AUGUSTA, Ga. _ The countdown toward the record of 18 major victories is back on, big time, and every major golf championship now will be a new chance for Tiger Woods to chase history. Next stop: Bethpage Black.
Golf's entire map changed Sunday afternoon when Woods won the Masters, his first major in 11 years and the 15th of his career. His pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' mark of 18 major championships, a race that recently seemed dormant if not altogether impossible, is a "thing" again. So, there is no reason to think Woods can't win No. 16 soon, as soon as next month, when the PGA Championship comes to the famed public course on which he won the U.S. Open in 2002, major No. 8.
Brooks Koepka, who held off Woods at the PGA outside St. Louis last year and finished in a tie for second here Sunday, summed it up this way: "I think 18 is a whole lot closer than people think."
