"With consistent play over the next year, I believe that No 1 is certainly attainable.
"It is the first time in my career as a professional that it has been realistic for me.
"For nine years, no one played at the level Tiger played at. He is slightly off, but he is on his way back it seems.
"It is a good time for me to take advantage of that and hopefully beat him to the punch."
He also needs to beat Jason Day to the punch, with Greg Norman this week putting the 23-year-old a fraction ahead of Scott in the race to No 1.
Day, who tied for second with Scott at the Masters in Augusta and also finished runner-up at the US Open, is Australia's top-ranked player at seventh in the standings.
There would be a certain symmetry, though, if Scott was to in fact beat Day, Woods and company to No 1.
Norman remains the only Australian man to have reached the summit and Scott credits the 56-year-old living legend for both inspiring his career and then turning it around.
"He was that charismatic guy who made the game so popular down here. Kids like myself stopped playing other sports to play golf," Scott said.
Then when Scott's career turned sour, after he plummeted from the dizzy heights of No 3 in the world to outside the top 50 two years ago, it was the Shark who resurrected it. Scott said being Norman's controversial captain's pick for the Internationals at the 2009 Presidents Cup in San Francisco, was undoubtedly the spark behind his resurgence.
"We all know how I felt about being picked," Scott said. "A couple of years ago that sent me on a path to turn my game around.
"Whether Greg intended that or not, he always said I was able to go and win points. I felt that I had to work really hard to do that because I was not playing great at the time.
"But it certainly put me back on that stage with world-class players. There is nowhere to hide from that in a Presidents Cup.
"You can't hide down the field in 65th, shooting 10 over.
"It was only a month and a half later that I won the Aussie Open. It was a great spur for me." AAP
