Tiger Woods

             Tiger has one last shot at a major

On an agreeable Tuesday evening in upstate New York, Tiger Woods modified everything he's ever accepted about what it intends to be a champion golfer. 

Since he was a kid and stuck Jack Nicklaus' record on his pad divider, Woods has envisioned of obscuring the Golden Bear's 18 majors. 

Majors, as Woods reminded us Tuesday, "are the most amazing occasions with the most force, the best fields on the most troublesome greens." 

Rest guaranteed, his childhood dreams were never about decimating Sam Snead's record of 82 PGA Tour wins --an imprint Woods is only three triumphs short of in the wake of blitzing the field at a week ago Bridgestone Invitational. 

It's generally been about majors for Tiger, which is fine provided you're winning them. 

Be that as it may its been more than five years since Woods last won one; it didn't take Stanley Kubrick this long to make a film. 

The wow for-17 major-less streak —by a touchdown the longest dry spell of his vocation —has, it appears, transformed Woods into something of a shell man, on the grounds that he's chosen to change the area of the pea right soon after our eyes. 

On innumerable events, Woods has said that an incredible year requires that he win no less than one major. 

Be that as it may on the eve of his final opportunity to catch that tricky fifteenth major, without much fanfare PGA Championship at venerable Oak Hill, the incredible Tiger Woods downsized. 

"I suppose winning one major title immediately implies you had an extraordinary year," he said. 

"Regardless of the fact that you miss the cut in each competition you play in, you win one, you're part of history. 

"Not long from now, for me, I suppose its been an incredible year so far for me, winning five times, and you take a gander at the nature of competitions I've won, a Players and two World Golf Championships in there, that is really exceptional." 

What's more that is the thing that it is: really great. 

Yet, Tiger, its not incredible, on the grounds that in the event that it were extraordinary … 

A columnist grabbed on the conflict and inquired as to whether he'd "balanced his benchmarks?" 

"No," an obviously unimpressed Woods reacted. 

At that point might it be, without a major, still an extraordinary year? 

"No doubt." 

Some may find it unjustifiable to judge Woods so brutally. 

Five wins, nonetheless, is an incredible vocation for a great deal of the men teeing it up without much fanfare. 

Seeker Mahan just has five PGA Tour wins. So does Luke Donald, who still devised a workable plan to achieve No. 1 on the planet. 

Yet these aren't the judgments of others. 

It was Tiger, long prior, who chose how his significance might be demarcated. 

What's more its past the point of no return now to change that definition. 

So regardless of what number of progressively times he wins at Torrey Pines, or Bay Hill or Firestone Country Club, the main address that matters in terms of his legacy would this say this is: what number majors did you win? 

That is not to say he doesn't should be praised —not a single person has done what he did from 1996 to '09 —however it is to say that unless Woods discovers the champion he used to be on Sundays at majors, then Nicklaus, by Tiger's own particular definition, will remain the most stupendous ever. 

Following the time when Woods' deconstruction by outrage in 2009, I've generally thought the hardest major for him to win wouldn't be 18, or 19 to venture out in front of Jack, yet number 15. 

"It sort of appears that way," Woods surrendered on Tuesday. 

"I've had, absolutely, my portion of opportunities to win. I've had my chances there on the back nine on those most likely 50% of the aforementioned Sundays throughout the previous five years where I've had a chance, and simply haven't won it. 

"In any case the key is to continue giving myself chances, and finally I'll begin getting them." 

Woods gave himself a chance at Muirfield a month ago yet —as he has in the course of recent years —blurred on the weekend. 

He accused a broken putter —and that was correct, given he took 66 putts on the weekend —yet possibly there's something progressively at play. 

Steve Williams, Woods' alienated caddie, viewed him at short proximity in the last adjust at the British Open and left away feeling that while his in general amusement was exceptional, Woods was absent his "old domineeringness." 

It's an insightful perception since the more of a chance has passed without a major won, the more watchful Woods has become, particularly on weekends. 

It's as though he playing not to lose one instead of attempting to win one. 

Yet Woods, as is his wont, doesn't see it that way. 

"I suppose its all reliant on the conditions," he said Tuesday of Williams' perception. 

"(At Muirfield) the punishment for being excessively domineering and hitting the ball in the wrong spots was extremely extreme. 

"Certain greens you to be more domineering than others. A week ago (at the Bridgestone Invitational) I was a little more domineering in light of the fact that the conditions were softer. 

"At Muirfield, when you're hitting five irons that are going 285 (yards), its sort of hard to be superly combative." 

What, then, of Oak Hill? 

Woods likes the course in light of the fact that he prefers old, tree-lined standard courses that are "in the thick of it before you." 

Yet the signs, from the start look, aren't so bravo. Woods completed tied for 39th when the PGA Championship was keep going here, in 2003; it was his second-least complete in the year's last major behind just the cut he missed two years prior. 

The weakest part of his diversion then, as it is currently, is his driver and not a single person can win from Oak Hill's corrective harsh. 

It's additionally a standard 70 —denying Woods of two standard fives —and he has more missed cuts (three) than wins (two) in majors on courses where standard is 70. 

However there's something to be said for certainty; Woods has gone onto win the PGA once in the wake of winning the week prior. 

Also, anyhow on this day, he's got that old flicker in his eye. 

"Do I feel great? Well, obviously I feel pretty good about winning by seven and coming here,” he said.

And if he’s still feeling good on Sunday evening, then it will really be a great year.