Woods targeting another Tiger Slam

Tiger Woods is bidding to complete the third leg of the "Tiger Slam" and grab his fifth Masters title this week.

And while many of his rivals have the game to stop him in his tracks, none of them are throwing down the gauntlet.

His main challenger, the defending champion Phil Mickelson, admits he's "nervous" about his chances and concedes that Woods is "most likely the best player the game has ever seen."

And he added: "If I have a great rest of my career and I go out and win 20 more tournaments and seven more majors to get to 50 wins and 10 majors, which would be an awesome career, I still won't get to where he's at today."

Even the world No 2, Jim Furyk, appears resigned to playing second fiddle to Woods for the rest of his career and admits that he has no interest in becoming the next man to step up and challenge him for top dog status.

Furyk said: "As far as who anyone would pick to be the next guy to challenge Tiger, I would willingly beg you to pick someone else and please leave me alone, let me go do what I want to."

Europe's hopes of winning a Major for the first time since 1999 are resting on the shoulders of Henrik Stenson, the Swede who is playing in just his second Masters.

And while Padraig Harrington is hoping to peak this week and has beaten Woods in head-to-head combat, he admits that he has no idea what to expect if he is challenging on the back nine on Sunday.

An Aussie has never won the Masters and while there are high hopes this week for Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby, the man most likely to fly the flag concedes that Woods is simple better than the rest.

Reigning US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy said: "He's just better than us, I think. I wish I could work out how he does it, because he seems to do it every time we play."

Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose and Luke Donald look the best of Europe's young guns.

But only Casey appears to have the confidence to step up to the plate.

Paired with Woods and Baddeley for the first two rounds, Europe's player of the year last term says he's ready for the challenge.

He said: "The first time I played with him, I spent the first nine holes watching him rather than worrying about what I was doing.

"Now there's 100% effort on what I am doing, but I try to kind of feed off him. If you want to win, you might as well be up close to him and try to sneak a shot or two."