Jack Nicklaus Comments on Tiger Woods' Health, Breaking His Record and More

Tiger Woods hasn’t played golf in six months after undergoing back surgery, and the man he’s chasing on the all-time majors wins list would hate to see health get in his way of breaking that record. 

Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major winner, caught up with Woods, the 14-time winner, when the former hosted a dinner party for U.S. Ryder Cup hopefuls Thursday. 

Nicklaus said Woods “looked very good” and “looked very healthy” but maintained that Tiger has no timetable for his return to golf, per Bob Harig of ESPN.com. 

But the Golden Bear hopes it’s soon—even if it means Woods might catch his once-thought-unbreakable record:

"

Nobody wants their records to be broken, but I don't want you to not have the ability to have the opportunity to do so by your health. ... No, he looked great and he was in great spirits," Nicklaus said. "The guys enjoyed having him at the dinner. We had a lot of nice back and forth about how to play golf and this and that and so forth. It was a very, very nice evening. I hope the guys enjoyed it.

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Here is an extended look at Nicklaus discussing his exchange with Woods, via ESPN.com:

Woods has had three back operations since withdrawing from an event last August with back pain, leading plenty to wonder if he’ll ever return to the championship form he captivated the sports world with for more than a decade.   

On Monday, longtime golf writer Robert Lusetich tweeted Woods’ “condition worsened,” which sent the social realms in a frenzy—enough to prompt Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, to issue a statement to quash those rumors (h/t Harig).

Woods followed up Wednesday by tweeting a video of himself swinging a 9-iron on a golf simulator to put to rest any speculation he was weathering a setback: 

Woods has battled a slew of injuries through his career, per ESPN.com: a ruptured ACL in 2007, an arthroscopic knee surgery in 2008, a ACL surgery in 2008 and a torn Achilles tendon in 2008-09—and that's on top of his ongoing knee and back problems of late. 

Woods, 40, hasn’t won a major since his playoff victory at the 2008 U.S. Open while playing with a broken leg and torn ACL. Nearly eight years have passed, leading the golf world to wonder if he’ll ever catch Nicklaus' record that once seemed well in his sights. 

Those Nicklaus said he’d hate to see injuries stand in Woods' way, at this stage in Tiger's career—and with the Masters Tournament in April—one has to wonder if that will indeed be the case.