(CNN) It was never meant to happen. And yet, it did. It was the major victory many had long since accepted would never happen again -- 3,955 days after his last major triumph.

Since Tiger Woods won the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines, 31 different players have claimed golf's big four. And as he holed the putt that brought to an unlikely end a drought that few had foreseen and even fewer foresaw being broken, the 15-time major winner crept one step closer to Jack Nicklaus' unrivaled 18 titles. Fourteen years after his last Masters win, it represented the longest ever gap between victories at Augusta. At 43, Woods became the oldest champion since Nicklaus himself.

It has been a most curious battle for golf's ultimate statistical supremacy; when Woods won his 14th major as a 32-year-old -- all of which had been collected within a 11-year golden streak -- there seemed little doubt that Woods would not just surpass Nicklaus -- The Golden Bear -- but fly past his personal record in such a way that there would be no possible debate around the sport's greatest player.

As it is, though, Nicklaus remains the man in possession. Nobody has claimed more major wins and, until Francesco Molinari located the treacherous water on Augusta's famed Golden Bell 12th hole, it seemed that his tally would remain unchallenged.

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