Anyone Els?

Other than Woods, O'Meara and Singh, there have been ten different major winners since 1997. That says as much about Woods' dominance-winning six out of 20 majors played in that span-as about the current talent level of the PGA Tour; which is fairly deep but lacks a Tom Watson, someone who can stare down Woods in the stretch and beat him outright at major championships.

With that said, the following is a brief look at some of the top pretenders on the PGA Tour (with their world ranking as of March 6, 2002) and their chances of becoming true rivals to Woods in the foreseeable future. Keep in mind that major championships are real measures of greatness in golf.

• Phil Mickelson, No. 2: The win at the Bob Hope was his 20th career victory, second most among active players behind you-know-who. But no major title means the lefty has got ways to go. The lengthened Augusta National may favour Mickelson at the upcoming Masters.

• Ernie Els, No. 3: "The Big Easy" may have two majors, requisite skills and calm demeanour to go up against Woods on a regular basis, but Els did look shaky in almost squandering eight-stroke lead last Sunday to, ahem, Tiger.

• David Duval, No.4: Double D got his first major at the 2001 Open Championship, and maybe that first one will open up the floodgate for him; much the same way his first career win did in 1997. Duval, however, needs to shake off this slow start. Four top-10s in the last four Masters should help him at the season's first major.

• Chris DiMarco, No. 10: The leading money winner so far on the Tour, DiMarco has a win and three other top-10s in seven starts. But he needs more than one good showing at a major (top-10 at last year's Masters) before claiming himself as the challenger to Woods.

• Sergio Garcia, No.5: This young Spainiard is waggling his way to prominence, and his first claim to fame came at the 1999 PGA Championship, where he was runner-up to Woods. Since then, though, Garica has not threatened at majors, and his biggest career win thus far remains tennis star Martina Hingis.

As for those "young guns" of the Tour-Charles Howell III, Luke Donald and Ty Tryon et al-win a tournament first and then we'll talk.

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