Tiger Woods: How he can reach 18 majors by the end of 2021

Tiger Woods still has his sights set squarely on Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 career majors. And it could still happen pretty realistically with just a little bit of luck over the next two seasons.

If Tiger Woods stays healthy for the next two seasons, he has a great chance to reach or even exceed 18 majors. The reason is that the sites of several upcoming major championships are right in his wheelhouse. They are places where he has won before, places he knows under major championship conditions. It’s the perfect set up for the march to and through 18.

Every year, Woods has to be among the favorites for the Masters. He has already won the green jacket five times, so it’s hard to believe that he can’t win a sixth one. Woods turned 44 on December 30th, and while that may have put him into the golfers’ old folks home 35 years ago,  these days, plenty of PGA Tour players have played successfully right into and through their 40s and beyond.  It is no longer ridiculous to think golfers can win majors in their 40s.

Phil Mickelson won the British Open when he was 43, the WGC Mexico Championship at age 47 and the AT&T Pebble Beach at 48. (Remember, he has a June birthday when he’ll turn 50!) Darren Clarke won the British Open at 42.  Vijay Singh won 22 times on the PGA Tour after turning 40, and one of them was a major.

To say that someone who has worked as hard to stay in shape as Tiger Woods can’t win a major at his age is ridiculous. He just did it last April.

Sure, the Masters has the smallest field of all the big tournaments. And yes, the winner has fewer players to beat, but all of them are winners.

Once the cut is made at Augusta, there are just the top 50 and/or those within 10 strokes of the lead still in the field.  If older past champions get to the weekend, it makes it even easier for someone like Woods to succeed.

This year, it’s anticipated that 19 former champs will play, and while that includes Tiger Woods, it also includes Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Larry Mize and Sandy Lyle, all of whom are 60 or more. Absolutely no offense to any past champs, but Tiger Woods beats many of them over four rounds under major championship pressure.

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Give Woods one more Masters victory in the next two years. That’s number 16. It would be ridiculous to say he’ll win the Masters in both 2020 and 2021, but one of them is certainly feasible. The winner will need to play smart golf, which is exactly what Woods did there in 2019.

Next up, the PGA. PGA Championships are surprisingly hard to win. The setups are ultra-fair, the fairways are narrow, and the rough is usually thick. That’s why there are sometimes unexpected winners like Shaun Micheel in 2003 or Rich Beem in 2002.

The 2020 PGA is going to be played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco which hosted the Presidents Cup in 2009 and the WGC-Cadillac in 2015, won by Rory McIlroy, to name just two events at the noted site. However, in 2005, the WGC-American Express Championship was played at there, and after 72 holes, John Daly and Tiger Woods were tied.

To say the atmosphere was nuts is an understatement.

“When we were taking the carts back up to get to the tee, I couldn’t hear anything,” Woods said after winning. “In my left ear I’m half deaf, people whistling and screaming, and then my right ear I’m half deaf. It was electric, it was loud, people were really into it.”

But of course, the PGA is a full field event, and Woods will have to beat, most likely, 155 golfers.   Twenty of them are club professionals. It used to be more, but the PGA reduced the number of PGA of America professionals to strengthen the tournament.

Since Woods has a past victory at Harding Park, it is hard to count him out.  However, because it’s a PGA with a pretty tough field, it’s hard to just give it to him either. If he wins, which he could, it might get him to 17 majors, if he’s fortunate enough to win the Masters.

Now we have the U.S. Open. It will be held at Winged Foot, where the last two winners there were Geoff Ogilvy in 2006 in a U.S. Open, when both Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie failed to make par at the last hole, and Davis Love III in 1997 in a PGA over Justin Leonard.

The USGA can make Winged Foot as hard as they want it.  How hard? In 1974 the tournament was so hard that the late Dick Schaap wrote a book about it called The Massacre at Winged Foot because Hale Irwin won the U.S. Open at 7-over par. At the time it was the second highest U.S. Open winning score since the end of WWII.

Somehow, this one doesn’t really call Tiger Woods’ name.  If he wins it, and he surely could, it would be the Miracle at Winged Foot.

Finally in 2020, the British Open is at Royal St. George’s where Greg Norman, Darren Clarke and Ben Curtis won majors.  Again, can’t pick Woods for this one.

So, with skill and luck, because you always need luck in winning any golf tournament,  maybe Woods gets two majors in 2020.

Then, in theory, he needs one more to tie Jack Nicklaus and two to win more majors than anyone.

In 2021, his chances get better.  Again, as long as Tiger Woods can draw air, he’s got a shot at the Masters, but to win two in three years is a big ask.  However, if he is staring No. 18 in the face, he might find a way.

After the Masters, it’s on to the PGA at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, where Rory McIlroy won in 2012 and where the War by The Shore, the 1991 Ryder Cup, was played.  The grass will likely be Bermuda, so that may favor players raised in the south or the desert.

When the PGA is over,  the schedule starts to really smile like a Cheshire Cat on Woods. If he didn’t win the Masters, this is where  it appears that the golf gods are opening the door for him.

The 2021 U.S. Open is at Torrey Pines where he won on a busted-up leg in 2008 and has seven other victories. With two good legs, you’d have to be crazy to say he didn’t have a shot!  If Woods has been fortunate enough to win two additional majors before this week, the sense of history won’t be lost on him. He will be staring directly at No. 18.

While I hate to do a Babe Ruth pointing to the center field bleachers kind of thing, when Woods sets his mind to something, it’s hard to drag him back from it. If this is for No. 18, he will give it everything he has.

Finally in 2021, the British Open is at The Old Course at St. Andrews, site of Woods victories in 2000 and 2005.   What a place it would be to tie  or set a new record for most major championships.

So there you have it.  Tiger Woods has the potential to reach 18 majors, and more, within the next two years. Of course, he will have to overcome about 200 golfers from various corners of the world to do it, but it’s possible because of the venues. You might say the stars are aligning for him.