How Long Can Tiger Woods' Major Drought Last Until No. 19 Is out of Reach?

If Tiger Woods can't manage to win a major championship in his remaining three tries this summer, his quest for 19 career major titles is going to be challenged at best. If he can't win one in the next calendar year, it's going to be nearly impossible.

Indeed, the sands of time are starting to run thin on Tiger Woods’ passionate pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' career major mark. So must the patience of the world’s top-ranked golfer, who has made it his career mission to win more major titles than any golfer in the history of the sport.

Once considered an absolute formality, Tiger’s quest to best the Golden Bear’s career mark of 18 major championships is now anything but that. In fact, the longer Woods goes without winning a 15th major title, the less and less likely it is that he will win his much-coveted 19th—a possibility no one saw coming five years ago.

Still four majors shy of tying Nicklaus’ benchmark, Woods hasn't won a major since 2008 and isn't getting any younger as his five-year major victory drought has progressed.

Since that last major win at Torrey Pines, Woods has threatened in a few majors—including this year at The Masters—but the reality is that 15 opportunities have gone wasted since he last claimed one of professional golf's four most significant events.

Only 37 years old, Woods still has some good golf years left. That said, the longer he takes to claim his next major, the fewer the opportunities get and the more the pressure ramps up at every start.

As Woods was winning his 14th major championship at the legendary 2008 U.S. Open, it appeared the Tiger train was moving as scheduled with an arrival time to 19 major wins within a few years or so.

Yet injury, personal scandal, confidence issues and yet another swing change have essentially stopped that steamer dead in its tracks.

It’s been a long journey back from those darkest of days in Tiger's life, and PGA Tour victories have been coming at a pretty solid clip, especially the past two years. That upward mobility, however, has not translated to major championship victories of late.

In both last year's U.S. Open and PGA Championship, Tiger held a share of the 36-hole lead only to fade in the third round both times.

This past April, he suffered perhaps the most disappointing loss of his career, when a two-shot penalty for a bad drop cost him a chance to win the 2013 Masters. Prior to all that, Woods dropped the 2009 PGA Championship to Y.E. Yang, the first time he lost a major when leading after 54 holes.

Those near misses, coupled with the starts where he didn't even sniff contention, leaves Woods right where he was five years ago, minus one important element—all the time in the world to get the wins he needs to cement his place as the game’s all-time greatest.

It’s a designation Woods wants without dispute. It’s also one that he is quickly losing ground on achieving.

Given that, the primary question moving forward is whether Woods has the window he needs to complete his career mission. History, quite frankly, suggests he doesn't.

The only golfer in the past 50 years to win more than four majors after the age of 37 was the great Ben Hogan, who Woods has already bested by five majors. Specific to Nicklaus, after the age of 37, the Golden Bear won four majors, highlighted by his final and most unexpected triumph at the 1986 Masters.

Before that achievement, however, Nicklaus went almost six years without a major title, meaning he only won three majors between the age of 38 and 40.

Woods, who will turn 38 in December, will need something very similar to that late-30s title run to position himself for a post-40s effort to ultimately pass the Golden Bear. Considering his major runs prior to 2008, it’s a difficult but certainly not impossible endeavor.

A much, much younger Woods won six major titles between 2000 and 2002, a period that included his amazing Tiger Slam.  A more recent version of the man claimed six majors between 2005 and 2008, with four of them coming between 2006 and 2008.

Bottom line: Woods tends to win majors in relative bunches. Considering his current five-year drought, it’s reasonable to think that his next major title—wherever it might come from—could start another run of dominance that might place him directly on Nicklaus’ doorstep.

The question, however, is when or even if that breakthrough victory will arrive. Considering his strong form the past several months, many believed Merion Golf Club and the 2013 U.S. Open would be his next major triumph.

His performance at The Memorial this past weekend, which included the worst nine holes of his career on Saturday, has given significant pause to that assumption. Tiger continues to struggle with the driver, and it’s a club that will be in demand on the challenging Merion layout.

If the U.S. Open fails him yet again, Woods will still have a pair of opportunities this summer to break through and renew his chase of The Bear.

Should he come up short in those efforts, the pressure will only grow heading into the 2014 campaign and beyond.

The slipping sand on Tiger's quest for 19 majors is proof that nothing in sports in guaranteed, even for a great talent such as Woods. The quest may ultimately be achieved, but there’s no denying that what was once considered a lock is anything but today.