Lee Westwood has urged fellow professionals not to panic in the wake of Tiger Woods' record-breaking US Open triumph.

The world number one demolished the field at Pebble Beach to win by 15 shots - the largest margin of victory ever in a major championship.

That led former Ryder Cup captain Tom Kite to voice fears that Woods could make golf "boring" if he continued to leave the rest of the world's best trailing in his wake.

But Westwood is confident that Woods is beatable, as both himself and Darren Clarke have emphatically proved this season.

"Everyone panics when someone wins a tournament by that number of shots, especially a major, but golf tends to be a great leveller," said the world number nine ahead of this week's £650,000 Compaq European Grand Prix at Slaley Hall.

"Things like that don't happen very often. He played well and everything clicked but he also holed an awful lot of putts and, if he had not done, he could have conceivably been level par."

A similarly hysterical reaction followed Woods' win in the US Masters in 1997, but the victories of Clarke in the World Matchplay, and Westwood in the Deutsche Bank Open, have proved that they can be a match for the American.

Woods is, of course, not here this week but Westwood is hot favourite to win his second European Tour title this season at Slaley Hall.

The field may have the next best thing to the world number one however, with Adam Scott making his professional debut.

The 19-year-old Australian has already been labelled the next Tiger Woods and the similarities are striking in his swing and mannerisms on the course - not surprising given that they share the same coach, Butch Harmon.

"I've been working with Butch since September but the similarities are a coincidence," said Scott. "I have a similar build and body but we don't try to mirror-image Tiger. Butch has made my swing tighter and more compact but we have not changed a lot technically - he has helped me more mentally.

"It's nice to be compared to Tiger. I've got a lot of maturing to do on the course but hopefully my game will keep progressing and I'll be up there."

Judging by previous form Scott could well do just that.

While still an amateur, Scott set a course record at the Greg Norman Holden International in Sydney and finished sixth and fifth respectively on the European Tour in Morocco and at The Belfry this season.

Such displays prompted him to turn professional slightly earlier than planned to give him a chance to earn his card in either Europe or America.

Welshman David Park defends the title he won last year in only his second full European Tour event, while Open champion Paul Lawrie also hopes to make his competitive return after almost a month out through injury.