Colin Montgomerie says he will not be distracted when he plays the first two rounds of the Champions Tournament in Shanghai with Tiger Woods.
"The first time you play with Tiger you tend to get caught up playing him and trying to play his game," he said.
"I got caught up in that the first time I played with him in 1997 at Atlanta. I've realised I'm not going to do that. I will be playing my own game."
The tournament, the first on the 2006 European Tour, starts on Thursday.
Montgomerie finished second to Woods at the Open this year, five strokes behind the world number one.
The Scot, who outscored Woods when they were paired together in the third round at St Andrews, ended the season by winning his eighth European Order of Merit title.
After a difficult couple of years he is playing as well as ever and is relishing the chance to tackle Woods head-to-head.
"When you play with the best player of our generation, it's interesting and a good experience," said Montgomerie, who won seven straight European Order of Merit titles from 1993 to 1999.
"I'm excited about it."
Woods described Montgomerie's eighth Order of Merit as "truly one of the remarkable feats of modern golf because of the consistency it takes to do that."
He added: "As far as winning a major championship, I can certainly see Monty doing that because he still has the game to do it.
"He drives the ball very straight, and it's just a matter of him putting all of the pieces together at the right time."
The inaugural Champions Tournament is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, the European Tour, the PGA Tour of Australia and South Africa's Sunshine Tour. Title winners from all four tours will be competing in the £2.7m ($5m) tournament, the richest ever in Asia.
World number two Vijay Singh, US Open champion Michael Campbell and USPGA winner Phil Mickelson are also among the field at Sheshan International Golf Club.