Proposing harder than putting: Tiger

World No 1 golfer Tiger Woods says putting for a win in a major tournament is nothing compared with asking his girlfriend, Swede Elin Nordegren, to marry him, according to a Swedish newspaper.

"I was super nervous the moment I was going to put the question to Elin," Woods, 27, told Svenska Dagbladet in an interview on Thursday, remembering his proposal last month during the couple's four-day stay in South Africa's luxury Shamwari game reserve.

"I had made up my mind many months before, but I wanted to wait for a perfect and romantic setting," the American said.

"It was a thriller. To putt for victory in a major [golf tournament] is nothing in comparison. Even if you say 'Will you marry me?' with the right feeling, the answer could be 'No'," he said in the Internet edition of the newspaper, whose next printed edition is due out on Saturday.

But Elin, a 23 year-old former model who met Woods while she was working as a nanny to the children of Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, said 'Yes'.

"We haven't set a wedding date or decided where we'll get married," Woods told Svenska Dagbladet.

The Mercedes Championship in Hawaii from January 8 to 11 will be his first tournament in 2004, he said.