Show Me the Money: Tiger vs. Jack

Fellow golf bloger One-Eyed Golfer must have known that I was going to take him up on his challenge to compare the lifetime earnings of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Basically, he wanted to make a dollar for dollar comparison (in 2009 dollars) of the careers of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods at present. Remember, Nicklaus had 73 PGA Tour wins with 18 majors titles and Woods stands today with 67 wins and 14 majors.

Rather than go through their entire careers, I decided to go through their victories and make straight up comparisons between the two of tournaments that existed in both Jack and Tiger's playing days. This way, we don't have to worry about events that no longer exist today or didn't exist back then.

Before we get to the comparison, let's explain which tournaments are in and which are out because of this assumption. That stipulation may seemingly knock out the World Golf Championships, which Woods has dominated since their inception. Woods has 15 WGC victories, which makes for over a fifth of his career PGA Tour wins. But, likenesses of these events existed in Jack's era. The CA Championship was the Doral-Eastern Open. The Bridgestone Invitational was the World Series of Golf.

There are more like comparisons between tournaments that you may expect. Prior to The Players Championship, the event was known as the Tournament Players Championship. Jack won his own Memorial Tournament on two occasions. PGA Tour Playoff events known as The Barclays and BMW Championship were known back in the day (even in Woods' career) as the Westchester Classic and the Western Open.

Even the less prestigious PGA Tour events of yesteryear share a lot of similarities to the events of today. The only difference between them may be who played in the event, where it was played, and the lack of corporate sponsors on the tournament name.

I did my best to ensure crossover between the two for a fairly honest comparison, but in a number of cases, equivalents just did not exist. Fifty-seven of Jack's 73 victories came in tournaments that still exist today in one fashion or another. Nine of Woods' 67 wins came in events that did not exist when Jack played.

That said, let's look at the numbers. Looking strictly at the number of wins, Jack Nicklaus would have 57 victories in events that overlap with Tiger Woods' career. Woods would have one more win than Jack, though he trails by 16 wins at present. Using crossover events as the element of comparison really makes most sense.

Now, let's look at the money situation. Comparing their total money won in victories, Tiger Woods has won $69,944,000 in 58 wins for an average of $1,205,931. Nicklaus won 57 times to loot $68,606,000 and average $1,203,614 per win.

Tiger Woods has earned less than $2 million more than Jack Nicklaus for his entire career. Nicklaus won his last PGA Tour event at age 46. Woods is 33. In other words, Tiger Woods has probably a decade more to extend his lead on Nicklaus in this kind of comparison.

The first thing to look at when making this kind of comparison is the money awarded for each win. Tiger Woods has won 13 events in his career that currently offer first place prize money below $1 million. Included in that list is his six Buick Invitational titles. Nick Watney, winner of this year's event, early $954,000 for his efforts. Meanwhile, Jack Nicklaus has just one victory in that event. By comparison, just 10 of Jack's crossover wins would pay him less than a million dollars today.

The World Golf Championships don't really play a significant role in the difference. Nicklaus won 25 crossover events with a first place check over $1.35 million — the paycheck for the Masters champion. Woods has 27.

In all reality, the statistics and data when comparing Jack and Tiger's careers are stunning to this point. They basically have the same number of wins in their career to this point, a similar number of majors, and 2009 dollars. Woods really is very much a mirror image of his hero.

For the purists and Jack Nicklaus fans, that may seem like blasphemy. After all, Nicklaus played in an era with less events like World Golf Championships. He has 16 more wins than Tiger Woods does right now. He still holds the major championship wins record — albeit by four majors.

Fortunately for Jack fans, though, the numbers for Jack's entire career — not just wins — fares very well. Nicklaus has a huge advantage in major championships. He has 19 runner up finishes in major championships. He was on the medal stand 46 times. Nicklaus boasts 73 major championship top-10 finishes.

In 53 major championship appearances, Woods has 14 wins. He has finished in the top 10 on 30 occasions. Woods was the bridesmaid on five different occasions and three times in the last two full seasons. Woods earned a gold, silver, or bronze 22 times.

But, again, to be equal, let's make it a fair comparison. Before Nicklaus turned 34 in 1974, he played in 56 majors. He won 12 of those. At this point in his career, he had finished in second in a major 11 times — six more than Woods boasts now. Nicklaus finished third on five other occasions. Nicklaus may have won fewer majors, but he finished higher more often than Woods.

And, oh yeah, Nicklaus won majors when trailing after 54 holes.

So, if you were hoping that this article would settle the debate about Jack and Tiger, think again. It will continue to rage on even if Woods surpasses Nicklaus' mark of 18 wins.