Where does Tiger Woods go from here?

No need to waste much time describing the state of Tiger Woods' game today. You have eyes.

What, though, will become of those skills and the crazily competitive will that drives them? That's the new question with Tiger, replacing the one about whether he will break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles.

The original question, of course, was when would Tiger break Jack's record and how many more majors would he add on top. That one never gets asked anymore. Makes people feel foolish.

With all that's happened, though, it's still too much to make this U.S. Open the ultimate landmark event in Tiger's career, the beginning of the end or something of that nature.

He's still got great talent and the ability to access it for short stretches. He has time, too, at the age of 39, to train himself for a new kind of birdie hunt, more careful and compromising than his overpowering peak.

The greater mission is retaining that monstrous ambition. Already, Tiger's confidence is badly shaken. How could it be otherwise when there's an 80 on his U.S. Open card and an 85 from the Memorial? That lifelong ambition, however, to be the greatest golfer in history beyond the shadow of a doubt, that's what always took Tiger up a notch.

It's the jewel he can't lose while stumbling through the tall rough, and it may take a while longer to discover if he lost it at quirky Chambers Bay where he failed to make the cut.

Other great champions have kept that drive going at Tiger's age and beyond.

Tom Watson made the British Open cut last summer at 64, and that was after nearly winning it while just shy of 60.

Arnold Palmer tied for second in the PGA Championship when he was 40. He also made the cut in three of the four majors at 50, including a top-25 at the Masters.

Sam Snead tied for fourth at the 1972 PGA. He turned 60 that year and was seven seasons removed from his final victory on tour.

Now, as it always is with Tiger, we come to Nicklaus.

Jack had a down year in 1979. He was 39, if that sounds familiar, and despite some close calls it was the first winless season of his professional career.

Nothing as traumatic as what Tiger is experiencing, of course. If anyone else had put together a year like Jack did in 1979 -- barely missing a playoff at the Masters, earning a second-place tie at the British Open and a tie for ninth in the U.S. Open -- they would have been celebrating.

The Golden Bear was getting older, though. The week-to-week dominance no longer was there. The story was changing, from hard news to historical retrospective.

So all Jack did was go out and win two more majors the following year. Later, he won the Masters at 46. He's had a couple more sixth-place finishes at Augusta National since then, too, at the ages of 50 and 58.

With that in mind, you'd have to say that Tiger, a four-time Masters champion, always will be a threat to contend and possibly win that tournament. Why, though, was everybody giving him such a hearty pat on the back for finishing in a 17th-place tie there in April, 13 strokes off the winning pace?

It's because the golf industry grows in influence and popularity when Tiger is on the prowl. Even his fellow tour players, the ones Tiger used to beat like a drum, want him back at something approximating his best.

Meanwhile, it's no fun looking ahead to Tiger at 40 and 50 and 60. He doesn't seem like the Champions Tour type, even though all the other greats have gone that route. He's said forever that he won't enter a tournament that he doesn't believe he can win.

Soon, it appears, Tiger will need to find something else to believe in. He may be rebuilding his swing but the game of golf itself, more beastly than he ever could have guessed, is reshaping his mind.

This article was written by Dave George from The Palm Beach Post and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.