Jack Nicklaus offers blunt verdict on Tiger Woods breaking major record

Golf icon Jack Nicklaus reignited the debate over his 18 Major championships versus Tiger Woods’ 15 as the 50-year-old icon continues to navigate an injury-plagued career

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Golf legend Jack Nicklaus compared his career to the injury-plagued greatness of Tiger Woods at the Cognizant Classic(Image: NBC/Peacock)

PGA Tour legend Jack Nicklaus is well documented in his belief that 13-time major championship and Grand Slam winner Bobby Jones is the greatest golfer ever to live.

Although Jones seems unbeatable in Nicklaus’s rankings, he thinks a healthy Tiger Woods would have at least surpassed himself. Nicklaus graced the booth at Wood’s PGA Tour-hosted Cognizant Classic regular-season tournament, which features Ireland’s Shane Lowry and USA’s Austin Smotherman tied for the lead through three rounds, with the final on Sunday.

The 18-time major champion discussed his win at PGA National 55 years ago, the importance of the event, his opinion on Tiger’s career, and the world’s top two-ranked golfers, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

He then hit golf fans and Woods with yet another painful dose of reality when comparing their PGA success.

“Tiger should have broken my record,” said Nicklaus. “If he’d stayed healthy. But he didn’t.” Nicklaus established his era with durability and consistency, whereas Woods’ period of dominance remains more than enough to be considered among the greatest golfers of all time.

Nicklaus had 18 majors and 19 runner-ups, and rarely missed a chance to compete. Woods reached 15 majors, tying the PGA Tour record with 82 wins and a 21.7% win rate during his prime, which remains the best for golfers in over 200 PGA events.

Their careers overlapped in 22 majors between 1995 and 2005. The 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla saw them paired together in competition. The Tour legend missed the cut and later acknowledged that his era at the top was over.

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Nicklaus admitted that a healthy Tiger Woods would have surpassed 18 Majors(Image: NBC/Peacock )

Woods went on to win, and five years later at St Andrews, Nicklaus played in his final Open Championship, while Woods secured another victory.

Nicklaus finished higher than Woods in five of their shared majors, including the 1998 Masters, when a 58-year-old Nicklaus tied for sixth and edged the defending champion Woods.

Nicklaus skipped almost no prime years, only missing majors until age 58 due to back spasms. Woods’ career is noted for his greatness and his cycle of surgeries and comebacks. Especially after winning the 2008 U.S. Open on a broken leg before ACL reconstruction.

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Tiger Woods named Nicklaus as golf’s G.O.A.T

From 2014 to 2017, he had multiple back surgeries that ultimately resulted in spinal fusion. Woods has missed over 20 majors due to injury, including a car crash that shattered his right leg, a 2023 subtalar fusion, and a 2025 Achilles rupture that caused him to miss the season.

At 32 years old, Woods captured 14 majors by that age, while Nicklaus did not win his 15th until he was 38 years old and secured his 18th at 46 years old.

Nicklaus once called Woods the most fundamental golfer he ever seen and predicted he would surpass nearly every Masters record. Woods has consistently referred to Nicklaus as the greatest of all time.