Woods could tie Nelson's record streak at the Masters

	With seven straight Tour wins, Tiger now faces the big issue of where he'll play next. Steve Grayson/WireImage.com
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As expected, the chase is on. And Charles Howell, Andrew Buckle, Jeff Quinney and the rest of the Buick Invitational field at Torrey Pines last week can confirm that Tiger Woods usually catches what he chases.

So watch out, Byron Nelson.

Woods made a run at Nelson's famous streak, 11 straight wins, once before. It ended at Torrey Pines when Phil Mickelson outplayed him on the final nine. This time, Woods shot the low score of the week on the South Course on Sunday -- a 66 -- and earned the victory. He has won seven consecutive PGA Tour tournaments and seems to have the scent for Nelson's 1945 mark, which has long seemed unassailable.

Nelson's mark isn't unassailable now. It's within reach and it's oh-so-possible.

Unlike Nelson, who played most of the events on the schedule, Woods picks his spots. He's so choosy, in fact, that he won't say which tournament he'll play next except that it will be either the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club, a course where he has struggled on the greens and has never won, or the Accenture World Match Play Championship, which he won twice at La Costa but is now held at The Gallery in Tucson.

I'll guess and say that because of Riviera's history of having bumpy greens in February, Woods skips the Nissan and next plays in Tucson. If he wins that, a tougher feat because it's match play, it's really a guessing game where he'll play because the March schedule is completely different this year.

The Players Championship has moved to May. The new big March event is the CA Championship (formerly the American Express Championship), to be played at Doral. There's a strong likelihood Woods will play the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill -- where he once reeled off four straight wins -- the week before Doral. The two events before that are also in Florida, at Innisbrook, and at PGA National in the Honda Classic. Honda is hopeful because Woods now owns a massive estate in nearby Jupiter. But it's all about Tiger's preparation for the Masters. He may well skip both.

If Woods wins in Tucson, Bay Hill and Doral, he'll be at 10. He'd then be going for No. 11 at the Masters. That seems apropos. Even better, he could take two weeks off after the Masters and go for No. 12 at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, a fine way to honor the memory of the great man. Again, all this is speculation.

The debate is sure to come up whether the streaks of Woods and Nelson are comparable. As mentioned, Nelson played nearly every tournament on the schedule while Woods has stretched his streak out over two seasons and seven months, playing sparingly. Plus, Woods has played in other countries on other tours and not won. His streak is finely etched as a PGA Tour-only streak.

Still, it's pretty amazing. There's the old knock on Nelson that war diluted the quality of the fields in 1945 but Ben Hogan and Sam Snead played their fair share and Jackie Burke once said that 11 wins in a row, even against a bunch of orangutans, was a hell of a record.

Seven in a row in the 21st century isn't bad, either. And that's seven and counting.