Gary Player has ripped into Tiger Woods in a sensational interview about his major career with KW Golf on Instagram.
Player, 88, won 159 times around the world as a professional, highlighted by nine major wins.
That ranks him T4 in the all-time major win list alongside late great Ben Hogan.
Woods, 48, on the other hand, has 15 career majors to his name, which sees him lie in solo second and three off the record held by Jack Nicklaus.
But Player considers Woods would have easily had 22 major wins by now had he not messed around with multiple golf coaches following his successful 11-year stint with Butch Harmon, which came to an end in 2004, and equally solid partnership with Hank Haney that ended in 2010.
Harmon helped Woods win eight major titles, while Haney worked with him to win six.
Woods then turned to Sean Foley for a period of four years, but that partnership did not result in any major titles.
The same scenario played out when Woods joined the Chris Como stable for some three years through to 2017.
Woods then went alone in 2018, and despite undergoing several back surgeries, he unthinkably went on to land his 15th and last major to date at the 2019 Masters.
Player believes if Woods had not messed about with the likes of Foley and Como after his 14th major at the 2008 US Open, then he would have surpassed Nicklaus’ record haul of 18 major titles with ease.
While there does appear to be some confusion with Player’s quotes about Woods’ 14th major win (which was not by 15 shots at the US Open), you get the gist of what he was saying in that both Foley and Como held him back from further major success.
For context, Woods won his third major title by 15 shots at the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach, so Player was correct about that but it was not his 14th major win like he said in the interview below.
Woods captured his 14th major title in a mammoth 19-hole playoff vs Rocco Mediate at the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines.
Interesting words from GP. I think one more thing(🐈) added to this ruined Tiger but GP isn’t wrong. pic.twitter.com/JTWpvNxYio
— Jim (@Cakalacman) May 1, 2024
Player told KW Golf:
“Tiger Woods had his career ruined, completely ruined. Tiger Woods won 14 majors, and then he wins the 14th major at the US Open at Pebble Beach, and he won by 15 shots. You know what that’s like? It’s like running the 100m in seven seconds. The next week he’s having a lesson from a man who I don’t know if he played in The Masters could break 80? He couldn’t. But he’s having a lesson from this guy. Then he goes to another guy who couldn’t break probably 85 at The Masters under the pressure, or the British Open or the PGA on the final day, and he’s having lessons from him. Why did Tiger do that? He was so good. But I understand he wanted to get better. If he just went along and never changed, he would have won a minimum of 22 [majors], maybe more, and he would have gone down as the greatest athlete the world has ever seen, man or woman, on the planet. But he made the wrong decision, and it’s very easy to do.”
