Woods, 24, is the overwhelming favourite to greatest name in modern golf, made his own; a course which he said yesterday would be where he would lay win the 100th US Open on a course which Nicklaus, the his tee if he had but one round left to play.

Pebble Beach was the site of Nicklaus's great triumph in the 1972 US Open, the course where he lost to golf's most improbable shot, Tom Watson's chip on the 17th 10 years later, and where he won the '61 US Amateur.

And, to garnish the legend further, he won three tournaments at Pebble Beach in 13 months during 1972 and '73.

Woods achieved the first chapter in his trilogy earlier this year, when he came from seven strokes back with seven holes to play to win the AT&T Pro-Am. The victory was so astonishing that it resulted in a media frenzy not seen in the USA since the halcyon days of basketball legend Michael Jordan.

And Woods has not done much to extinguish the fires: he has won 11 of his past 20 PGA Tour events and has only been out of contention on a Sunday afternoon once in more than a year.

Yet, he is savvy enough to understand greatness in golf has only one measuring stick.

"The only logical comparison you have is majors," Nicklaus said yesterday, though not referring specifically to Woods.

Nicklaus had won four majors after four years as a professional; Woods has two, the 1999 US PGA and the '97 Masters.

"Jack has obviously set the bar up pretty high for everyone to try to chase after," Woods said yesterday. "When he first came out, he played pretty well and won a US Open, won a Masters, won everything.

"But I've had a pretty good run lately and hopefully I'll continue to play well and chalk up some more majors as well."

He did not pause for breath when asked if the Nicklaus record was out of reach in the modern game with so many good players challenging. "It's viable, definitely," he said.

But he did pause for breath when he saw Pebble Beach for the first time. He was 13.

"When I first played on it ... I just remember coming out here and finding the golf course so long," Woods said.

"I came back later and played the state amateur when I was 17 or 18, and I thought how short the course had become."

If Woods had the game then, he possesses an even more powerful weapon now: the mental toughness that will separate him from the rest of the pack.

"I've always been pretty tough mentally," Woods said.

"I've always felt I've had a mental edge over a lot of my opponents. My mind won me a lot of tournaments, but physically I always felt I wasn't as good as I could be. And that's what I've been working on."

There will be those, though, who will make their best efforts to spoil Woods' grand design.

For one, Phil Mickelson -- who lost last year to the late Payne Stewart -- has won three times on the US Tour this year. He also out-duelled Woods in San Diego to end the latter's winning streak at six tournaments.

Mickelson certainly has the talent and the temperament to win at Pebble Beach. But for a short missed putt at Pinehurst last year, he might not have to be listening to questions about his being the best player never to have won a major.

David Duval, who was being groomed as Woods' great rival until a poor Masters last year started a 15-month winless streak, showed at the Buick Classic last week that his game had returned: he lost in a play-off to Dennis Paulson.

Duval, though, is not happy being compared with Woods.

"Anytime Tiger plays a tournament, you've got to look to him as a favourite," Duval said.

"You're doing a disservice by comparing him to me."

Sergio Garcia might not be ready for the big-time just yet, but he looms in Woods' future, while dual US Open winner Ernie Els and Masters champion Vijay Singh, who has done well at Pebble Beach in the past, also have legitimate claims.

But there is little doubt about which player deserves the favouritism.

"He's the man," 1982 US Open winner Watson said of Woods. "He has the talent right now to dominate the game for a long time."