Golf: Year of Tiger brings out the hunters

If this is Thailand in January, it must be the start of the European Tour. But, says Andy Farrell, whoever is playing and whatever the tournament, there is only one question: who can keep up with Tiger Woods?

Hard though it may be to believe, there is a feeling that golf got off easy where Tiger Woods is concerned in 1997. In which case the Chinese, sometime inventors of the game, reputedly, might have got it right in 1998: this is the "Year of the Tiger".

Woods, the runaway Masters champion, crammed five worldwide victories into the first half of last year, but did not win after the first week in July, nor did he contend at a major after Augusta. Woods, as you would expect, expects to do better this time round. His challengers are not expecting anything less.

Intriguingly, those rivals split into two main camps. Woods aside, the double US Open champion Ernie Els heads the young guns, who also include Americans Justin Leonard, the Open champion, and Phil Mickelson, plus Lee Westwood and the other Ryder Cup rookies.

The old farts cannot be written off yet, however. Greg Norman may have lost his world No1 crown to Woods, but the Australian is sizing up for a big year, as are Nick Faldo, after a forlorn '97, Nick Price, Bernhard Langer and Fred Couples. Not forgetting a couple of in-betweeners, Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal. But age and reputation counts for nothing: trying to beat Woods is all that matters.

Faldo and Westwood, Ryder Cup partners at Valderrama, represent the extremes. Faldo, aged 40 and following his worst season for more than a decade when he missed the cut in two majors, has been preparing for the new season since November. In order to keep up with the youngsters' pace, or rather their distance off the tee, he has acquired a new driver with an "active kick shaft". Mentally, he has given himself a particularly active kick up the backside.

Westwood is now one of the big names to be listed alongside Woods, Faldo, Els, Olazabal and Ian Woosnam as the European Tour opens its new season at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Phuket. The 24-year-old from Worksop only finished his '97 campaign just over a month ago with five weeks that brought him three victories and more than pounds 500,000.

Part of those earnings were put towards a new computer for his father, John. A maths teacher, Westwood Snr has not only got the thing working but has used it to get to the bottom of the world rankings. The former achievement puts him in a small percentage in the country, the latter puts him on a par with only one other person, the bloke who compiles the ranking each week.

In order to get his son to the top of the world rankings, Westwood Snr advised Lee not to skip this week's event as he had been contemplating: the better the quality of the field, the more world ranking points that will be on offer. Whenever Woods plays, all pretenders to his crown must also tee up.

Westwood Jnr sees things in more simplistic terms. "It would be a nice way to start the year, beating Tiger," he said. "I'm aware that other players have had great years and then not followed it up, so I'm regarding this as a completely new year."

If Woods is the man to beat around the globe, Montgomerie, five times the No 1, still sets the standard in Europe. The Scot is currently resting after winning $1m (pounds 620,000) at the Andersen Consulting World Championship and will not start his campaign until the Dubai Classic next month. That gives the main contenders, Westwood and the Open runner-up, Darren Clarke, chiefly among them, a chance to steal a march.

They may need it. Although Montgomerie decided not to join the US Tour full-time, he will play less tournaments in Europe and is ever more focused on winning his first major. But from next year he could be invincible on the Order of Merit as money from the US Open and the USPGA Championship, where Monty has been Europe's leading competitor in recent years, as well as the three new World Championship events, will be included.

Significantly, earnings from another major, the US Masters, will not be included since there remains no set criteria for qualification for European players. It is a matter of waiting for an invitation to drop on to the doormat, and Padraig Harrington, the Irishman who won the World Cup with Paul McGinley at Kiawah Island last November, is the unluckiest one to miss out after finishing seventh on the money list.

Despite the net loss of one tournament, with the interesting addition of a second Middle Eastern event in Qatar, prize-money continues to rise. Two tournaments, the PGA Championship and the Volvo Masters, will be joined by the Deutsche Bank TPC in offering seven-figure purses, with others, such as the European Open and the Loch Lomond World Invitational, likely to follow.

However, the Tour knows that increasing purses at the expense of course conditions will not be tolerated by those who could be playing for more money in better conditions in America. So Montecastillo, which was supposed to host the Volvo Masters for three years, has yet to be confirmed on the schedule following criticisms of the course last October.

In America, the season could not have started better, with Mickelson holding off last-round 64s from Woods and Mark O'Meara to win the Mercedes Championship and Couples putting his miserable '97 behind win with a victory last Sunday.

The USPGA Tour has a new slogan: "These guys are good". It is all part of a push to see golf positioned alongside the big four US sports, football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey. It also implies that there is more than one player to watch. True enough, but there is no doubt who all those other players will be watching in '98: Tiger Woods.

1998 european tour schedule

22-25 January: Johnnie Walker Classic (Blue Canyon, Phuket, Thailand)

29-1 February: Heineken Classic (The Vines, Perth, Australia)

5-8 Feb: South African Open (Durban CC)

12-15 Feb: Alfred Dunhill SAPGA Championship (Houghton, Johannesburg)

26-1 March: Dubai Desert Classic (Emirates, Dubai)

5-8 Mar: Qatar Masters (Doha)

12-15 Mar: Moroccan Open (Royal Agadir)

19-22 Mar: Portuguese Open (Aroeira, Lisbon)

9-12 April: US Masters (Augusta National)

16-19 Apr: Cannes Open (Royal Mougins, France)

23-26 Apr: Peugeot Spanish Open (El Prat, Barcelona)

30-3 May: Conte of Florence Italian Open (Castelconturbia, Milan)

7-10 May: Turespana Masters (Santa Ponsa, Mallorca)

14-17 May: Benson & Hedges International (The Oxfordshire, Thame)

22-25 May: Volvo PGA Championship (Wentworth, Surrey)

29-1 June: Deutsche Bank SAP Open TPC of Europe (Gut Kaden, Hamburg)

4-7 June: Alamo English Open (Hanbury Manor, Herts)

11-14 June: Compaq European Grand Prix (Slaley Hall, Northumberland)

18-21 June: Madeira Island Open (Santo da Serra); US Open (Olympic club, San Francisco)

25-28 June: Peugeot French Open (National, Paris)

2-5 July: Murphy's Irish Open (Druids Glen, Co Wicklow)

8-11 July: Gulfstream World Invitational (Loch Lomond, Glasgow)

16-19 July: 127th Open Championship (Royal Birkdale, Southport)

23-26 July: TNT Dutch Open (Hilversumsche)

30-2 August: Volvo Scandinavian Masters (European Tour Club, Stockholm)

6-9 Aug: Chemapol Trophy Czech Open (Prague Karlstein)

13-16 Aug: USPGA Championship (Sahalee, Seattle, Washington)

20-23 Aug: Smurfit European Open (K Club, Co Kildare)

27-30 Aug: BMW International (Munich)

3-6 Sept: Canon European Masters (Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland)

10-13 Sept: One2One British Masters

17-20 Sept: Lancome Trophy (St Nom la Breteche, Paris)

24-27 Sept: Linde German Masters (Gut Larchenhof)

8-11 Oct: Alfred Dunhill Cup (St Andrews)

15-18 Oct: World Match Play Championship (Wentworth)

22-25 Oct: Oki Pro-am

29-1 Nov: Volvo Masters