Tiger Woods hits out of the rough on the seventh hole during second round of the WGC-CA Championship golf tournament in Doral, Florida March 21, 2008. [Photo: Hans Deryk/Reuters]
World number one Tiger Woods believes improved understanding of his swing is the key factor behind his current domination of the game.
Woods, one shot behind leader Geoff Ogilvy in the WGC-CA Championship at Doral after Friday's second round, has won nine out of his last 10 tournaments worldwide and has not lost since September.
The 32-year-old, who has won 13 majors, said a combination of greater experience and the work of coach Hank Haney have increased his knowledge of his own game.
"I feel like I can fix my game while I'm playing better than I ever have. My understanding of my game is leaps and bounds better than it ever has been. That allows me to not have those big high rounds like I used to," Woods told reporters after shooting two eagles in his six-under-par round of 66.
"Certainly Hank has helped a lot, helped my knowledge of my swing, along with the years of experience.
"I've been out here for 12 years now. All the things that I've experienced, you've just got to put into the file and you know what works and what doesn't work.
"Then obviously my knowledge from working with Hank and ball flight has really helped," he said.
Time spent
Woods said the time spent working on his swing did, however, lead him to temporarily neglect his putting.
"Unfortunately there's only a certain amount of hours in a day. You're out there hitting golf balls for eight, 10, 12 hours and you start realizing you're too tired to hit a few putts, too tired to go out there and spend the hours that I need to do on my short game, and relearn all the shots that I know and make sure they have such a spin and all the things you have to know," he said.
"I knew that that was going to happen. It's happened before when I first made changes with (previous coach) Butch Harmon. It happened through the end of 1997, most of '98. I went through that stretch there where I was making a bunch of swing changes and my short game wasn't as good.
"Then you start hitting the ball better, you're allowed to practice a little bit more. You have more time to delegate to the short game, and all of a sudden everything kind of basically comes together," he said.
Ominously for those trying to stop his victory streak, which includes winning his last seven events, or catch him up in years to come, Woods is sure that experience will continue to improve his game.
"I guarantee you, 10 years from now that I'll be a hell of a lot better with my course management than I am now, just from that many more years of experience," he said.
(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2008)
