Nicklaus’ tally, Leadbetter, who was at JA Jebel Ali Golf Resort on Thursday, said: ‘No’.
“I don’t think he can, but he’ll probably prove us all wrong,” said Leadbetter, who rebuilt Nick Faldo’s swing in the 1980s, enabling the Englishman to go on to win a British record haul of six Majors.
“Everybody says we will see the old Tiger, but you’re never going to see the old Tiger again, it’s a new Tiger now, whatever that may be.”
Leadbetter said Woods in his prime could have taken Nicklaus’ record, but not anymore.
“The level of golf he played from a period of 12 years from 1997 to 2009 was just unheard of.
“I still think Jack Nicklaus is the greatest player ever because you have got to go by his record, but there’s nobody who has played such great golf over such a [condensed] period of time as Tiger.
“He basically won one out of every four tournaments he played, and was in contention most of the time.
“It was incredible, he set the bar so high and did things that were out of this world, but to actually get back to that level, I would say is nigh on impossible.”
The abundance of talent in the modern game, he said, was just one of the factors that would deny Woods the record.
“Tiger at his peak was up against the likes of Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. He was head-and-shoulders above everybody. If he played at his best, he won, simple as that, nobody was going to beat him and he intimidated the other players.
“There’s not that intimidation factor now, you’ve got so many great players around like Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson, back in the day Tiger hit shots they couldn’t hit, now they hit shots he can’t hit.
“It’s great to see him back and there’s no reason to say he can’t win tournaments, and hey he might even win a Major, but to win four more or even five to beat Jack, he would need to have a better career from here on in than say the likes of Lee Trevino who won five, or Seve Ballesteros.
“You have to remember he’s 41, and he’s an old 41. He’s had three back surgeries and two knee surgeries from playing golf, not rugby or hand-gliding, his body has been beaten up and we don’t know what nerve damage has been done. There’s all sorts of studies to show how nerve damage affects chipping and so on, so there are a lot of unknown quantities.
“He may prove us all wrong, after all he had one of the strongest minds in golf, but it will be extremely difficult, it won’t be for the wont of want of trying that’s for sure.”
