Golfing legend makes brutal swipe at Tiger Woods after divorce and cheating scandal

Golfing great Jack Nicklaus reckons Tiger Woods was on a better keel back when he was wed. The 84-year-old sports legend, who's been hitched to his spouse Barbara for 64 years, claims that having a solid partner is a boon to any player's career .

They were college sweethearts before he shot to fame with a whopping 18 major wins and notched up 73 PGA Tour victories. Without Barbara by his side, he believes his career wouldn't have been half as successful, comparing it to Tiger Woods'.

The latter has been dogged by scandal and drama in his personal life, cheating on his former wife Elin Nordegren with multiple women .

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Nicklaus made the claims ahead of the 2024 Memorial Tournament, reports the Mirror . He said: "That set the tone of my career. Not everybody gets the right partner."

He gushed about Barbara, saying: "And I had somebody who loved me, cared for me, supported me, and you know, that was really important. So that was a big thing to me. I don't know that anything that was anymore important than that to me."

He credited his wife for the trophies he's bagged, saying: "I give her a lot of credit for what I've won because, you know, a golfer goes out on Tour and if you're not married, if you got your family, you get support, your caddie or whoever, whoever it might be, that's very important to you."

When Woods tied the knot with Elin Nordegren in 2004, he was already golfing royalty with eight majors under his belt now - totalling 15. But, he still trails behind Nicklaus. Following his rocky road and split from Nordegren in 2010, his form began to wobble.

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Nicklaus, who hung up his clubs as Woods rose to glory, shared his musings on the saga.

He went on to say: "I don't mean this in a nasty way, but I remember when Tiger was single and Tiger, then he got married and they said, 'Well how do you think that will effect Tiger's career? ' And I said, 'Well, I think it will only be a plus.'"

"I says, he's going to get tired of coming home and telling Butch Harmon, 'Hey, Butch, I won another one.' He had somebody to share it with. You want to share your career and enjoy the fruits of your work."