[SunDeck]

I think the biggest difference between them is the relative strength of their competition. Jack Nicklaus dominated an extremely talented generation of golfers, while Tiger dominates a group that has only a few who are close to his level.

As to comparing them, Tiger may be the best shot maker ever, but he probably never even held a one iron, which Nicklaus could hit sky high and let the ball drop onto the green so soft you could catch it in your mouth (to paraphrase Lee Trevino). Both of them have the ability to pull out an extra thirty yards from the tee when they want it, and both of them are able to grind out a string of birdies when their competition gets close in tight round. To be sure, these guys are both playing a different game their peers, but I think the game has less finesse than it did forty years ago, so that it is difficult to say which of them is actually better. Tiger can bomb and gouge AND he can take dead aim from 200 yards, but if the game had changed prior to Nicklaus' coming of age, who's to say he wouldn't have been able to do the same?