Ernie Els listened carefully to the reporter's introduction of a report. It involves the competitive life of players over the age of 40 on the US tour. Tiger Woods was 39 at that time. Guess who the question is about?
Ayers, 45, smiled at this. He was used to all the conversation eventually turning to woods. But when the reporter suggested that woods and els were fierce competitors, the South African smiled.
ELS shook his head and stressed, "he's been pressing me for more than 15 years."
The reporter tried to be nice to els, but the four time Grand Slam champion continued to shake his head and repeated, "more than 15 years."
This sparked further talk about how great woods's career was. For most of Woods's peak time, four players can be said to be closest to him, but one level lower than him - Ayers, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Ralph Goosen.
In their career, the four key players have won a total of 15 Grand Slams. Woods reached that number alone.
In their career, the four won a total of 105 US tour games, but participated in a total of 2118 games, with a winning rate of 0.049. Woods won 82 victories in just 368 games, with a winning rate of 0.222.
In their career, the four men together ranked first in the world for only 41 weeks (Singh 32 weeks and els 9 weeks). Woods was number one for 683 weeks, equivalent to 13 years and two months. Digest a little and taste it: woods didn't just beat ells. He's holding everyone down.
"I don't think there is a perfect athlete," Olympic champion Jackie joyna Kosi once said. "But if I have to choose someone close to all the characteristics... I would say the perfect athlete is tiger woods. "
When the World Golf Hall of fame announced Woods's election in the spring of 2020 (COVID-19 brutally interrupted everything, the selection ceremony will be held in the week of the player Championship week in March 9th this year), no one ever welcomed the news with such a calm attitude.
God, he may have done enough in the five seasons from 1999 to 2003 to enter the hall of fame, when he won 32 times in 101 games. It doesn't matter, he tossed for another five years (2005-09), won 31 of 75 games, or he became player of the year 10 times, or he led the bonus list 10 times, or he was one of the only five players to win a career Grand Slam (he was the fastest to do that).
On that Sunday in 2000, in "Golf house" St. Andrews, mark kakaviya seemed to see this when he watched woods win an 8-stroke advantage in the British Open just a month after defeating other players with a 15 stroke advantage in the US Open.
"He is," praised kakaviya, standing in the cool summer air of the old stadium, "the man chosen by God."
At the time, woods was only 24 years old and was halfway through winning four consecutive Grand Slams. He has just begun his overwhelming rule over the World Golf Championships (a total of 18 victories) and has not yet begun to dominate various courses - such as Bay Hill, flint or dorison.
But he has proved that Phil Knight is a prophet.
Just four years ago, the behind the scenes boss of Nike said in response to a question about why he paid woods such a luxurious endorsement fee. " Michael Jordan's contribution to basketball, (Tiger Woods) can definitely do it for golf. There are no other players in the world like he can do for this sport. "
Tim Finchem, a longtime president of the US tour and a member of this year's Hall of fame, will tell you that knight's words are not exaggerated. You want numbers. Here are some numbers.
In 1998, U.S. tour players competed for a total season bonus of $96.4 million, compared with $328 million in 2016. In 1995, only nine players received a $1 million bonus, and 125th in the bonus list received a total of $149280. Fast forward to 2021, 124 players broke this figure, while 125th earned $996977.
If you don't accept that Woods has a huge responsibility for these rises, you're fighting alone.
"I take Arnold Palmer as my idol," Finson said. "I respect the achievements of Jack (Nicklaus). But Tiger Woods is the greatest player and the most dominant. In addition, he lifted the whole boat and brought the fans. He is the most recognizable athlete on the planet."
This is a good strengthening of the qualification of the hall of fame. If you need support to highlight the key victory figures in Woods's resume, he stood on the top of the mountain with Sam Snyder in 82 US tour victories; He won 15 Grand Slam titles, second only to Nicklas.
But if you still want to know what made woods stand out, Finson said: "he changed the whole situation. He affected the preparation and playing style of golfers, which effectively improved TV trading and sponsorship.
[He took golf to a whole new level"
Now, he will occupy a high position among the greatest people in the history of the sport.