Jack Nicklaus confident a now-healthy Tiger Woods will break his major record

Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus says he fully expects Tiger Woods to surpass his major championship record one day.

Speaking at the podium on Tuesday before the start of the Memorial Tournament, host Jack Nicklaus was asked a question he hasn’t gotten in a while: Will Tiger Woods surpass his 18 major championships?

The question came back to the forefront of the golf conversation in April when a 43-year-old Woods won his first major in 11 years at the Masters. Now at 15 majors and three behind Nicklaus, the man whose record he’s chasing admits he’s not bothered by it.

“I never mind talking about it. But they stopped asking me for a while,” Nicklaus said on Tuesday at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.

Woods’ triumph at Augusta National, his first there in 14 years, capped off a remarkable comeback from four back surgeries.

The lowest point of his recovery may have come right here at the Memorial four years ago, when Woods shot 85 in the third round, the worst score of his professional career, and finished last in the field by eight shots.

Any speculation that Woods would pass Nicklaus became a moot point. He would be lucky just to get back on the PGA Tour again, never mind win another four majors. His win at the Masters, though, changed all that.

Suddenly the mission to catch Jack is back on, and Nicklaus says he won’t be surprised if Woods beats him.

“I never thought he would not chase my records someday,” Nicklaus said. “Who knows how long his body is going to stay together. You have as many operations as he’s had, he may be solid enough where it’s alright. And if he is then he probably will break my record.”

Tiger and Jack are on an almost similar major trajectory. Nicklaus won his 16th major at the 1980 U.S. Open, his 82nd start in a major. Tiger’s next attempt to win his 16th, the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in two weeks, will be his 83rd start.

History, though, isn’t on his side. Only 14 majors have been won by players age 43 or over. Of those champions, only two, Julius Boros and Old Tom Morris, went on to win a second major that late in their careers.

To beat Nicklaus, Woods will need to essentially match the entire career of players like Phil Mickelson and Seve Ballesteros, all while approaching his mid-40s.

A downside of his advancing age is that Woods isn’t able to play and practice as much as he used to. He comes into the Memorial after playing only two competitive rounds in the last seven weeks.

He didn’t play at all between the Masters and PGA Championship, then went on to miss the cut at Bethpage Black. But with Pebble Beach coming up, a course where he won the U.S. Open by 15 shots nearly two decades ago, Woods will get some valuable work in this week.

Nicklaus, for his part, says he’s enjoying seeing Woods back healthy and competing again. It wasn’t too long ago when it seemed neither would happen again, but now that the major championship record chase is back on, Nicklaus welcomes the competition.

“From my standpoint, nobody wants their records broken. I don’t want him to break my records,” he said. “But I don’t want him not to be able to play and not be physically sound to play. If he’s physically sound and his desire to win and he breaks it, you know, well done,” extending his hand in a mock handshake.

“That’s the way it should be. That’s what sports is all about to me.”

Jack will get a good look at the newly restored Tiger this week and see for himself if Woods is ready to resume the hunt that lay dormant for so long. After the Masters, it’s game on once again.