More than a decade of launching missiles from the tee, targeting the green with long irons, battering the pin with approach shots, chipping close from the rough, nailing putts long and short on greens flat and undulating around the globe, pumping his fist, intimidating opponents, and forging preposterous victories \u2013 by 15 strokes in a U.S. Open and 13 in his first Masters \u2013 have certified Tiger Woods as the greatest golfer in history.\u00a0 The forgoing statement in no way disrespects the achievements of Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear.\u00a0 It merely underscores what most observers serious and casual have long realized: Tiger is in outer space, and the mystery is how far he\u2019ll be able to travel.<\/p>\n
Tiger Woods wallpapered the bedroom of his youth with the unmatched exploits of Jack Nicklaus.\u00a0 Most important of these to Woods, possessed then as now by grand ambition, were Nicklaus\u2019 18 major championships.\u00a0 Less than 12 years after turning pro, Woods already has 13 major titles and we\u2019re unaware of anyone who believes he won\u2019t surpass 18.\u00a0 The essential question therefore becomes: how many will he win?\u00a0 Mathematical projections, even when based on a lengthy playing history, can be deceptive.\u00a0 At age 34 Tom Watson, one of the finest putters ever, had won eight major titles and 36 tournaments, yet he spontaneously lost his feel \u2013 beset by the dreaded yips \u2013 and began missing putts most Saturday golfers would drain.\u00a0 Despite continued excellence in ball striking, he won no more majors and only three tournaments the following 14 years.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible to now prove that Woods, age 32, won\u2019t be beset by this not uncommon malady.\u00a0 But we doubt he\u2019ll get the jitters in his thirties since his mind is as impressive as his athletic arsenal: he not merely enjoys pressure but craves it and unlike everyone else plays better when conditions are toughest.<\/p>\n
If putting won\u2019t soon diminish Tiger\u2019s accumulation of victories, what could?\u00a0 He\u2019ll certainly be careful with his left knee, which was recently operated on a third time following his second-place finish at the Masters.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t a major procedure \u2013 none were \u2013 just a cleansing of bone and ligament rather than cutting and restructuring them.\u00a0 And, we must emphasize, golfers don\u2019t have to run off tackle or soar above the rim to excel, and generally maintain their peak much longer than those in other sports.\u00a0 So let\u2019s do some math.\u00a0 As a professional, Tiger Woods has played 45 major tournaments and won 29% of them.\u00a0 No one else is in the same solar system.\u00a0 He once won four in a row over two seasons, a feat comparable to hitting 90 steroid-free home runs over a 162-game stretch.\u00a0 That won\u2019t happen again, notwithstanding Tiger\u2019s ability to consecutively win several other tournaments.\u00a0 Over the next eight golf seasons, which will take Woods through the age of 39, he will probably win about a quarter of the major championships, averaging one per year, and possess 21 at the end of the 2015 season.\u00a0 He could have more by then, but it\u2019s almost as likely he\u2019ll have less.\u00a0 Family life, fishing, skiing (which he better give up), and his burgeoning businesses soon to make him a billionaire \u2013 all could diminish the time he invests in golf and, more critically, the passion he feels for the game.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be hungry for a long time, but will he be as ravenous as he\u2019s been since childhood?<\/p>\n
We think he will remain obsessed.\u00a0 After what will then be two decades of unquestioned supremacy \u2013 and perhaps even sooner \u2013 some young guns are going to challenge him for the mantle of World Greatest Golfer.\u00a0 They\u2019ll be threatening his birthright, and the besieged warrior, player of the year and winner of the most tournaments nine times his first 11 seasons, will mobilize to slay his enemies \u2013 \u201cto kick their butts.\u201d\u00a0 The quest for more golfing records will again be as alluring as it was in his youth.\u00a0 He already owns 64 victories.\u00a0 By 2015 he\u2019ll probably have won more than 100 career tournaments, demolishing the august total of 82 that sweet-swinging Sam Snead has held for decades.<\/p>\n
That won\u2019t suffice. On stormy nights he\u2019ll yearn to pummel Vijay Singh and win more than his three majors and 19 tournaments after turning 40.\u00a0 He\u2019ll fume about Nicklaus\u2019 six green jackets at the Masters.\u00a0 Woods now has four and at 40 still may not have seven.\u00a0 He\u2019ll also toil to top Jack and be older than 46 when he wins his final Masters.\u00a0 Then it\u2019s the suave Julius Boros who must be roughed up.\u00a0 In the 1968 PGA tournament Boros at age 48 became the oldest player to win a major title.\u00a0 This record will have endured more than half a century when Tiger is old enough to challenge it.\u00a0 And, unavoidably, there must be more abuse for Sam Snead.\u00a0 In 1965 he won the Greater Greensboro Open just shy of 53, oldest ever for a regular tour event.\u00a0 At 67 Snead also became the first player to shoot his age and the oldest to make the cut in a tournament.<\/p>\n
Tiger Woods wants all those records, and even more he\u2019ll need to keep hunting old lions and new studs to let them know that Tiger, though balding and less svelte, is still swinging and passionate about making painful their walks with him down the fairways of history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than a decade of launching missiles from the tee, targeting the green with long irons, battering the pin with approach shots, chipping close from the rough, nailing putts long and short on greens flat and undulating around the globe, pumping his fist, intimidating opponents, and forging preposterous victories \u2013 by 15 strokes in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[219,220],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n