ST ANDREWS (Scotland), July 12: Tiger tamers beware, golf’s supreme being is ready for another all-out assault on the hallowed links of the St Andrews Old Course.

It was here five years ago that Woods won his first and to date only British Open crushing the field by eight strokes, and at 19-under-par shooting the lowest ever winning total.

And after a year-long period of swing re-examination, the American is clearly back to his best with a ninth Major win at the Masters in April and a runner-up spot in the US Open last month.

Asked if he could possibly better his exploits in the Millennium Open five years ago, Woods was in no doubt.

“Yeah,” he replied without a shadow of a hesitation.

“Last time I was conservative. This year I might be more aggressive,” he said. “It all depends on the wind.”

“I know I am swinging well coming into the event. I’ve had some good finishes my last three events, which is nice. It’s a matter of building on what I’ve been doing.”

On top of that the weather gods are conspiring to rob the Old Course of its vital defences in the shape of the wind and the many bunkers that are dotted over theclassic links landscape.

Similar to 2000, the sun is scorching eastern Scotland for once and the benign conditions are forecast to last well into the weekend.

That could see his own 19-under-par record challenged, Woods believes.

“The greens are at a speed where you can be aggressive.” he said.

“It will be interesting to see how tough they’ll put the pins, over the knobs or on the corners.

“That would be the only defense if the wind doesn’t blow, otherwise the guys will shoot some numbers.”

A win here would put Woods into double figures for Major titles, and eight short of the sacred grail of 18 compiled by Jack Nicklaus who plays in his last professional competition at this year’s Open.

And three-time former Open winner Nick Faldo for one believes that he can go better than Nicklaus, the only man who can still challenge Woods for the title of greatest of all time.

“You have to believe it is possible. Tiger has the desire,” said Faldo.

“He wants to be the greatest. So if he maintains that desire and the intention and the work ethic to do that, you have to believe that he could get there.”

Woods says that at 29 and with nine Majors already under his belt time is on his side.

This year’s Masters win was his first in nearly three years, a similar barren period that affected Nicklaus before his emotional win at the 1978 St Andrews Open.

“In order for me to ever have the opportunity to be lucky enough to have either tied or come near or past Jack, it’s going to take an entire career,” he said.

“It’s not something that’s going to happen within a short 10-year or 12-year period. It’s going to take a long time.

“It took him probably 24 years or something like that to win all of his. So it’s going to take me a while. At least I’m heading in the right direction.”—AFP