Tiger Woods has 82 PGA Tour victories and has won 15 majors. Those 82 Tour wins have him tied with Sam Snead for the most ever. His 15 major wins are second to the 18 won by Jack Nicklaus.
However, if you ask former pro golfer-turned commentator Brandel Chamblee, Tiger Woods should have won more. A lot more.
Actually, you don’t have to ask Chamblee, because Dan Patrick already did during his show’s preview of this week’s Masters tournament. Sort of.
“If Tiger never started lifting weights, finish that sentence,” Dan Patrick said to Chamblee on Wednesday.
“He would have probably won 125 golf tournaments and 25 majors,” Chamblee replied.
“You know, if you go back to when he was a wispy teenager and Jack and Arnold [Palmer] played with him in a practice round here, I believe it was 1995 or six. They said, ‘He’s going to win more Masters titles than us combined.’ Well, Jack won six, Arnold won five. So they were predicting 11-plus Masters titles.
“He averaged 346 yards off the tee then. And that was not with a solid core golf ball. And that was not with one of these big-headed long drivers. 346 yards off of the tee. That’s what they saw in him.
“He traded speed for strength,” Chamblee continued. “Maybe it helped him think he deserved it. Maybe it helped him be intimidating. And I’m sure he wanted to treat golf like a sport.
“But his body broke down pretty quickly. I just don’t know if he was training properly or that he got the proper rest. Either way, I don’t think it did him a whole lot of good.”
That wasn’t the only hot golf take Brandel Chamblee shared with Dan Patrick
During another part of his interview with Dan Patrick, Brandel Chamblee compared LIV Golf to pickleball. That’s right. Pickleball.
“They did,” Chamblee replied when Patrick asked him if the PGA Tour had won the war with LIV Golf. “I mean, even when LIV events are broadcast in the United States, and even when they’re broadcast and finished in primetime on the East Coast, they garner 35-50,000 views.
“More people watch pickleball than that on TV. And these are the best players. I mean, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, playing on the East Coast, finishing then, they’re just not galvanizing anybody to watch them.”