NORTH Yorkshire golf ace Simon Dyson wants the game's greatest talent - Tiger Woods - to bag the lot.

For the first time in three years Dyson will sit out the Open, which swings into play at Muirfield tomorrow, after a calculated gamble aimed at yielding the Malton and Norton star a flying finish to the season.

Dyson can see little way past a Woods triumph over the four days of the Open. According to Dyson the American - nicknamed 'Phenom' for phenomenal - is already a legend, a tiger in the pantheon of the game's greatest players.

Victory in the Open would yield Woods his ninth major and complete three-quarters of golf's Grand Slam after already winning the Masters and US Open titles. Dyson would like nothing more than for Tiger to burn bright at Muirfield and then at the USPGA to ensure the first capture of all four majors in the one year.

"He has held all the four titles at once, but not in the same year - and that's what I would love him to do," purred Dyson.

"It would be an achievement that only comes around once in a lifetime and, as a golfer, I would love Woods to do the Grand Slam all in the one year. Then he could be called the best there's ever been."

In a deliberate ploy the 24-year-old Dyson opted to gamble on gaining lucrative points and cash at the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, the tournament overlapping the qualifying rounds for the Open.

His avowed aim is to finish in the top 55 of the European Order of Merit so as to gain automatic entry for the prestigious Volvo Masters tournament at Valderrama at the end of the season. He is currently 60th in the Euro merit rankings.

A four-round total of 284 in which fortunes fluctuated wildly, still mustered a 53rd finish for the North Yorkshire king of clubs, leaving him to occupy a watching brief over Muirfield from his Manchester base ahead of his next event, the Dutch Open next week.

He added: "It's not the end of the world that I am not competing at Muirfield, where I believe Woods will again prove he is so far ahead of the rest.

"The only other contender I can see is Sergio Garcia because he won the British amateur title some years back at Muirfield. If I was a betting man I would have an each-way flutter on him. But there's not one bad part of Woods' game, so he is the one for me."

Updated: 11:48 Wednesday, July 17, 2002