MIAMI - TIGER Woods is more concerned about preparing his game for next month's Masters than extending his win streak to eight events this week by capturing a title at Doral for the fourth year in a row.

World number one Woods, who won last week with a 25-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole, will play his final tune-up for Augusta National starting on Thursday at the eight million-dollar World Golf Championships CA Championship.

Woods has won his past five US PGA starts plus last month's event at Dubai and his invitational last December, giving him 64 career titles, level with the late Ben Hogan for third all-time behind Sam Snead's 82 and Jack Nicklaus' 73.

'This week is a new week and I'm trying to get this one and make sure my game is right for Augusta,' Woods said Wednesday. 'As I've always said, you want to peak four times a year and I want everything going positively that way.'

'You don't really get remembered for number of wins in a career. It's the number of wins in major championships. Those are the biggest events. That's one of the reasons why we as players put so much emphasis on those championships. They mean so much, not only to us but in the historical sense.'

Woods, 32, has spoken confidently about his chances of a Grand Slam sweep this year but admits he does not expect to run through 2008 undefeated.

'I'm sure it'll happy eventually,' Woods said of losing this year.

Record win streak of 11
But until he does, he will take aim at the PGA record win streak of 11 set by Byron Nelson in 1945.

'That would be the ultimate,' Woods said. 'That's obviously winning Augusta. You can win every tournament for the entire year, but if you go 0-for-4 in the year in the major championships, it's just (not so good).'

Woods has had little time to enjoy the win streak that has captivated the golf world.

'When you're in it, you're concentrating on the moment of preparing and getting ready and obviously trying to win an event,' he said. 'Like this week, whatever I've done the last few weeks is inconsequential. It doesn't count for this week. I have to play well this week in order to win this event.'

'You've got to put all that aside and get out there and be ready come Thursday and then put yourself in position come Sunday. Last week the first few days was kind of a setback, but I turned it around and still ended up winning. That's the maturation of my game, learning how to fix it and turning rounds into rounds that don't basically kick me out of a tournament.'

Woods, whose longest PGA win streak is seven, will have his longest-ever layoff before Augusta, a two-week break. He is pondering a trip to Augusta to look over the course before a week of hard training with coach Hank Haney.

'I'm looking at maybe going up there for a day, just to see a couple of the changes they've made. But they're minor tweaks, nothing major,' Woods said.

'I'm playing Monday and Tuesday at Isleworth and then shutting it down for a couple days and then gearing back up. Hank is coming down, and then we're going to start working and getting ready.'

Woods, the reigning champion at all-three World Golf Championships events and a winner in 14 of 25 WGCs overall, has won this event six of the eight times it has been staged, although it only moved to Doral last year. -- AFP