I have a hard time with a golfer being an athlete. It's a skill sport. He coincidentally may be an athlete, but nothing I see on a golf course will ever allow me to call someone an athlete solely on them swinging a club. Deion Sanders was an athlete, Bo Jackson was an athlete. Craig Stadler, not so much. A golfer can be dominant in his sport much as tiger is, but to put him on a tier of top level athletes he would get embarassed.