"The BIG FOUR are nowhere near Tiger in his prime." Phil Mickleson speaks about the rise of the four and his long time nemesis Tiger Woods.

Hogan. Snead. Nelson. The great Triumvirate.

Arnie. Jack. Gary.  The Big Three. 

Players of this caliber, of this magnitude, have always had something that set them apart from their peers.

Tiger and Phil. The Dynamic Duo.

But the Millennials are here, and as Tiger and Phil are fighting the changing of the guard, so to speak, we usher in a new group of thoroughbreds. 

And golf at the top has never looked so good.

Jordan. Rory. Jason. Rickie.  The Big Four.

The new group being dubbed the heir apparent's to the one and only Mr. Woods. However, the other member of the dynamic duo has chimed in, in defense of the Tiger and all he's accomplished.

On Tuesday during Golf.com’s first edition of GOLF Live., Phil was asked; 

Let’s talk about the current state of the Tour. Tiger, of course, is not playing right now. Can golf return to the level it was when Tiger was at his peak, when the two of you were going head to head? Can that happen without Tiger on the course?

"I don’t think anybody really knows. But we have a lot of great young players in the game. And if you look at the top four right now, with Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler, those four guys are quality — quality people, too.

They represent the game well. They’re wonderful guys to be around. And they have remarkable games.

But there is nobody in the game of golf that I have seen that is remotely close to the level of performance Tiger was in his prime.

Mentally, short game, or ball striking, I don’t think anybody matches him in any of those areas. And Tiger put them all together in one to create a career that is mind-boggling.

So it’s difficult for me to see the game of golf returning to the level that it was at during his heyday without somebody like that. And as great as the young players are, the level that I’ve seen out of him, especially when you go back to 2000 at the U.S. Open and his performance when he held all four major championships at once, I think we’re decades away from anybody getting back to that level."

(via Back9network.com)


Thoughts?? Do you think these guys will ever reach Tiger's level?