CHANDLER'S CROSS, England -- Keeping track of records can get muddled when Tiger Woods travels around the world, so there was a debate Wednesday whether his winning streak was dead or alive.

The answer was both.

"It ended two weeks ago," Woods said.

After five straight victories from the British Open in July to the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston the first week of September, Woods lost in the first round of the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth.

But that's a European Tour event.

"I'm going for six in a row on our TOUR," Woods said at the World Golf Championships--American Express Championship, where he is defending his title at a WGC event that counts as official on all six of the major Tours. "But not six in a row tournament-wise, because I've played two since then and lost both."

The other loss was at the Ryder Cup, still a popular topic this week.

Woods also won six straight on the PGA TOUR at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000, although he finished sixth in between that streak at the Johnnie Walker Classic, another European Tour event. That matched the second-longest streak on the PGA TOUR, barely more than halfway home to the record not even Woods believes will be broken.

Byron Nelson, who died Tuesday at his ranch in Texas, owns the record of 11 consecutive victories in 1945.

"His record is still remarkable that particular year," Woods said. "His 12th event, he finished second, and then he won the very next one. So that's 12 out of 13, and the worst he finished was second. That's pretty good. And 18 (victories) in one year. I don't play that many tournaments, so I can't get to 18."

Asked whether 11 in a row was possible now, Woods said probably not.

"The competition is so much deeper now," he said. "Back in his day -- I actually talked to him about this -- he said he had to beat four or five guys every week. And when you're hot, that's not hard to do. That's not the case anymore. It's 40 or 50 now, so it's a lot different."

This might be one of the easier weeks.