He’s baaaack…. and he won’t be going away anytime soon. Tiger Woods and his green jacket is back on top of the sports world once again. Heck, he’s the lead story on every news outlet, not just sports pages as his Masters victory has the whole world watching again.
Woods struggled mightily to claim his fifteenth major since his last major win at the ’08 U.S. Open. His ups and downs are well documented. No athlete had fallen so far and been able to comeback to the top of their sport like Woods has. And with that, the most significant number in all of golf is back in play again: 18.
That’s Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships that we all had thought would be the unreachable mark since Tiger had been on the sidelines all this time. But his play at Augusta has changed all that.
Woods has been chasing Jack since his “Hello World” press conference in 1996. And the chase is back on.
So what are Tiger’s chances of capturing more major trophies? Better than you would have thought last week for sure. On Sunday Jack Nicklaus joked on the Golf Channel that Tiger had him “shaking in his boots” once again as he challenged his record.
Consider this. The next two majors will be played on courses where Woods has already claimed majors. The PGA Championship next month at Bethpage Black where he won in ’02 and the U.S. Open is at Pebble Beach in June. You remember Woods at Pebble as he blitzed the field by 15 shots. Oh, and he’s won the AT&T there also. In July a wild card in the mix, Royal Portrush hosts the Open Championship so it’s a new course for Woods. 
In 2020 The PGA is at Harding Park where Woods won a WGC Championship. The year after in ’21 Torrey Pines hosts the U.S. Open the scene of Tiger’s one legged overtime win over Rocco Mediate in ’08. And that same year The Open is back at The Old Course at St. Andrews where he won the Claret Jug.
And a few years out in ’22 the Open Championship heads back to Royal Liverpool at Hoylake where, you guessed it Woods won the Open again..
Over the next 15 major championship venues nine will be played on courses where Woods won. He’s 43 now and will be 45 and six months when he returns to St. Andrews in 2021.
Jack won his last major at 46 and Woods has been a different golfer since his last back operation. His body is scarred but not broken and his spirit renewed with the race to 18 back on.
And I bet if Tiger is stuck on 17 when The Open rolls around in ’21 at St. Andrews I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack put down the fishing rod for a quick trip to the Auld Grey Toon to be there when Tiger walked off the eighteenth hole.
The chase is on again.
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