I was curious.. Tiger vs Morikawa Stats

Firstly, this post is not meant to spark debate on whether Collin Morikawa is the next Tiger Woods - they’re clearly two very different types of players. However, in the 24 events Morikawa has played as a professional, his stats and recent accomplishments are certainly Tiger-esque. 

In route to his recent PGA Championship victory, Morikawa became one of only three players to win a major championship by the age 23 (Tiger, Nicklaus and Rory,) he shot the lowest weekend score in major championship history, and he submerged from a pack of elite players on Sunday by hitting shots that will go down in Major Championship history. But you all know this. 

What you maybe didn’t know was that in 2016 Morikawa played in the Air Capital Classic, a Web.com tour event, as a 19-year-old amateur who just finished his freshman year at Cal. He shot 63-63 over the weekend to earn a spot in a 3-man playoff where he eventually finished second to Ollie Schneiderjans. This guy has been championship-ready for years. 

Here’s a side by side comparison of Tiger and Morikawa through the first 24 events of their careers after turning professional: 

Tiger’s first few seasons on tour will very likely never be matched, however, I was impressed by how close their records are. I can’t think of a better start to a career in modern golf than Morikawa’s. He certainly won’t be the long-hitting phenom who destroys fields like Tiger did, but he might be the silent assassin who racks up his fair share of wins and major championships with incredible accuracy and consistency. Time will tell! 

Thanks for sharing
on paper and right now he looks amazing as a prospect

Too early to say we been here with Speith and Rory

I think Collin is one of the more interesting stories in golf these days, and his win was great. The hard part is playing at that level long enough to get 78 more wins and 14 more majors. Injuries, family stuff, swing changes etc. All the previous "young guns" aren't that young anymore, and all the "next Tiger" prospects have mostly fizzled out. Time will tell, but agree he's off to a great start.

He’s got the game, that’s damn impressive.
Equally as important is how strong he is mentally and able to excel under pressure.
Very unusual to see if that age and if he just keeps the blinders on (and stays on social media ?), sky is the limit.

Would be interesting to see their stats, but we can already say Morikawa's mental approach is light years ahead of Spieth. Spieth won on grit and emotion, Colin is winning with preparation and determination which IMHO has a longer shelf life

Collin's putting will have to improve significantly to rack up Tiger-esque numbers.

I don't think Tiger won 2 majors in his first 24 events....

If Tigers first event as a pro was the 1996 GMO, that would put his 24th event as the 1997 PGA.
After the 1997 Masters, Tiger's next major victory came at the 1999 PGA, his 65th start as a professional.

Not trying to say he's the next Tiger, but.........................................

Remarkable.

In 24 starts, TW had exactly 2x the wins and 2x the Majors.

Id say if CM ends up with 40 wins and 7-8 Majors, he would be extremely happy. 

Out of curiosity, how did Morikawa perform in the US Amateur?

The big thing is with guys who start their careers on a roll and gain that confidence is, how well do they respond when they get kicked in the teeth a little? There will inevitably be a bad patch, a blown tournament, swing issue, injury, something that might affect him. Spieth hasn't regained his form, we'll see how Brooks comes back from the disappointing PGA finish. If he has enough resilience to bounce back after a bad phase he'll have a very successful career.  

Obviously Tiger was talented but it's hard to overstate the absolute desire it took to do what he did. We've seen players do it in spurts but no one can sustain it. It will be interesting to see how Morikawa responds now that he has had this level of success so early. 

The only thing phenomenal about the first 2.5 years of Tiger's pro career was his 12-shot Masters win.  I'm not saying it's easy to do what else he did, but his other six wins before 1999 were by a total of seven shots, and included some weak and short field events.  As Spieth and Thomas (among others) have shown, seven wins in two years, even with a major or two, is not unheard of.

What's unheard of is what he did after that, beginning with the greatest two-year stretch of golf ever seen.  From the 1999 Memorial to the 2001 Memorial, he won an incredible 20 of 41 official PGA events, including 5 majors, 3 WGCs, 3 Memorials, 2 Bay Hills, a Players, and a TC.  A first ballot Hall of Fame career in two years!

So saying someone is comparable to Tiger for his first two years is not saying he's comparable to Tiger.

Tiger won three consecutive Junior Ams followed by three consecutive US Ams.  I honestly think those are right up there in accomplishments with his Tiger slam. I’ve played several match play events and it’s damn hard to win them. Much less basically six in a row at the highest of levels. 

12 hours ago, littlepingman said:

Tiger won three consecutive Junior Ams followed by three consecutive US Ams.  I honestly think those are right up there in accomplishments with his Tiger slam. I’ve played several match play events and it’s damn hard to win them. Much less basically six in a row at the highest of levels. 

It's a record that will never be broken.  The greatest amateur of all time, Bobby Jones, never won three US Ams in a row.  And he played it until he was 28.  And he played it when there were typically around 150 entrants, compared to over 5,000 in each of Tiger's wins.

I believe it's also still true that nobody else has won even one each of the US Am and US Junior, let alone three each.

Tiger himself has said his 3 US Junior Ams will be one of his hardest records to break.  Not just because you can't have a single bad day in match play, but because of the age limit.  You only have until you're 18 to do it, and you have to be beating the best 18-year olds in the world while you're still just 15.

Seems like he really has the mindset to be one of the greats. His charisma is unlike many others on tour.

you cannot compare CM to the GOAT (or MDAAT - Most Dominant Athlete of All Time)