We're catching Tiger, says Garcia

The 21-year-old Spaniard, runner-up to Woods in the 1999 USPGA Championship, said the fact the world number one had not won a tournament so far this year was an indication that everyone else's hard work was paying off.

"I'll say that the gap is getting smaller and smaller. We're all trying hard to improve as much as we can now," Garcia told a news conference in Melbourne on Wednesday for the Australian Masters.

"I think we're all getting closer to him. In his last two or three years he has played at a really high level (winning three of the four majors last year).

"Tiger gave us all a little shove. It was as though he was saying 'You've got to improve if you want to beat me'.

"Now we are all training harder and practising harder than ever before."

His views were echoed by world number seven Colin Montgomerie who is also playing at Huntingdale in the Australian Masters starting on Thursday. "The gap is narrowing," the Scot said. "It has to narrow."

INCORRECT DROP

Garcia lost last week's Greg Norman International in a playoff in Sydney to Australian teenager Aaron Baddeley.

The Spaniard was penalised two shots for an incorrect drop during the third round of last week's tournament.

Baddeley, fellow Australian Adam Scott and Montgomerie will be the biggest stumbling blocks to Garcia in his bid to win his first tournament since October 1999.

Garcia said Baddeley, 19, already a double Australian Open champion, was playing well enough to win in the United States, where Woods won nine tour events last year.

"But it's really difficult to win on that tour. It's not like the European Tour or here in Australia," said Garcia, the world number 16.

"In America there are a lot of them (top players). You can have so many players on the top of the leader board.

"You can have 20 or 25 guys within four shots. It's really difficult to win.”