I almost wish Tiger Woods had won the PGA

Maybe it would have stopped ESPN from turd-polishing him.

Probably not. Even though Red Satan doesn't televise any of the majors, it still loves itself some stories clickbait.

Anyway?

Tiger is still not the GOAT. Jack Nicklaus is.

The top 10 that Jack faced throughout most of his career — and while lesser players can win majors, the cream usually rises to the top — was better than Tiger.

Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els from Tiger's peak might crack the 11-20 spots of Jack's peak, but not the top 10.

Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros were no doubts ahead of them. Peter Thompson and Ray Floyd arguably so. (Thompson didn't play the PGA tour, but five Opens, the last against an American-stacked field, is tough to overlook.) And, counting Jack himself, that gives me a top eight ahead of anything Tiger faced. Hale Irwin is arguably better. Julius Boros and Billy Casper are no worse than even and possibly better. Johnny Miller is even. That gives me 12. Throw out Seve, if you want, since his first major wasn't until 1979.

And, while they were largely post-Jack and pre-Tiger, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman are also better to probably better, than what Tiger faced.

Most those players wouldn't have been intimidated by Tiger the same way. Jack might have hit weights a bit and buffed the short game he admitted he neglected. Player would certainly have taken fitness tips from Tiger, and no way he's intimidated. Ditto on Ray Floyd. Certainly not on Lee and his own minority trying to crash big golf experiences.

I hate to sound like Dan Jenkins, so let's make sure I don't.

Dan's fetishizing of Ben Hogan to the point of trying to count things like the North/South as a major is ridiculous.

Plus, Hogan, setting aside his car accident and miracle comeback, played in a relatively barren era for golf. Sam Snead had a long career, playing at a winning level throughout the 1950s, but Byron Nelson had retired, and until Arnie and Gary at the end of the decade, when Cary Middlecoff and a young Boros are your next in line, it's not good depth. Given that the PGA banned Bobby Locke, using a face-saving excuse to cover for jealousy, that only adds to the egg on the collective golf face of the 1950s in the US.