Tiger Woods: 2012 Masters Won't Derail Major Championship Dreams

Tiger Woods didn't come close to winning the 2012 Masters, but that won't stop him from reaching his goal of winning more major championships than Jack Nicklaus.

Woods is in the middle of the longest drought of his career. The last major championship he won was at the U.S. Open in 2008.

It's not the first time he's gone through this kind of dry spell, though. 

After winning eight majors in a span of six years—from 1997 to 2002—Woods didn't win another one for almost two more years. During that time, Woods was in the midst of a swing change that took him a while to perfect. 

Tiger went on another tear once he got the kinks worked out, winning six more majors in four years between 2005 to 2008. Then, in 2009, Tiger's sex scandal made headlines, destroying both his family life at home and his golf game out on the course.

Since that time, Woods has been on a rocky road to redemption, highlighted by his recent win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. It was his first win on tour in two-and-a-half years, making Woods the favorite to win this year's Masters.

My inclination was that Woods wasn't ready to win on the big stage yet, and I wrote a post chronicling why the odds were stacked against him.

As good as he played at Bay Hill, Woods still displayed some bad tendencies in the weeks leading up to that event. Those tendencies reared their ugly heads this week, and we all saw what happened as a result: Tiger couldn't hit the shots he wanted.

His swing is still a work in progress, and it is going to take months of practice to get his mind and body working together again. There isn't any danger of this becoming a permanent problem, though.

If we've learned anything about Woods over the years, it's that he's the most driven individual to ever step foot on tour. He will keep working to prove he's the best player in the world.

I have no doubt in my mind that Tiger will end up breaking Nicklaus' records. Nicklaus himself has said as much, per the Daily Mail: "His goals have not changed and his goals are to win more majors than I did, and that's fine. His chances of doing that are quite good."

If anyone knows, it's going to be the Golden Bear.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of the Masters, and thank you for making Bleacher Report your source for all your PGA news, reaction and analysis.

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