Tiger Woods: PGA Championship Is Make-or-Break Tournament for Tiger's Comeback

The 2012 Open Championship ended on Sunday—the seventeenth major championship that has come and gone since Tiger Woods last sat atop the golf world.

Tiger has finished in the top-6 at seven of the last 13 majors he's participated in, a stat that Tiger Apologists are quick to voice.

But this is Eldrick Woods we're talking about––top-6 finishes amount to diddly-squat.

Tiger's career is at an indubitable crossroads heading into next month's PGA Championship, a tournament that, should he lose, would be the eighteenth major event since his victory at the 2008 U.S. Open.

Let's put that into perspective. Here are the other modern-era golfers (since the Masters was founded) that have won eight or more major titles:

Name	Major Championships	Longest Major Drought	Post-Drought Majors Won
Jack Nicklaus	18	20	1
Tiger Woods	14	17+	???
Gary Player	9	17	4
Ben Hogan	9	6	3
Tom Watson	8	11	5

If you don't understand the historical severity of Tiger's major drought, take a second to soak this in.

So let's say Tiger doesn't win the PGA Championship, putting 18 majors between him and his last victory. The only person on this list who has gone that long between majors is Jack Nicklaus, whose anomalous victory at the 1986 Masters is the only thing between Tiger and record-breaking ignominy.

Yes, that 1986 Masters, where the then 46-year-old Nicklaus became the oldest champion in the tournament's history.

Nicklaus' win that day was an outlier—his competitive career should have been over, and he would never win a major again after that.

Here is where this gets so interesting: All visceral indications suggest that Tiger is still one of the best golfers in the world, but the empirical data suggests that he should be done winning majors.

There was once a time where Tiger's eventual obliteration of Nicklaus' "18 major record" was a foregone conclusion. In 2012, it's starting to look more implausible with every tournament Tiger blows in the final round.

Tiger needs to start winning again, and he has to do it now, because the empirical data suggests that he's running thin on time.

The fives senses can often deceive you, but numbers never lie.