The bottom line? The Golden Bear, who holds the record for major victories at 18, realizes that he should have won more.

``I went through a period from 1967-70 where I was winning six or seven tournaments a year but I wasn't winning the majors and it really wasn't a big deal to me until my father passed away,'' said Nicklaus, who is competing in the Telus Skins Game.

``I realized I was wasting a lot of my time and my effort on not really working that hard at what I was doing. I passed a lot of good years there and I don't think Tiger has done that.''

The ultimate goal for Woods is to surpass Nicklaus' record for victories in professional majors and he recently won his 11th at the British Open. He also earned his 50th career PGA win at the Buick Open last weekend and is one of just seven golfers to achieve that feat.

Nicklaus said he and Woods have had very different lives although there are some parallels when it comes to success at the amateur level and winning the majors. But the major difference said Nicklaus is focus.

``He's had a focus on his life on golf and I think Tiger has some outside interests but he's basically going to focus very hard on golf,'' Nicklaus said.

``I loved golf but my priorities were certainly not golf _ my priorities were my family and I certainly skipped a lot of golf tournaments and a lot of preparation to do things with my kids. Tiger doesn't have any kids.''

Nicklaus hadn't even kept track of how many majors he had won until one day he was informed he had already won 10. He realizes that Woods is determined to best his record of 18.

``If I knew that Tiger was coming along I would have focused a lot earlier in my life. If Bobby Jones had won 20 majors I would have focused a lot earlier on 20,'' said Nicklaus, 66, who has only played about a dozen rounds of golf in the past year.

``Tiger may win 20 and the next kid and all of a sudden he focuses until he wins 20.''

Greg Norman, who is competing against Nicklaus, Stephen Ames, Sergio Garcia and John Daly this week said he used Nicklaus as an inspiration when he was growing up.

``The only two books I read were Golf My Way and 55 Ways to Play the Game. They're the only two golf books I read in my life,'' said Norman.

``Instead of doing physics and chemistry homework I was studying Jack Nicklaus' books. I failed chemistry, I passed physics but I passed my golf career.''

Nicklaus realizes it's only a matter of time before Woods takes over his title and said he will be fine with that when it does eventually happen.

``Unless he loses interest or has an injury or something else I think he probably will break it,'' Nicklaus said.

``I'd just like to be the first guy to shake his hand when he does but I'm not going to follow him around the last major to make sure that I'm there.''