A growing number of Tiger Woods' peers believe he will never win another major championship, according to a recent Golf Confidential survey conducted by ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine.
Seventy percent of the nearly 60 PGA Tour golfers polled said Woods' major-winning days are behind him, compared with 63 percent in a survey taken in 2015.
When posed the question of whether Woods or Phil Mickelson would win more majors in the next five years, Mickelson nearly tripled Woods' chances (59 percent to 16 percent) in the 2016 survey. A quarter of the golfers called it a tie, although most of those players said neither would accomplish the feat.
Those same golfers, when queried about who would finish the year ranked No. 1 in the world, had Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth even at 38 percent. Jason Day came in at 19 percent, although the questions were asked prior to Day's recent back-to-back victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and WGC-Dell Match Play. The survey was conducted at multiple PGA Tour events in February and early March.
Other information gleaned from the survey of 56 pros included:
* Nearly half (46 percent) of players responded in the affirmative when asked if they had seen a golfer cheat and not get caught, although almost all said it was related to taking an illegal drop.
* On the controversial topic of fans phoning in rules violations, pros continued to show their distaste for it, voting 84 percent against the practice.
* When asked how many green jackets Spieth would have 20 years from now, the average answer was three. Because the 22-year-old Texan already has one, the belief is he'll win one more per decade.
* With the sport returning to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years, players were asked to choose between winning a major championship or an Olympic gold medal. It was a near-unanimous vote (95 percent) in favor of major titles.