Stalking Tiger has Bear in his sights
After polishing off the field in the Masters and Open Championship (and he might well have captured the US Open had his putting been up to scratch) you have to believe he will do it.
He is now more than halfway there, having gone ahead of Ben Hogan and Gary Player on the all-time list on Sunday.
Only Nicklaus and Walter Hagen, 11, are above him.
The great Hogan was 34 before he won his first; Woods has ten before reaching his 30th birthday.
It seems only ill health or a sudden lack of desire can stop him achieving his goal. Whatever about the first, he has no fears of the latter.
"The drive is always to get better. You can always get better, no matter what. It's a never ending struggle. That's the fun of it, no matter how good you play, you can always play better. It's why you go out and try to play better than the previous day. And that to me is exciting."
There have been times when Woods has seemed distant and occasions when his tendency to spit at all the wrong times bordered on the nauseating.
His press conferences were the essence in blandness. But we might have seen a better side of Tiger last week. Okay, he led the Open from wire to wire and so had plenty to smile about but he did go about his business in a cheerful manner. He was commendably responsive to the galleries, even when they unashamedly roared on one of their own, Colin Montgomerie, as the pair went head-to-head on Saturday.
He had no complaints whatever on that score and after his victory on Sunday he came to the press tent and cracked a couple of pretty decent jokes.
For instance, when asked what he would do with his winner's cheque for more than 1 million, he quipped: "I'll put it in the bank for a rainy day."
But it is also pertinent to appreciate that he is now well on course to break what has been commonly regarded as the ultimate sporting record Nicklaus's 18 major championships. That would be an enormous achievement by any standards and it won't be easily or quickly done, something Woods fully accepts.
"Jack said it would be harder for me to do it because his number has always been up there in the public eye," says Tiger. "But it's not hard at all. You know that it's going to take an entire career. It's not going to happen overnight. Jack took 25 years to win all of his. It's going to take a long time to win 18 major championships. More importantly, he finished 54 or 56 times in the top five with 19 second places. I think that's more impressive than 18 wins. He's been there that many times. There's nobody who has ever played the game who has been more consistent in the biggest events than Jack. To get to ten this soon in my career is very exciting and hopefully I have some good years to look forward to in my 30s and 40s."
His prospects of catching and ultimately overtaking Nicklaus are enhanced by the lack of serious opposition. It could be argued that only ageing stars like Montgomerie and Jose-Maria Olazabal put up any kind of a fight at St Andrews. But that is to overlook the continuing presence of great golfers like Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen, to name but four, and a whole host of others, including Pádraig Harrington. Tiger spoke last week of how much he would have liked to tackle Nicklaus in his hey-day so does he now miss a true day-in, day-out, year-in, year-out rival? "Not at all because right now there's a generation of about five guys, myself, Vijay, Phil, Ernie and Goose, look at how many tournaments we've won around the world over the last five years", he maintained.
"It's pretty impressive to look at how many we've won as a group. Any one of us can win any tournament we enter. For the five of us to have been able to win major championships during the same era when we're all in the field together, it adds to that."
Sunday's triumph at St Andrews means that Woods has won all four majors for the second time. The Americans call it the double slam and the man himself wasn't complaining about that or anything else as he glowed: "To complete my first career slam at St Andrews and to now complete the second here is as special as it gets. This is something you dream about.
"All players automatically want to win the Open at St Andrews, the 'Home of Golf'. But to complete my career slam here, it doesn't get any sweeter than that."
One of the reasons I believe Woods will remain top dog for many a year to come is his burning desire to overtake Nicklaus's record. He needs that kind of spur but he will also set himself other targets along the way. Some day soon, he's going to hole every putt in a major and become the first man to shoot below 63. Maybe even 60!
They can Tiger-proof the courses as much as they like but they won't stop this man.
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