Colin Montgomerie: Tiger Woods would've won more without equipment changes

Nobody has had a closer look at the full breadth of Woods' career than Montgomerie

There is nothing better in sports than an old former star riffing on an aging former superstar. Colin Montgomerie is a European Tour legend (No. 4 all time in wins), and he recently talked Tiger Woods (a lot of Tiger Woods) with Michael Bamberger of Golf.com.

The topics were bountiful, and all of them were interesting. It is one thing for those of us in the media to wonder what might have been (and what was) with Woods. It is an entirely other thing for somebody from inside the ropes (really inside the ropes) to let it fly.

You should go read the entire piece, but the part that stuck out most to me is that Montgomerie said Woods would have 20 or more majors if golf equipment had not changed. Twenty or more!

“What might Woods have done had the game never moved off the balata ball and the wooden wood?” wondered Montgomerie. “Many golf fans would say he would have won less. I believe he would have won far more. He has the 14 majors. Without the equipment changes, I believe he’d have well into his 20s now. Because now everybody has clubs where they can do what he could do.”

This is a fascinating idea. That the modern driver, irons and wedges actually hurt an artist like Woods. I don’t necessarily disagree. It’s the same concept as Dustin Johnson winning a lot when courses are soaked. When you bring the field backwards, the longest hitters have an even bigger advantage.

For example, from 150-175 yards away, the variance in approach shot proximity to the hole between the most-accurate golfer and the 50th-most accurate on the PGA Tour this year is just five feet. Take that back to 175-200 feet and it moves to seven feet. The closer everyone is to the hole, the worse (on a very small scale) it is for big bombers.

Montgomerie also noted in the article that he would not trade careers with Tiger (I believe him).

“I never won a major,” Montgomerie told Golf.com. “Tiger won 14. But would I trade my career for Tiger’s? No. I started out this game a pretty good golfer and finished in the Hall of Fame. I feel I have overachieved.”