Through last month's Masters, the 37-year-old Tiger Woods has 14 wins in 63 major championship starts as a professional; through the 1977 Masters, the 37-year-old Nicklaus had 14 wins in 61 major championship starts as a professional.
That's some amazing career symmetry right there, but it seems appropriate, given that Tiger came out of the gate with Nicklaus' major championship record as his ultimate target.
For a long time, Woods was well ahead of Nicklaus' career pace, but a drought that is nearing five years in duration has put a serious dent in Tiger's major aspirations. Of course, Nicklaus won his last major at age 46, giving Woods nine more years of viability on the major championship scene, a reasonable assumption considering the similarity of their career trajectories.
Here are the final four majors of Nicklaus' career, all of which came at age 38 and beyond:
1978 British Open (age 38)
1980 U.S. Open (age 40)
1980 PGA Championship (age 40)
1986 Masters (age 46)

Woods turns 46 in December 2021. Between now and then, there will be 36 major championships contested; Woods needs to win five of them to reach his career Holy Grail of 19 major championships.
Of course, Tiger has already moved well past Nicklaus into second on the Tour's all-time wins ledger. Tiger trails only Sam Snead, who won 82 times over a 30-year span; Woods has crammed his 78 wins into 17-plus stellar, occasionally storm-tossed seasons on Tour.
Jack thinks he'll do it. "I still think he'll break my record," Nicklaus said during the Honda Classic. "Tiger's talent, at 37 ... it's not that old. I won four after that. They were spread out. It wasn't that difficult. I don't think for Tiger to get four or five more — or six or seven — is that big a stretch.
"But that said, he has still got to do it. He hasn't won one in five years. He had better get with it if he's going to."

So let's look at the two legends — Tiger today, and Nicklaus at a similar point in his career.
Bottom line from the data presented here: Tiger's building the better overall career, but Jack remains the greatest performer in major championship history. That's the carrot that Tiger is still chasing, and he has time to get there.

                                                       Tiger Woods            Jack Nicklaus
Tournaments won (through 300 starts)                77                                 54
Tournament winning % (300 starts)                   26.0                              18.0
Majors won (first 63 starts)                                 14                                 14
Major winning %                                               22.2                              22.2
Major top 5s                                                        31                                 41
Major top 10s                                                      37                                 48
Longest streak of top-5 in majors                        6                                   7
Longest streak of top-10 in majors                      8                                  13
Lowest scoring avg.                                          8 times                         8 times
Money leader                                                    9 times                         8 times

We don’t have footage of Gene Sarazen’s famous double eagle from 1935, but on Masters Sunday 2012, we saw something just as good and just as rare — Louis Oosthuizen's double eagle, the first at the par-5 second hole in Masters history. Later, Bubba Watson joined our countdown with his stunning recovery shot from the pine straw in the playoff. Here are our choices for the seven greatest shots in Masters history.

They’re the cream of the major championship crop, circa 2013 — the Athlon Major Championship Dream Team. Leading up to The Masters, we'll be unveiling Athlon Sports’ 20 players to watch for majors season, with commentary on each from the Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee.

No. 2: Tiger Woods

Born: Dec. 30, 1975, Cypress, Calif. | Career PGA Tour Wins: 77  | 2012 Wins (Worldwide): 3 | 2012 Earnings (PGA Tour): $6,133,158 (2nd) | World Ranking: 1

Brandel Chamblee's Take

Tiger is still a threat to win every week, as he's shown with his three wins so far in 2013. And as he showed last year at the Memorial, when he pitched in on the 70th hole from behind the green en route to winning, he is still capable of producing mind-blowing magic. He is learning how to play a more conservative, less explosive and less versatile game, but that game was still good enough for three wins in 2012, and only Rory McIlroy was better. Still, he was plagued by inconsistencies on the weekend in the majors and with his short irons all year. The race for him to fully incorporate all the swing changes he and Sean Foley continue to work on before time runs out provide a sense of urgency to every round. That, combined with his quest to overtake Rory in the world rankings and win another major, makes it seem as if no one plays under more pressure than Tiger.

Major Championship Résumé
Starts: 66
Wins: 14

2012 Performance:
Masters - T40
U.S. Open - T21
British Open - T3
PGA Championship - T11

Best Career Finishes: 
Masters - 1 (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005)
U.S. Open - 1 (2000, 2002, 2008)
British Open - 1 (2000, 2005, 2006)
PGA Championship - 1 (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007)
Top-10 Finishes: 36
Top-25 Finishes: 52
Missed Cuts: 4

—Brandel Chamblee is lead analyst for the Golf Channel. Be sure to follow him @ChambleeBrandel on Twitter.

Athlon's 2013 Golf annual provides in-depth previews of this year's four majors, including the top 20 players to watch this season. One of these elite players, reigning FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker, also takes you tee to green with full-swing instruction and short game essentials. BUY IT NOW.

Yep, Tiger Woods is back. In fact, he's just had one of the better days of a career that's had more shining moments than a decade's worth of NCAA Tournaments. Here's a rundown of Tiger's weekend, by the numbers. And I think we can officially retire that stupid question (Is he back?) once and for all.

8 Tiger's win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was his eighth in the event, tying Sam Snead's record for the most wins in a single event (Snead won at Greensboro eight times). Snead was 52 when he won his eighth Greensboro; Tiger is 37.

1 Woods returns to the No. 1 slot in the Official World Golf Ranking, passing Rory McIlroy and assuming the top spot for the first time since Oct. 30, 2010.

624 This week marks the 624th week of his career that Woods has spent as the No. 1 golfer in the world. That's 12 years. Four-time major winner Ernie Els has spent 19 weeks at No. 1. Phil Mickelson, zero.

6 The win is Woods' sixth in his last 19 stroke-play events.

43 Tiger has gone into Sunday with an outright lead 45 times, and he's won 43 of those tournaments, including this one. If he's had at least a share of the third-round lead, he's now 52-for-56.

+3.89 Tiger led the field at Bay Hill with +3.89 Strokes Gained Putting Per Round. His previous career best for a single tournament was +2.34. If he's putting that well at Augusta, it's over before it starts.

77 Woods has 77 wins at the age of 37 years, two months, 24 days. Sam Snead, whose 82 career wins Woods is chasing, earned his 77th win at the age of 45 years, three months, 10 days.

27 Tiger has now won 27 percent (77 of 284) of his starts on the PGA Tour.

7 Tiger's eight wins at Bay Hill are more than former World No. 1 players Lee Westwood and Tom Lehman have for their PGA Tour careers combined (seven). Throw in Colin Montgomerie, who was shut out on the PGA Tour, and it still holds. (h/t Paul Azinger)

2009 Woods has now won back-to-back starts for the first time since 2009  (Buick Open, Bridgestone Invitational).

18 Entering The Masters, Woods' major drought now stands at 18 consecutive majors (four which Woods did not enter). That drought is in mortal danger.

Tiger Woods' weekend in South Florida produced a stunning slate of statistical nuggets. Here are 9 of the best stats from Tiger, Rory, et al.:

We all know about Tiger Woods' record in golf's major championships. For years now, we've been pounded over the head with Woods' pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' record major championship haul. But Tiger has a record of his own that even the Golden Bear would envy.