In the wake of his seven-stroke victory in the Memorial Tournament last weekend, Tiger Woods was asked if he would prefer to have rivals challenge him, just as Arnold Palmer, Johnny Miller, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson did Jack Nicklaus. "No," replied Woods with admirable candour. "I like it the way it is."

It was a fascinating response. Most top-level competitors welcome rivalry. Indeed we recall John McEnroe being shattered by the premature retirement of Bjorn Borg. And Woods seemed to thrive on the challenge offered him by Sergio Garcia and Bob May in successive USPGA Championships and by Hal Sutton in last year's Players Championship.

But now, he would appear to be satisfied to compete against himself and the record book. And who could blame him? Of the seven leading challengers to him after 54 holes at Muirfield Village, the best final-round scores were 71s from Garcia, Stewart Cink and Vijay Singh. Leader Paul Azinger shot a 74, the same as Stuart Appleby and Scott Hoch, while Robert Allenby was only a stroke better on 73.

As David Feherty observed: "You won't catch Tiger unless you're prepared to take risks and go for flags you normally wouldn't. That's what the guys have to do." Meanwhile, it was small wonder that in shooting a 66 last Sunday, the world number one looked inwards for motivation.