Tiger Woods insisted he will not be out to beat Arnold Palmer’s record of 50 straight Masters appearances.

The question of how many Masters Woods believe he will eventually appear surfaced during questions following the third round of the oNorthwestern Mutual World Challenge.

Woods was asked how many years he expected to play under a ‘Lifetime Exemption’ in winning at Augusta National

Tiger Woods wins a first Masters in 1997.

“Let me put it to you this way,” he said.  “I’m not going to beat Arnold’s record.  I’m not playing that long.  That’s for sure.”

Palmer competed for 50 straight years in the Masters from 1955 through 2004, winning the tournament four times.

However from 1984 Palmer missed the halfway in his last twenty.

While Woods seems highly unlikely to ever play 50 Masters he also says he’s not interested in competing in any tournament if he knows he can no longer win.

“You know, for me, I always want to win,” he said.

“If I can’t win, why tee it up?  That’s just my own personal belief.

“And I know what it takes to prepare to win and what it takes to go out there and get the job done, and there’s going to come a point in time where I just can’t do it anymore.  We all as athletes face that moment.  I’m a ways away from that moment in my sport, but when that day happens I’ll make a decision and that’s it.”

But when could that be Woods was asked.

“Well, considering Tom (Watson) almost won the British Open at age 59, you know,” he said.

“Sam (Snead) winning at 53 or 54 at Greensboro.  We can do it for a long period of time.  And you’ve seen so many guys of late where — Fred Funk, Jay Haas, Raymond Floyd, Freddie (Couples) do well in their late 40s and 50s.

Tiger Woods wins a fourth Masters in 2005.

“Every other sport you’re done at my age, or younger.  You know, in golf you can still win golf tournaments in your 50s, and guys have done it.  Guys have proven it.  And I think that’s probably the more difficult thing is that you can still finish Top 10, top 5s, but you’re probably just not quite as efficient as you need to be to win golf tournaments.  But you can still be there.

“What’s Freddie now, 54 now or something like that?  And every single year it seems like he’s in contention to win the Masters, like the last 20 some odd years.  You can just do it.  At certain venues you can do it.

However with some golfers teeing up at Augusta well into their 60s Woods was also quizzed if he saw himself mellowing on this subjectfurther down the line?

“No.  Mellowing on that, no,” he said.

“I’ll be on that first tee starting out the event hitting a ceremonial drive as an honorary starter, I’m sure.  So I mean you hit a good drive and you can’t get to where you can see the flag, I don’t — I don’t know why it’s even fun.  (Laughs)”