Just where did the time go? Gary Player is 90. Ernie Els is 56. And now, Tiger Woods is 50.

Father Time is undefeated, although golf is one of the few sports where you can still compete with someone half your age – and beat them. Still, to think of Tiger as a golfer now eligible to play on the Champions Tour (Seniors) is incredible.

The memories of the greatest golfer ever – we’ll come back to that – are as vivid as they are when he won The Masters 29 years ago. A fist-pumping, pied piper of the sport, an individual who became a global brand and the man who pioneered a new generation of golfers.

Sure, we had ‘Mr Fitness’ Gary Player himself, but Woods dragged an entire golfing generation into the gym, forced them to exercise more, eat better and dedicate themselves to the cause. He made golf professional again. Either join the fitness revolution, or feed off the scraps he left behind.

When people say that our own Ernie, himself a generational talent, could have won more Majors than the four he did, they point to him being in the era when Woods was untouchable. Maybe so, but when Els finished runner-up to Woods in the 2000 US Open he was 15 shots behind and when runner-up in the 2000 Open Championship he was eight shots back. Even when Woods won that first Major at the age of 21, he did so with 12 shots of daylight between himself and Tom Kite.

Of course, one can’t compare generations, although I believe that in some sports you can. Take cricket, for example. The reason why we can say that Sir Don Bradman is the best batsman ever is not only because he averaged 99.94. It’s because the second best batsman of that generation averaged just under 60. When judging greats, you have to look at the dominance over their peers.

A view of Jack Nicklaus, whose 18 regular Majors are three more than Woods’, is that the opposition wasn’t as stacked in his heyday as it was when Woods was at his own peak. In those 18 Majors, the widest winning margin he enjoyed was nine strokes in an extraordinary 1965 Masters where Arnold Palmer and Player could only stand and applaud greatness. But Nicklaus’s average winning margin was 2.4 strokes, whereas with Woods it was 3.9. In golf history it's them, then the rest.

Still, golf is fortunate to have two contenders for GOAT status and responsible for growing the game more than any marketing campaigns could ever achieve.

When Woods won the 2019 Masters at the age of 43, he became the oldest Green Jacket wearer since Nicklaus in 1986, who was 46.

I’ll always rank Woods as the best-ever, even if it’s by a short head. And he would also make for a better Hollywood blockbuster movie. In 2009 his life took a turn with that much-publicised marital meltdown, a year after he’d won his 14th Major at the age of 32. There was no place to hide and coupled with a body that was breaking down, many thought we’d never see him again.

In 2017 he was arrested and his mugshot headlined bulletins around the world and in 2021 he was lucky to survive a car accident. Rebuilt in theatres and hospitals, he’s had major surgery to his knees, Achilles, back, spine and ankle, among other operations.

It’s a miracle that he’s able to walk – and the Champions Tour concession to allow golf carts and play 54-hole tournaments will sound good.

All that is in the future. For now, it’s happy 50th birthday to a man who feels like an honorary South African, given the joy – and pain – we’ve shared with him, but to Ernie and Retief, we can also say: ‘Go get some payback!’.

Gary Lemke