Woods tips Westwood to offer the biggest challenge

The Tiger, who came face to face with a lion earlier in the week, this morning expects to tee off his campaign to earn the game's richest prize, the Million Dollar Challenge.

Tiger Woods, who heads a 12-man field which includes Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood, arrived in South Africa on Monday and was immediately whisked off to meet Nelson Mandela at his Johannesburg home.

Then it was off to Sun City, a two-hour drive, where Woods was taken on a dusk tour of the game park attached to the resort. "It was unforgettable," he said. "I watch the Discovery Channel a lot but this is the first time I have seen a lion in the flesh."

Woods also caught sight of elephants, buffalo and a rhinoceros. Such was his fascination with the tour that he missed the tournament organisers' traditional welcoming party for the players.

The participation of the world's leading black sportsman is something of a coup for a tournament which was viewed with a degree of hostility during the apartheid years.

These days the tournament tends to attract the players it wants; Woods's participation in an event where the winner gets

$1 million and the last-place man takes home $100,000 is an endorsement of that. "Nick Price and Ernie Els have been on at me for some time to come here," he said yesterday.

Unusually wet weather on the highveld has limited Woods to one practice round at the Gary Player Country Club course, which is regarded by another of his rivals, Bernhard Langer, as one of the top three in the world. Throughout his round Woods was shadowed by an army of teenaged black admirers.

"They were very supportive . . . real neat," was Woods impression of his new-found disciples. As is the fashion in these parts, the kids had been bussed in from a nearby township.

Whether the youngsters, or anyone else for that matter, will be behind the ropes today remains to be seen. With 76 millimetres of rain - over three inches - falling in 20 hours yesterday, a prompt start is thought unlikely.

Yesterday's pro-am was cancelled and further rain is forecast for today. The tournament chairman Tobin Prior said that if the today's play has to be postponed, two rounds will be played tomorrow. "We want a single round finish on Sunday," he said.

Woods tipped Westwood, also making his maiden appearance at the Sun City event, as his biggest challenger.

Westwood, who has annoyed the Australian Open organisers for preferring to play at Sun City instead of defending his title, as well as returning the trophy in a battered condition, scorched his way into the world's top-10 this year.

A big-hitter and one of the most consistent players on the European Tour, the 25-year-old Englishman has eight tournament wins under his belt in the past 12 months. As one of the longest and straightest drivers of the ball in the game, the course will suit him.

American Justin Leonard, who won the 1997 British Open, doesn't hit long, but is very accurate with his approach shots, a big asset at Sun City where the pins are tucked away in far corners of the greens.

Price will be seeking his third Million Dollar win after edging out Els last year. The Zimbabwean had a record breaking 12-shot win in 1993, and is back in peak form, smashing the course record with a final-round 63 to take the Zimbabwean Open at Royal Harare on Sunday.

Els, ranked five in the world, will be looking to improve his form after a poor year during which he has been dogged by a back-injury.