Best iron player.... Tiger or Stenson?

[puttingmatt]

Stenson and Tiger just competed at the Hero Challenge, Stenson wins , would say Stenson for now.

both players are going to play well, but this week, its STENSON.

[Schley]

I did see an article that if the SG statistic was tabulated during Miller's 7-10 year prime he would have led the tour every year. It is an estimate of course. I like the advanced statistics because they can focus in on a particular skill set.

[Ferguson]

With all due respect, the threads that start "Tiger or" baffle me. Just another case of WRX situational irony.

[Schley]

OK this will get your reaction.... Tiger or Phil?

[AndersUK]

Stenson crushes his irons but Tiger is in a different class with his irons. Rory is probably closer to Tiger than Stenson.

I met up with Jeremy Bennett last week and Tiger came up in the conversation. He mentioned when he was on the range at tour events watching tiger hit balls and at other events commentating, how he witnessed Tiger pull off shots that he had not seen before but also didn't think were actually possible.

 

[Leeaxd]

I think tiger over Stenson for iron play. Though both are so pure with irons.

If we are talking about 3 woods... then it is hard to argue against Stenson who has basically made a career with his 3w.

[Irishman1979]

Stop while you are ahead. Hogan owns Tiger in that department even though Tiger is great.

[Hawkeye77]

Yet Ben said Snead hit more dead solid shots than anyone.

There is no "own" - there are players that are better ball strikers and the "special" ones get noticed because they are that much better than most of the really damn good ones. Hogan was awesome. Snead was awesome. Nelson was awesome.

The other players sure notice the special ones, but not seeing a reason to put Hogan on a pedestal as a ball striker significantly above Tiger.

Would be nice to see all the greats able to hit next to each other on the range.

[Ferguson]

 

I abandoned the "Phil thing" months ago.

[DivinDave]

No doubt Stenson is pretty good, may better than most, but I gotta cast my vote for Tiger.

 

[LICC]

Not even arguable. Tiger.

[DON SVO]

Let me start this with Stenson is one of my top 3 players to watch, and I loved seeing him in full flight this weekend.

Tiger.

[SBH9458]

Tiger. Many great arguments made above my post, but I’d offer my subjective opinion that Tiger is considerably better.

[Strickler]

Stenson is the best iron player on tour (world). Shouldn't be a debate if you know tour golf. I'm pretty sure the players would give you the same answer. No one here has even cared to provide stats. Some stats for you.

 

SG: Approach the Green

2019

Henrik Stenson 1.149Justin Thomas 0.985Emiliano Grillo 0.926Adam Scott 0.846Hideki Matsuyama 0.759

2018

Henrik Stenson 0.960Keegan Bradley 0.888Tiger Woods 0.883Justin Thomas 0.844Dustin Johnson 0.829

And no, these stats alone doesn't decide the best iron players, but if you have been to the range when these guys hit it, you do see (and hear!) that the difference among pros is much bigger than one would think. I didn't get the chance to see Tiger in his prime (live) but if we are just talking the current players the last few years it would be Stenson as no 1 and Tiger, Dustin, Scott to fight for 2nd when they are on. These players can all stick it to a 220 flag on the range over and over.

[bladehunter]

Lol.

[PowderedToastMan]

I’ll make you a deal-you can have Stenson and I’ll take Tiger.

[Hawkeye77]

Oh boy - don't care much what the guy who said Stenson was on steroids has to say. Dumb. https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/comment/7614182#Comment_7614182

[Irishman1979]

It’s the same talent that you find in sports like the NBA. Take an NBA player, put him at half court during warm ups. He won’t miss.

People really don’t realize how gifted pro athletes are. With any sport.

 

[Golfnutgalen]

Henrik is better than Tiger now, but over the long run Tiger reigns supreme. Tiger is #1 in stokes gained approach shots by a sizable margin from 2004-2012 according to Mark Brodie in his book "Every Shot Counts". Here's a quick summary of the top 5:

Tiger +1.28Robert Allenby +0.88Jim Furyk +0.78Ernie Els +0.77Sergio Garcia +0.75But I know that information is a bit old by now, so I'm going to go over every year from 2004 to 2019 and look at where Tiger and Henrik stack up. Here are the results.

2004-2019 Tiger 517 rounds averaging +1.144 2005-2019 Henrik 474 rounds averaging +0.578Tiger is probably/definitely the best iron player of all time. Let's do it another way, Tiger's best 5 years vs Henrik's best 5 years nonconsecutive:

Tiger 2006, 07, 08, 09, 13: Tiger 182 rounds averaging +1.795Henrik 2005, 15, 16, 18, 19: Henrik 167 rounds averaging +1.144This is not to take anything away from Stenson though who has been outstanding since 2015, pretty sure nobody else is better in that timeframe.

 

 

[SBH9458]

Nice details. Tiger is a transcendent talent.

[2putttom]

what the h3II is wrong with you ! Everything in golf is arguable .

[Brock Savage]

No it's not.

[Hawkeye77]

It's a measure - far from "the" measure.

 

Many would argue long and correctly that just looking at SG doesn't determine who the best ball striker is.

[Schley]

one stat that would be telling is who is leading in SG for majors only perhaps.

[Hawkeye77]

Or just leave strokes gained out of it altogether.

[Golfnutgalen]

Why? What do you propose instead? Let's just stick with strokes gained approach, what is a better more informative statistic?

[Hawkeye77]

Nothing other than I guess anecdotal evidence from players and coaches and high levels of performance.

 

Not saying anyone can’t use whatever measure they want, I’m just not a strokes gained advocate. And I don’t think best ball striker is necessarily and exclusively found within what that stat measures. All IMO.

[J13]

Tiger is so far beyond Stenson it’s not even worth referencing stats. Tiger is the greatest iron player in history.

[farmer]

Gotta be Tiger. Stenson uses game improvement irons. Cavity back and all.

[MadGolfer76]

Well...

Of the two choices, Tiger is definitely the better iron player. I would only put peak Johnny Miller and Ben Hogan above him in terms of iron play. I'm speaking of younger Tiger Woods, mind you.

In terms of the Canadian Open shot, it was definitely impressive, but I remember back a ways that Tiger admitted he actually missed his line and hit the wrong distance. If he stayed on his preferred line, he would have been over the back of the green completely. Just so happened that the distance he hit it was a better match for the miss.