The Golf Blog: Is Jack Nicklaus’s major record becoming out of reach for Tiger Woods?
The Golf Blog says: Tiger Woods has been stuck on 14 majors for 4 years, the longest drought of his entire career. Back in November, Tiger thought his chances of beating Jack’s record are still good: “”If you say hypothetically 10 years, that’s 40 more major championships I get a chance to play in and compete in and try to win, and hopefully I can try to at least win five of those.”
That’s true. Tiger is currently tied with Jack’s pace of majors. But Jack didn’t win his 15th major until age 38. Tiger will be 37 in December so he has 8 more majors over the next 2 years before he turns 39. If Tiger wins 2 majors over the next 2 years, he will be ahead of Jack’s pace again.
On the other hand, there’s no doubt the competition is much stiffer today, with young guns Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, Louis Oosthuizen, and others likely to be consistent major contenders. Plus, Tiger is still working out a swing change under Sean Foley and his putting hasn’t been clutch on Sundays. Not only that, Tiger’s injuries may have taken a toll on his body, which one cannot assume will be the same into his 40s.
In sum, Tiger’s still got time to catch Jack. But the forces working against him are much larger than they were 5 years ago.
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