Roger Federer is a superior athelete to Woods

[Cetacea]

It is only because he is not an American that t he has not gotten Sports Illustrated magazine's annual endorsement.
The sheer physicality of Pro Singles Tennis versus golf alone should eliminate Woods. It can be argued that Federer is a genius as well.
My opinion, of course.

[erpowers]

1. Hopefully Next Year

If you are not aware D-Wade recieved the honor of Sports Man of the Year award for this years. I thought Woods should have gotten it. However, I hope that next year Roger Federer gets the award.

[northzax]

2. well, um, gee

it seems like sports illustrated is some sort of American magazine, so you'd guess they would be more interested in the American market, no?

and this is an age-olg arguement, but as long as Sports Illustrated continues to consider golf a sport, Tiger will be fair game for the award. Hell, would you recognize Federer at your local courts? Tennis is increasingly irrelevant anyway

[bumblebee1]

9. Recognize Federer?

Heck, I'd be unable to pull myself away from my local tennis court. I'd be drooling.

[Forkboy]

3. Golfers aren't pudgy guys anymore..well,maybe the Seniors Tour.

Have you ever seen the shape Tiger keeps himself in? I hate the guy but he's ripped,and he's made the rest of the PGA follow that lead just to keep up.

Roger who?

:evilgrin:

[Awsi Dooger]

4. Federer needs to win the French

That will take care of plenty of the yeah-buts, and catapult him to many of the athlete of the year and best ever salutations. Otherwise, there's still a significant hole in his record, something Tiger doesn't have, unless you want to nitpick and count his less than stellar Ryder Cup record while playing with a partner.

I'm continually amazed at posters who dismiss golf as a sport. It's a physical activity requiring minute precision and incredible variance from shot to shot. A drive and a flop shot could not be more diverse, not to mention the diabolical requirements of putting on lightning fast greens with Augusta slope.

There's no doubt that Federer is at peak level now while Tiger has never returned to his 2000 and early 2001 level. But winning a major golf tournament is significantly more unlikely than winning a tennis major. That's simply reality, and it's why countless tennis players, men and women, have been significant odds-on favorites to win an individual major but it's never happened in professional golf. Even Tiger at his most dominant is always 3/2 or 2/1.

[northzax]

5. on the unlikelihood

also worth noting that the field for men's golf is much deeper than men's tennis. let's look at the top twenty, in world rankings, in each sport:

Golf:

1 Tiger Woods, USA 19.19 786.81 41 -140.75 76.38
2 Jim Furyk, USA 8.53 469.17 55 -67.76 53.90
3 Phil Mickelson, USA 7.63 320.59 42 -61.37 96.82
4 Adam Scott, Aus 6.89 344.49 50 -55.24 33.98
5 Henrik Stenson, Swe 6.65 345.56 52 -36.09 141.20
6 Ernie Els, SAf 6.61 323.95 49 -43.85 80.08
7 Geoff Ogilvy, Aus 5.77 288.30 50 -40.22 59.33
8 Retief Goosen, SAf 5.69 353.00 62 -60.48 75.06
9 Vijay Singh, Fij 5.38 333.32 62 -71.82 76.37
10 Luke Donald, Eng 5.25 267.85 51 -44.36 42.73
11 Padraig Harrington, Ire 5.20 301.58 58 -40.40 32.69
12 Trevor Immelman, SAf 4.94 271.52 55 -31.62 54.13
13 Sergio Garcia, Spn 4.50 229.63 51 -45.01 25.63
14 Paul Casey, Eng 4.43 243.46 55 -28.23 61.91
15 Charles Howell-III, USA 3.70 218.34 59 -17.69 139.60
16 Nick O'Hern, Aus 3.57 185.85 52 -26.27 45.01
17 Davis Love-III, USA 3.50 174.81 50 -31.44 33.19
18 David Howell, Eng 3.41 180.82 53 -37.05 5.17
19 David Toms, USA 3.26 156.62 48 -37.51 35.40
20 Colin Montgomerie, Sco 3.19 188.49 59 -39.23 21.17

on any given day, any of them can be in the final pairing of a major championship, 12 of them have major titles (13, maybe? did Toms ever win one? can't remember off the top of my head) but if you know anything about Golf, including just watching Augusta and the US Open, none of these names would really surprise you on a major tournament (well, except Monty The Choker. If you woke up on Monday morning after Augusta week, and the headline read, "David Toms outduels DAvid Howell for Master's Title" you might be a bit surprised, but you would readily accept it. you wouldn't ask when Tiger got hurt, of Phil DQ'd, etc.

now tennis:

1

1.Federer, Roger (SUI)
2.Nadal, Rafael (ESP)
3.Roddick, Andy (USA)
4.Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS)
5.Gonzalez, Fernando (CHI)
6.Blake, James (USA)
7.Robredo, Tommy (ESP)
8.Ljubicic, Ivan (CRO)
9.Haas, Tommy (GER)
10.Nalbandian, David (ARG)
11.Ancic, Mario (CRO)
12.Berdych, Tomas (CZE)
13.Djokovic, Novak (SRB)
14.Murray, Andy (GBR)
15.Ferrer, David (ESP)
16.Gasquet, Richard (FRA)
17.Youzhny, Mikhail (RUS)
18.Baghdatis, Marcos (CYP)
19.Nieminen, Jarkko (FIN)
20.Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS)

now take the same example from Golf. If you woke up the Monday after the All England Championships to read "Jarkko Neiminen outbattles Marcos Baghdatis in classic 5 set title" your immediate response is "What the fuck happened?"

[Awsi Dooger]

17. Toms has won a major, but I count 9 major winners in that Top 20

* Woods
* Furyk
* Mickelson
* Els
* Oglivy
* Goosen
* Singh
* Love
* Toms

Several good young players there but none have won a major yet. Adam Scott did win the Players Championship. Stenson just won the match play title. Harrington has won plenty of titles and been on several Ryder Cups but never won a major.

Still, it's a point well taken. I doubt it can be argued the field in men's golf right now is deeper than tennis, particularly at the top. Tennis has fine depth in terms of first and second round matches not being pushovers, but the talented guys like Safin, Hewitt and Roddick have disappointed after looking like future stars a few years ago. Of course, Federer can be credited (blamed?) for that by squashing their spirit via multiple losses. Safin is a head case. He hasn't really been put away by Federer as much as overall erratic play. I'd love to see him advance to face Federer in a big match.

Nadal is great on clay but his game has fallen off on other surfaces since he lost the Wimbledon final to Federer last year.

[Poiuyt]

6. If you are looking for a superior athlete, you should probably look to whoever

is the current decathlon champion

[rinsd]

7. Who cares about men's tennis?

Woods has taken golf to new heights of exposure, electrifying the masses, bringing payouts to unheard of levels benefitting all pro golfers.

Federer is a very good player in a sport that has been dying for quite some time and has been unable to reverse that long time downward trend.

[WilliamPitt]

8. Fascinating debate

I reacted to your post with "No...but...wait...um...yes...no...ummm..."

I disagree, but purely for gut reasons. Have to let this one cook. Thanks for the little brain bomb.

[theboss]

19. Sidney Crosby is probably a better pure athlete than either of them

Calling any golfer - even one as physically impressive as Tiger - an "athlete" is a bit of a stretch on any day. I've always felt that the best "pure athletes" have to be professional hockey players. The combination of speed, endurance, hand-eye coordination, vision, strength to play hockey is unbelievable.

So...comparing athletes across sports is always a tricky proposition.

The point of the thread-I think-is that Federer deserves more attention than Woods.

That I completely disagree with, because tennis currently sucks while golf does not.

[LSK]

10. depends on what the criteria is

Does Federer dominate Tennis like Tiger dominates Golf?

or

Is a Tennis player by default a better athlete than a Golf player?

Maybe Woods should try tennis and Federer should try golf and see who succeeds better??

Or maybe a competition of other sports between them, like running, swimming, or something along those lines.

[bmbmd]

11. Apples

are clearly superior to oranges.

[northzax]

12. no dammnit

oranges are far superior to apples, what are you, some sort of wingnut? huh? huh? :)

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Boy, You Don't Know Anything!

Peaches are way better than both apples and oranges. So, you guys can't discuss this intelligently. Sheesh! :evilgrin:
The Professor

[northzax]

14. please, they aren't even in the same framework

(although I do like eating the odd peach) bringing peaches to a discussion of apples and oranges is simply absurd, why, it would be like trying to compare a golfer and a tennis player. Just plain stupid.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Good One!

Had me laughing out loud in my office. Very nicely done!
GAC

[bmbmd]

16. No one would think of doing that.

It would be-absurd.

[theboss]

18. Too bad no one watches men's tennis anymore

I admit that Federer is an amazing athlete and possibly the greatest to ever play his sport. However, I am bored within ten minutes of one of his matches.

Woods may have lapped the competition but at least in golf you can challenge yourself. Watching Woods is far far far more entertaining.