SANDWICH, England, 16 July 2003 — Tiger Woods scoffed yesterday at suggestions the 132nd British Open which starts here tomorrow will boil down to a showdown between himself and Ernie Els.

The two came into the tournament on respective highs, Woods winning by five strokes at the Western Open and Els winning by the same margin at the Scottish Open.

Their much anticipated face-off failed to materialize at either the Masters or US Open and all eyes have switched to Royal St. George’s, a stroke-makers’ course if ever there was one. But Woods was having none of it after completing his third practice round under hot but benign conditions.

“I think there are more than just the two of us playing the tournament,” he said.

“Anyone who’s qualified and earned their right in this event can win the tournament. Hopefully we both can play well, where we both have a chance on Sunday afternoon.”

Woods started tongues wagging after the Western Open when he opted to stay at home instead of practicing on the links in Ireland as he has done ahead of the British Open for the last few years.

The word was that the knee surgery he underwent during the winter break was more serious than had been thought and that he was still in some pain.

Asked if the knee was 100 percent, Woods declined to be specific answering, “I feel pretty good, yeah.” It had been a tough start to the year mentally, he said, but he was now right on track.

“Coming back and trying to feel confident in my leg, there’s always a doubt anytime you go under the knife.

“I went under the knife in 94 and came back and it was the same thing. You have to get over that mental hurdle.

“And I got off to pretty good start this year, winning three of the first four after the surgery.” But he admitted that his game was still short of where he would like it to be coming into a tournament for the first time since the 1999 USPGA without a current Major title to his name.

Royal St. George’s will be Woods’ first stroke-play event in England in two years since he failed to find any spark at Royal Lytham and his only British Open win to date came in 2000 at St. Andrews when he was at the very peak of his game.

Last year at Muirfield, he was handily placed tucked in behind the leaders going into Saturday’s third round when he got caught in the teeth of a storm, which whipped in from the sea.