"14 Red Shirts" ... can Tiger win another Major Championship?

Back in 2011 I created another limited edition golf art print (released on my gallery site sasgolf.com) entitled, 14 Red Shirts -referring of course to Tiger Woods having amassed 14 Major Championship victories through 2008. (see my original posting about this golf art print)

"14 Red Shirts" (Tiger's 14 Major Championship victories) 

-a limited edition golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno  visit sasgolf.com

(detail) "14 Red Shirts" 

The art image I created was in a grid format, depicting 14 small paintings of Tiger wearing the famous red shirt he always wears in the final round of a tournament... in fact the exact red shirt he wore in the winning round of each of the 14 Major Championships he has won to date.... And in my art image I purposely left a couple blank spaces, which some people observing the art image interpreted to mean that Tiger was done winning any more Major Championships, and others read the blank spaces to mean that he would indeed continue to win more Majors. But could he win 4 more times to catch and tie Jack Nicklaus' total of 18 Major Championship victories? Could Tiger win 5 more Majors and surpass Jack's record?

In the last six years Tiger has weathered devastating personal life issues, injuries, surgery, and all under the scrutiny of the world's eyes and ears. And his golf game suffered. Last year though, healthy again, he won 5 more tournaments, but has yet to win another Major Championship since 2008... though his multiple wins last year allowed many people to begin thinking again that he might still be able to tie or pass the current record of 18 Major Championship victories held by Jack Nicklaus.

This season Tiger underwent another surgery, took time away, and then recently came back to tournament action again... however at last week's tournament he suffered severe back spasms and dropped out of the tournament, thus making people wonder right up to the last minute if he would play in this week's final Major Championship of 2014, the 96th playing of the PGA Championship at Valhalla, outside Louisville, Kentucky.

Tiger did enter the PGA Championship this week, which excited his fans greatly... but he opened today with a lackluster 74 (+3) in the event's opening round, which is not exactly the proper recipe for winning his 15th Major Championship. 54 holes remaining to play is ample enough for a recovery, so hopefully he will have three terrific rounds to offset his over-par start...

Tiger is now 38 years old. On paper this means he still has possibly 12 more years (if he stays injury free) of being able to seriously play... 12 x 4 Majors = 48 more Major Championship events he can play in. Is it conceivable that Tiger could win 4 of 48 Major Championship attempts? 

So, getting back to those blank spaces I purposely placed within my art image entitled, 14 Red Shirts...  I did and still do interpret those blank spaces as meaning Tiger can indeed win more Majors. Don't count him out. Tiger has the experience of winning more Majors than anyone else on the planet, except for one person. And of the professional players actually still active there is nobody who can draw upon past winning experience as Tiger can. 

"Tiger X4" by golf artist Steven Anthony Salerno   visit sasgolf.com

Above is another art image I created of Tiger recently... this one kind of a multiple "Warhol-esque" take on the player, depicting Tiger four times in various shirt colors. The number 4 of course, being the same number of Major Victories he needs to tie the Jack Nicklaus record of 18 Major Championship victories...

Time will tell.

Visit sasgolf.com to see the available limited edition golf art prints by golf artist Steven Anthony Salerno.

Steven Anthony Salerno's golf art and golf graphics have appeared in Golf Digest, Golf World, LINKS, and GOLF magazines, as well as on PGATOUR.com where he created portraits of top PGATour players. His limited edition golf art prints are in private art collections in Europe and the United States.

"OHIO FATS" (AKA: Mr. Nicklaus)

latest limited edition print, "OHIO FATS" -visit SASgolf.com

Back in the early 1960's, when a young Jack Nicklaus began his professional golf career (and began winning tournaments over established stars such as Arnold Palmer) hecklers in the tournament galleries shouted derogatory names at at Jack, such as "Fat Jack" and "Ohio Fats" -including cheering whenever he missed putts, all in an attempt to get under the young player's skin. Little good it did to derail him, because not only did Nicklaus apparently have very thick skin, but he also possessed a superior game that produced winning scores over the next 25 years which earned him a record 18 major championship victories and the title of being the best player on the planet to ever have played the game of golf.

And his record may very well stand forever, if Tiger Woods who currently has 14 major victories (and is the only active player remotely close) cannot at least tie the record. My feeling is that if Tiger does not tie or surpass the 18 majors mark within his career, that no one in the future will either. There is such a growing depth of superb top professional players around the world now, that for any one player to amass more than 18 major championship victories will be virtually impossible. There may be a cluster of current and future superstar players who may all attain 4, or 6, or 8 major wins, and maybe a couple astounding superstars will reach 10 major victories... but to surpass Sir Jack's golden number 18 will probably never happen. That is, of course, unless the "man in red" can indeed fabricate a Second Act which produces 4 more (or 5 more!) major championship victories. And if you read my previous post (about my golf art print entitled, "14 red shirts") then you know I think Tiger can indeed match or surpass it.

(posted above) My new golf art print now available entitled, "OHIO FATS" depicts a young, stocky Jack Nicklaus in the early 1960's at the top of his powerful back swing. Above his head is the phrase "OHIO FATS" ...but the insult has no effect on the player who has a protective halo of cool blue color around him, representing the strength of his concentration and single-minded focus to play the course. Floating out in front of the player is the burning red number "18."  The original art was created with pencil, gouache, oil crayon and pastel.

Visit SASgolf.com to see this new limited edition print created by golf artist Steven Anthony Salerno, located in the exclusive edition gallery.