Woods Keeping His Focus on Three Wins in a Row

Outside issues? What outside issues?

Preparing for his try at a record consecutive third Masters title, Tiger Woods played a practice round in soggy conditions Tuesday at Augusta National, saying he found a lot of mud on his golf ball, but passing on any mud-slinging afterward.

Woods didn’t say much on Augusta National’s membership issue, although he did reiterate his stance that the club ought to invite a woman as a member. He also said he has got what it takes if any distractions come his way during the Masters.

It’s a matter of being able to focus, he said.

“When I’ve competed, even when I was a little boy, I’ve always been one who was very intense,” he said. “My biggest thing as a kid was to learn how to relax on the golf course. I’ve learned how.

“As far as blocking out things, I’ve become better. I don’t have lapses of energy. I can keep it going for all 18 holes. And I think that’s the biggest thing. And I feel so much more in control of my emotions because of that.”

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The forecast is for rain to continue through today, which should make the course on Thursday play nothing like what was intended when it was beefed up in 2002. Nine holes were altered, bunkers were added or relocated and the course was lengthened 285 yards.

If conditions were hard and fast instead of soft and slow, the Masters would be vastly different, Woods said.

“As far as difficulty, it’s difficult in a different way. Now, it’s just long brutal. But I think that this golf course is just a beast when you get these greens hard and fast. You hit seven-irons in there and they’re not holding at all. That’s when this golf course becomes brutal.”

Woods ranks fourth on the PGA Tour in putting and is first in scoring. When he won his third Masters last year and his second in a row, he three-putted only once.

The par-four fifth hole was reworked last summer, with more of a right-to-left dogleg angle that lengthened the hole 20 yards to 455. Fairway bunkers were extended 80 yards toward the green, which means it’s a 315-yard carry over both of them.

“I absolutely ripped a drive down there and I was short of the bunker,” Woods said. “I couldn’t get it there.”

Last year, the fifth was the fourth-most difficult hole on the course.

“Now, it’s one of the toughest out there,” Woods said.

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He was second last year to Woods, but Retief Goosen knows who will be favored this time.

“We’re just going to have to hope we catch him on an off week when he’s not playing too well,” Goosen said.

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Woods will play in the first and second rounds with Angel Cabrera and U.S. Amateur champion Ricky Barnes. Ernie Els will play with Jim Furyk and Sergio Garcia.

Garcia, who missed the cut at the Players Championship and at Bay Hill, says he is working on a swing change.

The problem is at the top of his backswing, said Garcia, who is working on trying to go a little more in line up to the top to make the swing a little longer.

“It’s a big change and it’s not easy,” Garcia said. “I’m getting used to it a little bit. I’m starting to hit a lot of good shots and I still hit some poor ones.”

Garcia, 23, was eighth in last year’s Masters.

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Now you know: Rae’s Creek, one of the more famous parts of Augusta National, is named after John Rae, who died in 1789. Rae’s house was the farthest building used as a fortress up the Savannah River from Fort Augusta. The house kept residents safe during Indian attacks when a fort was too far to reach.

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The average green at Augusta National is 6,150 square feet, or slightly larger than the average green on the PGA Tour, which is 6,000 square feet. Pebble Beach has the smallest, averaging 3,500 square feet.

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He sat out for a month because of the birth of his child, then came back last week at the BellSouth and missed the cut. That’s not exactly great preparation for the Masters, but it might work for Phil Mickelson.

He buys the theory that it might be helpful to arrive without much pressure on him.

“There is some truth to that,” Mickelson said. “It’s easier to prepare, be ready mentally when you don’t have as many distractions. It’s easier to spend more time preparing without interruption. And that can often lead to a player performing better.”