[Wingate1217]

With the British Open being played right now I thought it would be fun to play a "what if" game. In this case what if Tiger was never born. I took a look (similar to what USA Today did earlier in the week) and for every major tourney that Tiger won I awarded the win to the guy in second place....
I did the same thing for Jack and Lee Trevino and will post them later in this thread. Here it goes.......

Key: Player (Current majors) and then at the end of the player summary-Totals- How many outright and potentially (playoffs) if Tiger was not around....

Tom Kite (1 major)- Kite won the 1992 US Open but would have won the '97 Masters and (if Jack was never born) would have been in a playoff for the '86 Masters with Greg Norman and the '78 British with Ray Floyd, Ben Crenshaw, and Simon Owen. His is the only golfer to span both of these greats eras. Totals-2 outright and potentially 4

Ernie Els (3 majors)-Ernie won three majors outright ('94 & "97 US Opens and '02 British) and would have been in a playoff for two others (2000 US and British Opens). Totals- 3 outright and potentially 5

Retief Goosen (2 Majors)-Goose won the '01 & '04 US Opens and would have been victorious at the '02 Masters. Totals- 3 outright

Phil Mickelson (3 Majors)-Lefty came out on top in the '04 & '06 Masters and the '05 PGA. He also would have added the '02 US Open played in Long Island at Bethpage Black. Totals- 4 outright

David Duval (1 Major)-David has fallen off the map this millennium but at one time was one of the dominant players on tour. He won the '01 British and would have won the '01 Masters as well. It is great to see him contend this weekend at this year's British. Totals-2 outright

Chris DiMarco (Zero Majors)-Chris would be sitting here with two majors if Mr. Woods was not around. His break-through win would have been the 2005 Masters and he would have hoisted the Claret Jug the next year. Totals- 2 outright

Shaun Micheel-(1 Major) Shaun won the 2003 PGA Championship and would have repeated three years later in 2006. Totals- 2 outright

Other Players-Each of these players would have won their first and only major (with the exception of Miguel Jimenez and Thomas Bjorn who would have been in a playoff with Ernie Els for the 2000 US Open and 2000 British respectively).

1999 PGA- Sergio Garcia
2000 PGA- Bob May
2005 British-Colin Mongomerie
2007 PGA-Woody "Aquaman" Austin
2008 US Open- Rocco Mediate

I will place the same results if JacK Nicklaus would have never played sometime tomorrow......