What you need to keep in mind when comparing Tiger Woods and Roger Federer • 07.26.09
Even the great Michael Phelps can't master all the swimming events - there are so many of them
One of the great sporting discussions of our times is to compare Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. This discussion inevitably spills over into a comparison of the sport of golf with tennis – so as to understand how the feats in one sport compare with another.
Someone who has a decent knowledge of both sports can make a reasonable comparison but most people don’t and that leads to some vague assessments
A lot of Federer supporters claim that the Swiss has now won majors on all surfaces whereas Tiger hasn’t won on all the golf courses that he’s played on.
Another often heard argument is that Fedex usually ends up in the top 4 or top 2 of any tournament that he plays but Tiger often ends up way down the leader board.
Anyone who knows both sports will tell you that comparisons between them are not so straightforward.
I have often tried to explain the same to people; reasoning that the two sports require vastly different levels of versatility. Mostly I have not managed to get my point across for lack of a good analogy.
Finally I think I have a decent one.
Golf is like the sport of swimming. There are four different styles and races involve different distances. There are races which even involve a combination of all the four styles. All combine to create more than 20 events with a different challenge for each race. Fundamentally you are doing the same thing (swimming) in each race but each one of them requires a different kind of physical conditioning, training, preparation and tactics. There is no one who has managed to master every kind of race over his or her lifetime. The greatest of them all, Michael Phelps, has managed to win six individual events at one event. If we wanted to and gave it his all, he could master any race but thanks to the time and effort it will take, he won’t be able to master all of them in a single life. It is impossible and that is how it will forever be.
Tiger Woods could also master any golf course if he wanted to – he could make alterations in his game and gain familiarity for the course through regular practise. But to master all of them, it will take more than one life.
Scherbo and Federer mastered every challenge that their sport had to offer
Tennis on the other hand is like gymnastics. There are six routines and then there is the all round event. Again the basic requirements for all are the same but each is different in terms of the preparation, practise and planning it takes achieve mastery over it. But the fact that there are only six of them ensures that a really talented gymnast can master all of them. Vitaly Scherbo won a world or an Olympic title in each of the six events and won the all round too. It’s not easy and it takes a special talent but it can be done.
Roger Federer has also done a Scherbo, winning major titles on every surface. But like the gymnast he too had a lesser challenge in terms of the number of variables he needed to master.
Vitaly Scherbo’s complete mastery over gymnastics doesn’t make him a greater champion than Michael Phelps, who hasn’t conquered everything in swimming. And that is exactly what we need to understand whenever we are engaged in a Federer- Woods discussion.
