Capelle On Golf

In golf’s most amazing time warp, Tiger Woods is now 12 years removed from his record setting win at the 1997 Masters. Along the way he’s piled up some impressive numbers in his quest to unseat Jack Nicklaus as the best ever.
With the Masters in a few days, now seems like a good time to revisit the numbers and see what the 33 year old Tiger is up against.

The table below shows their totals through their first 12 years as pros. It does not include Nicklaus’ second and fourth in the US Open as an amateur. Woods fans may complain that Tiger is missing two starts from 2008. Nicklaus fans can counter that their man missed the cut at the 1963 while recovering from an injury, and that his game was suffering from a mumps vaccination at the 1967 Masters where he also missed the cut.

In 1974 Nicklaus added a second, third, and fourth to his totals, but failed to win, ending a four year streak of one or more majors. Tiger’s four year streak is on the line this year. A major title would eclipse Nicklaus best, adding weight to his case for best ever.

Nicklaus and Woods in the Majors – 12 Years
F—JN—TW
1—12—14
2—8—5
3—5—3
4—2—2
T—27—24

The table below shows Nicklaus’ career top fours and how many Tiger must amass in each category to tie Nicklaus. Tiger needs only 30 more top fours to tie Nicklaus. A Top Four Slam for the next seven and a half seasons should do it!

F—JN—TW
1—18—4
2—19—14
3—9—6
4—8—6
T—54—30