Tiger Woods' former coach fears he will NEVER win another major

Tiger Woods’ former coach Butch Harmon admits the former world No.1 may never win another major title, as he dismissed his hopes of eclipsing Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles.

Woods has made a relatively encouraging return to the PGA Tour in 2018 and will look to build on his progress at The Player’s Championship that gets underway on Thursday, yet Harmon suspects the glories of yesteryear may never return for the one-time king of golf.

“I can’t even fathom how anyone could win eighteen majors when you look at the level of competition,” states Harmon, speaking to Yahoo Sport at an event to promote The Players Championship.

“We thought Rory McIlroy was going to be the guy to do it, and then it was Jordan Spieth who won a bunch of them. It’s so hard to win any tournament but majors are really hard to win, I don’t see anyone ever beating Nicklaus’ record of eighteen. I think it’s almost impossible with the quality of the field and how good these young players are, and there are more of them coming along.

“That’s why it’s going to be so difficult for Tiger Woods to win another major, never mind take his total from the fourteen he has now to the levels Jack got to. I would never say Tiger isn’t going to do anything, he’s proven people wrong his whole career, but I think it’s a lot more difficult than it has been in the past.

“We just need to see Tiger show us that he can win on a regular tour stage first, and then maybe that will give him the confidence, but it’s extremely difficult to win these days, there are so many good players.

“When you go to a big Championship, be it a major or The Players, you’ve got 20 to 25 guys that are really capable of winning and you know that nine or ten are going to play good that week. I wouldn’t say he can’t, but it’s going to be very difficult for him at his age and with everything he’s been through with his back problems.”

Harmon also made his predictions for the two upcoming majors, as he predicted some vintage competition at the US Open and the British Open.

“First of all, both of these tournaments are on two great golf courses,” he added. “Shinnecock is one of America’s best courses and I think Carnoustie is the most difficult course in the Open Championship rotation, so I think you have to look at the guys who are playing well going in there.

“The one who stands out on your side of the ocean is Jon Rahm given how well he’s played all over the world, Justin Rose has played consistently, Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey, who has a great chance I think, I thought he had a good chance at the Masters but he was injured.

Impressive

“You look on the US side and you’ve got Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, these guys are all playing really well. Brooks Koepka, the defending US Open Champion, is the one guy who has a question mark but he’s been injured and has played for the first time since January this week, so we don’t know how Brooks is going to pan out. I think if you look at how everyone is playing it’s pretty impressive.

“I think we are really seeing a changing of the guard, you look at the old perennial guys who were favourites in majors and great Ryder Cup players, two on your side in Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, they’re down to number 100 and number 98 in the world.

‘On the US side, Brandt Snedeker and Jimmy Walker are two guys who have been ill and injured and aren’t playing as well as they used to, so I think there are a whole new breed of players coming. Thomas Pieters is the one I’m surprised about because he’s down to number 54 in the world but I really like the way this kid plays.

“There are a lot of different things going on and when you look at these two courses the cream rises to the top and you’ve got to go to the top of the list and look at the Dustin Johnson’s, the Justin Thomas’, the Jon Rahm’s, the Justin Rose’s, the Rory McIlroy’s, these kind of guys.”