Tiger Woods: Rory McIlroy will only get better Certainly, Woods, the 14-time major winner, has never participated in a press conference in which the initial three queries fired in his direction were about another player. If Woods was under any doubt that there is a new superstar threatening to eclipse his own limelight then yesterday at the Abu Dhabi Championship put him right. Yet as a Nike player himself, Woods would have been under no illusion anyway. On Monday, McIlroy was confirmed as the new $125 million (£78 million) man of the Swoosh. And in Woods's opinion his equipment and apparel providers are on to a good deal. "Rory drives it beautifully, is a beautiful iron player and when he's got that putter rolling he makes a lot of putts," Woods said. He's proven he can make big putts; he's won a couple of majors by large margins. Yes, he has all the tools and is only going to refine them. He's only get to better at it and it will be good to see. "Good" or "ominous"? Woods, of course, would never admit to the latter. But then, he declined to agree with Jack Nicklaus's comments late last year, which spoke of McIlroy's stunning emergence acting as motivation for Woods to kick on again in a major quest which has been stalled since 2008. It is a delicious thought which will occupy the thoughts as the pair resume their budding rivalry here in tomorrow's first round, when they play in the same threeball.