Tiger Woods: Why US Open Performance Can Only Help Record Pursuit

Tiger Woods heads into the 2012 U.S. Open Championship at The Olympic Club Lake Course with all eyes focused on how he will perform coming off of his recent victory at the Memorial.

He even has four FBI agents and seven police following his group which includes Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson.

With Tiger trying to announce to the world that he is officially back by winning his 15th major championship this weekend, it's no surprise that the world is watching.

In fact, some analysts have even gone as far to say that Tiger needs this major championship victory more than ever. 

They argue that his pursuit of Nicklaus's ever-distancing 18 career major championships will be nearly impossible without a win this weekend.  The window is closing.  The time is now.   He hasn't won a major championship in four years, and if he doesn't win this week, then when will he?

Relax.

Tiger's performance this week can only help his chances of catching Nicklaus.  If he doesn't win then so be it.  He won't be crippled by a loss, and he surely won't lose his shot at passing the Golden Bear.

You see, Jack Nicklaus won number 18 at age 46.  Not to mention, he won two more at age 40 and another at 38.  That's four majors after the age of 38.

Tiger is 36, and players today seem to have a longer competitive lifespan than in decades past (see Watson, Tom, Clarke, Darren or Couples, Fred).  He only needs four more majors for the tie, and five for the win.

And he has nearly a decade to do it. 

That's ten years of majors times four majors per year which equals some 40 odd majors that Tiger will have a realistic shot to win.

And he only needs to win five of them. 

That's 12.5 percent of the majors or one every two years.  For a re-focused Tiger?  That's cake.

Sure, he has gone 0 for his last 14 attempts, but it's safe to say that his off-the-course life has been a bit, uhh, distracting over that span.

In fact, I think people have forgotten how truly dominant Tiger Woods can be.  The fact that he still has a shot to pass the greatest golfer of all time— despite not recording a single major championship victory over a four-year-span in the middle of his career— is astounding.

Heck, if Tiger captured say three out of the next five major championships, would anybody be surprised?

One dominating run like that is all it would take for the major championship record to be all but his.

So calm down everyone, the demise of Tiger Woods has been greatly exaggerated.  His shot at passing Nicklaus is still possible— if not probable, and this weekend's results can only help his case.