Mike Celizic

He’s 29 and he’s halfway to tying Nicklaus. Don’t believe anyone who tells you Tiger Woods will fall short.

Do not, even for an instant, underestimate the magnitude of beating Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles. Woods is now tied with Ben Hogan and Gary Player for third on the all-time list with nine after Sunday’s Masters win. Walter Hagen is next on the list with 11. Nicklaus is another seven beyond that.

That’s not a little bit ahead of the pack. Hank Aaron has six percent more home runs than Babe Ruth, 755 to 714. Nicklaus has 64 percent more majors than Hagen and 100 percent more than Woods, Hogan and Player.

And as impressive as Woods’ nine majors are, he needs 10 more to pass the Golden Bear. Considering only one other golfer has broken double figures, there’s no logical reason to think that Woods, who plays in golf’s most competitive era, will catch Nicklaus.

But I still think he’ll do it, and it’s not because he has the talent to win that many. It’s because he also has the single-minded, obsessive desire.

And now, after overtaking Chris DiMarco, nearly giving everything away, then coming back on the first playoff to close it out, Woods has shown both a vulnerability he never had and a toughness he never needed. The first gives hope to his opponents; the second vast confidence to himself.

Woods badly needed this kind of match. He needed to know he could face a challenge from an opponent who wouldn’t crumble. He needed to know he could watch his game come unglued, then put it back together again to win. He is now what he never had to be when he was winning majors by 15 strokes — tough.

And that’s what he’ll have to be to take down the most impressive record in sports. It’s how Nicklaus got 18 wins, through sheer grit and determination. It’s how Woods will beat it.

Woods was a kid when he put a poster up on his bedroom wall listing Nicklaus’ records and starting dreaming about beating them. For most of his life, Woods has had the number 18 in front of him. Everything he’s done since he was a prodigy teenager has been directed at beating that number.

Even the past nearly three years and 10 majors without a win have been directed at breaking 18. Woods fired a coach, went through several club switches, changed golf balls at least twice and rebuilt a swing that no one but he thought needed rebuilding.

He didn’t need to do any of it. What he had was awfully good. But he felt he needed it all if he were going to catch Nicklaus, so he sacrificed two years in order to give himself the best chance to get where he wanted to go.

And now he’s halfway there. This year’s U.S. Open is at Pinehurst, where he fell just short to Payne Stewart in 1999. The British Open is at the Old Course at St. Andrews, where he won big in 2000. By summer’s end, it would be surprising if his total doesn’t stand at 10 down, eight to go.