Few people can claim to have got the better of Tiger Woods on the golf course but David Howell is hoping to use his experience against the world no 1 at the Dubai Desert Classic this week.

Swindon's Howell outscored Woods to win the HSBC Champions Trophy in November 2005 after a superb run on the front nine left the 12-time major winner trailing.

Woods was unable to recover the deficit coming home and Howell held his nerve to win the £475, 000 prize money.

Woods is back in Dubai to defend his title after defeating Ernie Els in a play-off last year.

And Ryder Cup star Howell believes it will take a similar sort of performance to deny him a second successive victory in the event, which was due to get underway this morning.

He said: "If you are going to stand up in a tournament against Tiger on the final day you have to keep control of your own emotions, play as well as you can and hope he doesn't have a great day.

"He is the best player in the world, obviously he has had an unbelievable run but that doesn't mean he is unbeatable, but if he plays as well as he can he will be tough to beat.

"A lot of things have to go your way but first and foremost you have to play well on the Sunday when the pressure is on.

"If you are going to make mistakes against Tiger then he is going to beat you.

"You have to try and keep the pressure on and when I played him he probably figured that I wasn't going to drop too many shots coming in and he was going to have to attack me.

"The difficulty comes when Tiger is in front and he never seems to make a mistake, so you have to go at it."

Howell, making his playing return after a near two-month break recovering from a back injury, has also tasted success in Dubai after he won the Desert Classic eight years ago.

That tournament was played at the Dubai Creek Golf Course and the Broome Manor man believes the Emirates Golf Club will provide a completely different challenge this time.

"It was a very different test at the Dubai Creek many years ago," Howell added.

"It was my first win on the European Tour and it was almost a US Open style set-up which is pretty different to what we have here this week.

"You always have to be very strong mentally to win a tournament and it will be the same here.

"We have a great field here, I think it might be the strongest we have ever had, there seem to be the world's top players everywhere you look. Whoever wins this week will have to be strong and will fully deserve the spoils."

Howell was due off at just after 4am (British time) from the 10th tee, with Ryder Cup teammate Henrik Stenson and South African star Els.