You read it here first: Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods will engage in the fiercest battle for PGA Tour supremacy since Arnold Palmer looked askance at a chubby kid named Jack Nicklaus. For the first time in years, Tiger Woods is the challenger instead of the champ. (Doug Benc / GettyImages) Why? First of all, Tiger is figuratively teed off ?he went through the entire 2004 PGA Tour season without winning a stroke-play title and endured gangland strafing in the media as a result. He became so determined to make things right ?remember, one of his closest friends is the ultracompetitive Michael Jordan -- that he returned from his honeymoon to dominate a relatively thin field in Japan, just to shut everybody up. This time, it's personal. Singh is no wallflower when it comes to competitiveness, either, spending more time on the practice range than sod. His sole goal in 2004 was to become the best golfer in the world. Mission accomplished. Now he's going to do everything he can to hold on to that title. Add to the mix that Tiger and Vijay aren't exactly bosom buddies, and you have one intense athletic rivalry to keep your eyes on. The best place to start looking, of course, is at the beginning. Both Singh and Woods will be at this week's Mercedes Championships, the PGA Tour's season-opening, cut-free tilt that is strictly for tournament winners from 2004. (Woods won the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship last February.) The Mercedes kicks off the West Coast Swing, a nine-tournament sunny segment of the schedule through Hawaii, California and Arizona ?which has proved vital to players having breakthrough seasons. Last year, Phil Mickelson won the West Coast Swing points system, then went on to shake loose a majors gorilla by winning the Masters and finishing a close third on the money list in a surprising bounce-back season. In 2003, Mike Weir did virtually the same thing, dominating the early part of the season with two wins (and two other top 10s) before getting his very own green jacket at Augusta on his way to finishing a career-high fifth in cash earned. See the trend, friend? To be a contender, PGA Tour players have to know how the West is won.