In majors race, Woods is ahead of Nicklaus’ pace

Tiger versus Jack, check out the numbers.

This week at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Woods will play his 12th U.S. Open. It’s also his 46th major as a professional, which means that with 13 titles, he’s won nearly 30% of the majors he’s played.

At the same stage of his career, Nicklaus had 10 victories in his first 45 pro majors, or about 22%.

Nicklaus won 18 of the 153 majors he played as a pro, a victory rate of about 12%.

Woods has been second in the Open two of the last three years, the odd year being 2006 when he missed the cut at Winged Foot in New York.

That’s the year that Woods also took two months off -- he’s now coming off a two-month break to recuperate from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee -- to mourn the death of his father, Earl, who died in May 2006.

It is the only major in which Woods missed the cut.

-- Thomas Bonk