by Mike
I would have to disagree entirely with this e-mail. Golf has become so much more accessible and also popular in the last 20 years; gone are the years when only the few and privileged are those hitting the links. This increased accessibility and popularity has made added great depth of field to a game whose professional ranks were previously much more limited. In my opinion the competition is stronger today than in the days of Nicklaus,et al. That is what makes Tiger's acheivements so impressive. He is able to consistently win even though the number of competitive professional golfers has sky-rocketed. An analagous situation is that of present-day professional poker. Back in the 70's when Doyle Brunson won his two World Series, the fields were much smaller and you could consistently name those players who would be at the final tables in tournaments. Such a prediction is next to impossible today due to the huge number of players that currently play poker, and you would be incorrect in saying that the skill level of current players has deteriorated. Granted, you might argue that poker is a game where chance and luck play a significant role, yet the same can be argued of golf. In fact, this is exactly what Tiger is quoted saying after finishing fifth at Doral: you need some luck and positive things to happen in order to win touraments. Both games require an incredible level of skill to play, but both also are dependent on a huge number of other variables which necessitate positive or lucky occurrences to foster winning (note: I'm not trying to argue that Tiger is always lucky, I'm just drawing the parallels between contemporary poker and golf).

by Jerry
Like all other sports I would like to see a statistical comparison between Tigers' competition and Nicklaus, Palmer, and Norman's. There is too much opinion without enough facts to back it up. Miller is only reminising without any facts. I know courses and equipment are better today, as well as players are in better condition. But other sports manage to level the playing field inorder to create valid comparisons between eras.
If the only comparison that can be made is wins, then you guys need to shut-up about Tigers lack of competition today.