Hall of Famers chime in on the Tiger Woods major debate

Two members of the World Golf Hall of Fame shared the duties as keynote speaker at Thursday’s kickoff luncheon for the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

Each weighed in with a different opinion about Tiger Woods and his quest to break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships as a professional golfer.

Woods, 35, owns 14 major titles but has not won a PGA Tour event since the 2009 season. This week he fell to fifth in the latest world golf rankings, Woods’ lowest position since May 1997.

Lee Trevino, a Dallas resident and six-time major champion, said he expects Woods to rebound from his current slump — which began shortly after reports of extramarital affairs surfaced in November 2009, and led to Woods’ divorce last year — and eclipse Nicklaus’ mark.

“Yes, I think he’ll break it,” Trevino said. “He might not be as intimidating as he was ... but he hasn’t lost his game. He’s still a good player and he’s got desire.”

Lanny Wadkins, a Dallas resident and 2009 Hall of Fame enshrine, is less convinced.

“I think it’s 50/50,” Wadkins said of Woods’ odds to reach 19 major titles and surpass Nicklaus. “I really do. The thing that everybody forgets about how impressive it was to do what Jack did is that when he was winning those 18 majors, he was beating ... Hall of Famers.”

By contrast, Wadkins said Woods’ most hard-earned major titles have come in playoff victories over journeymen Rocco Mediate (2008 U.S. Open) and Bob May (2000 PGA) and have occurred in an era where the next-best player, Phil Mickelson, has won only four career majors.

“That’s hollow,” Wadkins said of Woods’ resume when compared to Nicklaus’.

Wadkins, 61, said Woods — who has tweaked his swing three times as a pro, most recently under the tutelage of Sean Foley — “still has a lot of hangover from (former instructor) Hank Haney left in his swing,” which hinders his current results.

Trevino, 71, suggested that Woods return to the swing he used from 1999 to 2002, when he won seven of 11 majors in one stretch (including four in a row) while working with former instructor Butch Harmon.

“My opinion with Tiger is that once he gets his mind set straight and quits messing with all these instructors ... he’ll (pass Nicklaus),” Trevino said. “My suggestion to Tiger Woods, and I don’t know if it will ever happen, is he’s got to look at the film of when he started winning all those tournaments and go right back to what he was doing and get rid of all these people (tweaking his current swing).”

Trevino and Wadkins, the 1973 Nelson champ, shared the dais to promote the 2011 Nelson. Jason Day, a Fort Worth resident, is the defending champion and one of the highest-profile commitments on a list that includes Dustin Johnson, D.A. Points, Jhonattan Vegas, Johnson Wagner, Charley Hoffman and Rory Sabbatini, a Fort Worth resident who took the 2009 Nelson title.

Vegas, Points and Wagner have won tour events this season. Johnson, ranked No. 14 in the world, is the highest-ranked player on the Nelson commitment list.