what is your opinion on the best year any golfer ever had? I sorted through my brain this morning (not always an easy task), and tried to match Jones in '30 vs. Hogan in '53 to tiger in 2000/2001.


Jones completes the grand slam, and is likely the most celebrated athlete on the planet in 1930. Tells herbert warren wind a man could conceivably win the Brittish amateur, the Open championship, the US amateur, and the US open in one year (Wind goes on to coin the phrase Grand Slam in connection with golf majors), and then Jones did it.....wow!! Both the Ams at that point were qualifiers followed by 18 hole match play. in 18 holes ANYTHING can happen a stellar accomplishment.

Hogan wins the Masters, the US open, and the Open championship in 1953 on battered and broken legs upon which he could barely walk, and couldnt play in the pga that year because it started before the Open was finished. This was a great year.

Tiger holds the title to all 4 professional majors in one 365 day period between 2000/2001(the Tiger Slam).

Tiger gets the edge with me (probably because i saw them all on television), but what do you think? is there another golfer with a better year? Nelson in '45 springs to mind.

whats your opinion?

Another great question. I don't have a strong command of the history of golf, so not going to give an opinion...

I do wonder if people like Byron Nelson, Sorenstam, and Ochoa should be mentioned simply because they blew away the competition for a year? If Majors are the main criteria, probably not...

Strong beliefs, huh.

Kevin

hey kev....im just glad someone replied

This is a great question....maybe 2008 TW.....can he duplicate or better 2000.....just thinking about his potential season with the start he is off to is mind boggling!!! Nelson's '45 was tremendous, but there was a number of the top flight players in the war time effort.Hogan's '53 from coming back from adversity standpoint would rank him right there with tiger's 2000.

It's really infuriating that Hogan was denied the opportunity to complete the Slam. The format of the PGA might've been hard on ol' Ben, but I have to believe that if the major championships were evenly spaced out through the calendar as they are today, he would've won. IF the PGA was 72-hole stroke play, then forget about it, of course he would've won.

Ben Hogan's 1953 was an extraordinary season which, given the difficult circumstances, can't really be compared to anyone else's. He's in a class by himself, as are Jones and Woods.

I'm voting Hogan's 1953 season narrowly over Nelson's 1945.

Woods' 2000 was pretty remarkable too - as was that year as a junior where he went 45 for 45 or whatever it was...

I would have to vote for Tiger in 2000, excluding the fact that the won the Masters in 2001 which made four straight majors. In just 2000 he won the US Open, the Open Championship, and the PGA. In each of those events that year he broke the scoring record. In the US Open he bettered the field by 12 shots, that is insane!! Even though he did not win the Masters, he still finished 5th. In the WGC World events he finished with a first, a second, and a fifth. He are some key stats to his unbelievable season in 2000 in which he played in 20 PGA tour events:

Wins: 9 (four times he finished 2nd)
Top 10s: 17
GIR: 75.2% (only 2 events was this under 70%) ranked 1st
Driving Distance: 298 (ranked 1st in total driving)
Driving Accuracy: 71.2% (just think if he would be doing today if he was driving it this accurate)
Putting Avg: 1.71
Scoring Average: 67.79 (his by round avg was 68 or below for each round, and the 68 was his final round avg)
Par 3 in relation to par: -25
Par 4 in relation to par: -71
Par 5 in relation to par: -167
Winnings: 9.18 million

Also on a side note he posted double digits under par in 14 of the 20 events and three of them were -20 or more! That equates to him going double digits under par in 70% of events he played in and one was a match play event. Even as good as he is playing this year, I do not think that any will ever dominate a single season like this again. Even if he wins the calendar year grand slam this year, overall his 2000 season stats are from another planet. Also I do not think at this point in his career he will play in this many events per year.

creecool,

Wow, I really like this post. The way he has started the season, he looks as though he may NEVER lose. Can't happen of course, but you may be absolutely correct, we may be watching the beginning of an historic year!



Kevin

Hogan 1953.

Played and won The Masters (new scoring record 14 under) by five strokes, won the Pan American Open by three strokes, The Greenbriar Pro-Am 3^d place, won The Colonial National Invitation by 5 strokes, won The United States Open at Oakmont by six strokes, won The Open, Carnoustie Scotland by 4 strokes, shot tournament and course record 287 and course record 68 in final round while suffering from the flu lowered score in each round 73, 71, 70, 68 finishing as the only competitor under par. That's entering 6 tournaments in one year, winning 5 (83.3%) and a top three in the one he did not win (Sam Snead won that one on his home course.) He turned 41 years old that year.

i'm going with woods in 2000. won over half his events, i think. 8 shot victory at the open. amazing shootout with bob may at the pga. and that 15 shot whopping that he put on the field at the u.s. open was just absolutely unreal.

2nd to hogan in 1953. won just about everything he played, but didn't play nearly as much.