MARANA, Arizona: Three-time winner Tiger Woods clearly lacks the mystique he once enjoyed at the World Golf Championships Match-Play Championship, which starts on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) with 64 of the world’s top players.

Woods, a 14-time major champion chasing the record 18 major titles won by Jack Nicklaus, will try to win his first US PGA event since September of 2009 at the $8.5 million tournament at Dove Mountain.

World No. 20 Woods will face Spain’s 48th-ranked Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano in one of 32 first-round matches.

“I think he’s beatable,” the Spaniard said of Woods. “Of course I need to play good. If I play well I can beat him. He’s probably not at his best. Maybe I can beat him. That would be a great feeling.

“I think Tiger will win majors again. I don’t know if he will get past Nicklaus’s record. What I’m sure about is he’s not going to be as dominant as what he used to be.”

Woods deadpanned his reply to the challenge, saying on Tuesday, “I feel exactly the same way as he does. I feel he’s beatable, too.”

Fernandez-Castano, a five-time winner on the European Tour, could meet the fate of Canada’s Stephen Ames, who in 2006 commented on erratic tee shots by Woods and then lost to him 9 and 8, the most lopsided match in event history.

But Woods said that he uses comments as inspirational fuel less these days than he did in the past.

“It used to (inspire me) quite a bit when I was younger. But as I’ve matured and gone beyond that,” Woods said. “It’s their own opinion. Everyone has a hole and it’s just like that.

“What matters is how I go out and play and how I’m progressing in my game. At the end of the day when I’m retired, I think I will have mastered a pretty good record.”