Tiger Woods: Just How Important Is The 2011 Season?

Just how important is the 2011 season for Tiger Woods in terms of his quest to break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championship victories?

Well, here’s a statistic that puts that question into perspective.

Woods just turned 35 on December 30^th.  Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson are the only two players in the history of golf to have won as many majors after the age of 35 (36 and older) as Woods needs to win in order to overtake Nicklaus.

Folks, they’ve been playing organized professional golf since the 1860s.  The four tournaments viewed as the modern day majors have been in place for the past 78 years.  And during all of that time, only two men have ever done what Woods will need to do if he does not win a major in 2011.

On top of that, Hogan and Snead, as great as they were, did not play against fields nearly as deep and talented as Woods will face in the coming years.

Hogan and Snead also were never involved in the “Scandal of the century” and did not have to deal with the same media scrutiny that Woods has endured for most of his life.

Nicklaus won two majors at the age of 35 and then proceeded to win four more over the next 11 years.

Since 1999, Woods has always enjoyed a comfortable lead over Nicklaus in terms of major championship wins vs. age.

Having now gone almost three years without a major, Woods would fall dead even with Nicklaus if he does not win a major this season, which means that Woods would need to one-up Nicklaus in the later stages of his career.  Not the easiest task considering that Nicklaus never had to endure the full wrath of the tabloid media and never had to play on a left knee that was surgically repaired five times within a span of 15 years.

Woods has now gone 10 majors without a win which ties for the longest drought of his career (Woods went 10 majors without a win in 97’ – ’99 and 02’ – 04’).  Nicklaus never went winless in more than 11.

It’s true that professional golfers are remaining more competitive these days into their mid and even late 40s.  That being said, the oldest men to ever win a major championship are as follows:

• Julius Boros: 1968 PGA Championship, 48 years, 4 months, 18 days
• Jack Nicklaus: 1986 Masters, 46 years, 2 months, 23 days
• Old Tom Morris: 1867 British Open, 46 years, 99 days
• Jerry Barber: 1961 PGA Championship, 45 Years, 3 months, 6 days
• Hale Irwin: 1990 U.S. Open, 45 years, 15 days old
• Roberto de Vicenzo: 1967 British Open, 44 years, 93 days
• Harry Vardon: 1914 British Open, 44 years, 41 days
• Raymond Floyd: 1986 U.S. Open, 43 years, 9 months, 11 days
• Ted Ray: 1920 U.S. Open, 43 years, 4 months, 16 days old

So, although players today may be winning multiple PGA Tour events into their late 40s, no one since 1986 has cracked this list of the top-nine oldest major champions.  

Plain and simple, if Woods goes the entire 2011 season without winning a major, his quest to surpass Nicklaus will become substantially more difficult as he turns 36 next December.  From 2012 on, Woods would find himself involved in a battle against father time, which is a battle that only two men have won in the past 151 years.