A PRESS conference from Tiger Woods might just be like the way mass was for many Irish Catholics in the 1960s and '70s . . . not particularly stimulating but attendance is somehow obligatory.

As the fans whirred in a packed media room earlier in the week, Woods adroitly manoeuvred his way around topics as relevant as his desire to win a fifth Green Jacket, and as irrelevant as the breed of dog bought recently by his wife. Then, out of nowhere, someone got his complete attention.

The questioner wanted to know if there were a few younger players good and ready enough to push him at Augusta. Woods's reply was, "Who?", followed by a pause before he went on to qualify the answer with a typically neutral assessment of how the likes of Adam Scott, Charles Howell, Paul Casey and Aaron Baddeley wouldn't really be mapped until they had been through the exquisite torture of contending in the final round of a Masters.

Woods could have added that experience was underrated here, and that Fuzzy Zoeller . . . the champion in 1979 - remains the only player in the modern era to win on a first visit. While tournament rookies and apprentices traditionally struggle to survive, he might also have reminded the audience that his historic 1997 triumph just happened to be his first appearance as a professional.

But it was all about the tone of that 'Who?', the brief look of indifference mixed with scorn that spoke volumes.

Scott, Howell, Casey and Baddeley, who are these guys?

If the question was posed in the hope that the Woods-Phil Mickelson hegemony at the Masters . . . five victories between them in the past six years . . . might at last be threatened, it was as if someone had the temerity to challenge the world number one's position as alpha male.

Already, Mickelson, who expressed some well-founded reservations about his own form coming into the event, had refused to allow himself be placed alongside Woods in the pecking order. "If I go out and win 20 more tournaments and seven more majors, which would get me to 50 tournaments and 10 majors, that would be an awesome career, " he said. "But I still won't get to where he's at today."

Not dissimilarily, the number-two ranked Jim Furyk shied away from any comparison with Woods. "As far as picking me as the next guy to challenge Tiger, I would willingly beg you to pick someone else and please leave me alone. Let me go do what I want do."

While Mickelson and Furyk's acknowledgement of Woods's aura is easier to take given that both players have already won major championships, there was predictably more testosterone in the air when Casey, Baddeley and Scott, the bullish twentysomethings who currently all occupy places in the world's top 15, ran the rule over their own prospects.

"Tiger's a human being, just a golfer. He's the best golfer in the world, but why would I have any reason to be in awe?"

offered Baddeley, who won in Arizona earlier in the season.

As for Casey, he insisted it was up to the new generation to "prove Tiger wrong", while Scott said there was "no reason" why he shouldn't beat Woods and Mickelson. Only Howell, who admitted to having "picked Tiger's brain for so long" was more deferential.

Whether or not they truly believed the declarations of intent, or whether they had been primed to talk the talk, is a moot point, but we would soon find out.

Not renowned for the humour and gentle eccentricity that often characterise US Open pairings, the Masters officials clearly took note of the fizzing chemistry between the tournaments's favourites and the thrusting wannabes. Woods was accompanied in the first two rounds by Casey and Baddeley, while Mickelson had Scott as one of his partners.

Whatever about Scott who was coming off a victory at the Houston Open, this would be a supreme test for both Casey and Baddeley. With the elongated course finally bearing its razor-sharp incisors as a cool, drying wind replaced the previous years' rain, it would tell much about the players' state of mind.

"Everyone thinks all the pressure's on Tiger, " said Chris DiMarco who knows about these sort of things having lost to Woods in a play-off here in 2005. "But then you get to the first tee and you're the one who feels it."

Although Woods by his own admission "threw away" a possible sub-par round with a couple of wayward drives which led to bogeys at the two finishing holes, his 73 in the punishing conditions was the sort of effort much of the field would have offered a piece of their anatomy for.

Toiling in his slipstream, Casey and Baddeley both slumped to 79s. If Woods was underwhelmed by his play and headed immediately to the practice range, it looked like the two pretenders were already out of the tournament.

The experience that Woods deemed necessary for a player to come of age at Augusta would probably have to wait for another year.

In the end, it might have come on the Friday for Casey.

When he had protested after the 79 that he had putted poorly and that he could turn the situation around, there weren't too many who paid attention. Woods's customary second-round Masters surge would embarrass him and Baddeley even further.

Instead, it was the pre-tournament favourite who struggled, visiting water at the 12th and the 13th holes and searching desperately for his best form, while Casey found his touch and his confidence with a 68 only matched in the second round by Padraig Harrington. With Woods just managing to scrape a bogey in the swirling breezes of the 12th, Casey's sumptuous nineiron was inches from a hole-inone. Instead of Woods scattering the field, it was Casey who bolted into the top 20. Even Baddeley won his personal duel, shooting 72 to Woods's 74.

"I always enjoy playing with Tiger, it focuses the mind, " said Casey. "I played against him in the Ryder Cup, but playing with him in a major is very different. His intensity is just another notch. I was actually a bit disappointed to tie with him on three over at the end as I had him there."

Woods, meanwhile, called Casey's 68 "one of the great rounds of golf you'll ever see" and insisted that past champion or young gun, everyone was going to have to grind over the weekend.

Scott, Howell and Baddeley managed to make the cut, however, Casey's game-within-a-game eclipse of Woods was a significant cameo at the heart of this tournament.

Where Mickelson and Furyk were prepared to surrender the psychological initiative to Woods at the outset, one of the players in hot pursuit of golf 's living legend refused to be intimidated.

At the Masters, on this exceptionally demanding course, it was another step in the right direction for Casey.