Talent vs. Experience

It never fails to amaze me how often experience is confused with talent. Just because someone has been doing something for a long time doesn’t mean that they are actually ANY good at it.

For instance Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, now 28 years of age, has had an unprecedented career since becoming a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996 (at the ripe old age of 20). He has won 53 tournaments, 40 of those on the PGA TOUR, including the 1997, 2001, and 2002 Masters Tournaments, 1999 and 2000 PGA Championships, 2000 and 2002 U.S. Open Championship, and 2000 British Open Championship. With his second Masters victory in 2001, Tiger became the first ever to hold all four professional major championships at the same time. He is the career victories leader among active players on the PGA TOUR, and is the career money list leader. Now THAT is TALENT.

Now let’s compare this young Tiger Woods to of male golfers over say 40… you know people with EXPERIENCE playing golf. 78% of whom can’t consistently break 90 out on the course. For those of you that aren’t avid golfers par is 72 (Incidently only 0.1% of golfers are par golfers – http://www.golfinsite.net/how_lousy_are_you.htm)

Think about that the next time you have a bright young lad (or lasse) up against an experienced old fart…. I mean really if the guy with experience was good at what they do; wouldn’t they have moved to the next level by now?