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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- One former major winner was recently talking up all the things Jordan Spieth does that Tiger Woods used to do -- hit fairways, chip it close and make putts from everywhere -- when a listener mentioned hopefully that Woods might wake up the echoes and find some old muscle-memory magic at the Old Course. The major winner shook his head in disagreement and said, "He's lost." Yeah, Woods looked completely lost during his two U.S. Open rounds at Chambers Bay, and one 32nd-place finish at the Greenbrier Classic does not a new man make. But Woods will have one thing going for him when he steps into the box Thursday morning at The Open: History is on his side. Not just his own personal history at St. Andrews, where he is 36 under par in his three Opens as a professional, including his runaway victories in 2000 and 2005. There is history of great athletes and golfers delivering vintage performances in their old age, cutting against the grain of common wisdom. Woods hasn't won a big one in seven years, he's six weeks removed from his career-worst round of 85 at the Memorial, and he's closing hard on his 40th birthday with a body reduced to a muscled shell of its former self by back and leg surgeries. So he isn't going to achieve his lifelong goal of breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles, and that's OK. Failing to win another five majors would hardly amount to a sports felony. Woods is still one of the most dominant athletes his country has ever produced, and he is still likely to secure a 15th major title out of left field and author a hell of a story while doing it.  That's why the player ranked 241st in the world can't be counted out at St. Andrews. As much as The Open is about one young superstar halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam (Spieth), and another young superstar who isn't healthy enough to stop him (Rory McIlroy), Woods has to be considered something of a threat. If there's only one place on the planet beyond the borders of Augusta, Georgia, where the Old Tiger could transform himself into Young Tiger for four days, St. Andrews is that place. "I've always loved this golf course," Woods said Tuesday. We'll find out soon enough if this golf course still loves him back. Until then, it's worth remembering that wild and crazy things happen all the time in sports, and that a Woods victory here would not qualify as an upset to top them all. Older, lesser golfers have won The Open. Phil Mickelson was never supposed to win this major, above all majors, and he won at Muirfield at age 43. Darren Clarke won at Royal St. George's at 42. Ernie Els won at Lytham at the same age. From Old Tom Morris to Old Tom Watson, golf has a tradition of granting occasional mulligans to champions past their primes. Watson was one par from the fairway away from winning The Open mere weeks from his 60th birthday. At 58 and already booked for hip surgery, Nicklaus actually had a chance at the 1998 Masters to win his seventh green jacket. He won his sixth at 46 in 1986. He claimed the first of his two major victories as a 40-year-old in 1980 at the U.S. Open, where reports of an allegedly washed-up Nicklaus (he'd gone winless on tour for the first time in '79) inspired fans to chant the message posted on the Baltusrol leaderboard: Jack is Back. George Foreman won the heavyweight title at 45, and Nolan Ryan threw his seventh no-hitter at 44. At 40, Randy Johnson threw a perfect game, Ben Hogan won three majors, and Brett Favre recovered from an arm injury suffered the previous year to lead the Minnesota Vikings to the doorstep of the Super Bowl. Michael Jordan scored 45 points right before his 40th birthday, and 43 right after it. So when Woods was asked Tuesday if he'd pondered retirement, he repeated the R-word before loudly clearing his throat. "I don't have any AARP card yet," he said, "so I'm a ways from that." He spoke of how his body had finally healed after last year's back surgery, of how he'd regripped his putter and revamped his stroke, and of how he'd hit the ball much better at the Greenbrier and in subsequent practice sessions than he had at Chambers Bay, where he shot a ghastly 10-over 80 in Round 1. But then again, Woods is forever selling the notion he is one tweak away from reclaiming his terminator form. Asked at his news conference if he's given up the ghost of the Nicklaus record, Woods said, "No, not at all. I'm still young. I'm not 40 yet. I know some of you guys think I'm buried and done, but I'm still right here in front of you." Could he actually pull this Open out of his Nike hat? His friend and newly minted Hall of Famer, Mark O'Meara, brought up the rise of the McIlroys and Spieths and said the young guns have made it tougher on Woods to even briefly reclaim a sport that was once tucked in his hip pocket. "Maybe so much of the intimidation factor that Tiger had at one time," O'Meara said, "and Jack Nicklaus had in his prime, big intimidation factor ... it's not as great. So that kind of bodes against him a little bit. But I do believe he can win again. I think he'll win another major championship." To do that, Woods only needs to perform for four days the way, say, Alex Rodriguez has performed over 82 games. A-Rod is about to turn 40, and between this year and his last big season, 2010, his career, reputation and body completely fell apart. Sudden turnarounds are less common in baseball than in golf, the quirkiest game of all. The declining greats usually find a way to summon the magic one last time, against the odds, to remind everyone what made them great in the first place. In other words, while following every move Jordan Spieth makes this week, keep an eye on the old guy at the Old Course just in case.
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