Golf

Tiger turns back to his father's putting advice

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-03-24 10:01

ORLANDO, Florida - Tiger Woods says he is missing his late father's input into his game but has returned to his methods in a bid to sharpen up his putting.

Woods, without a win since the Australian Masters in November 2009, used to count putting as one of the strongest points of a game which has brought him 14 major titles but his reliability on the green has faded of late.

So the former world number one says he has been revisiting the lessons learned from his father Earl, who died in 2006.

"I went back to all of my old stuff that my dad and I used to work on and that's when I felt that my stroke started becoming more sound, more solid, my speed became better," Woods told reporters on Wednesday.

"My dad really knew my stroke. And I miss him for a lot more reasons than just the putting, but as far as bouncing ideas off of him and what I was feeling and what he would say, I do miss that, certainly."

Woods said it is helpful that his father's suggestions for his putting release have the same fundamentals as what he is working on now in other parts of his game with Canadian swing coach Sean Foley.

"It's exactly the same. What Foley is trying to get me to do with my full swing and how he wants me to release it (is) how I used to release my putter. That's one of the reasons why I've gone back to my old stuff that my dad and I used to work on, and it feels natural, because I've done it for so long. I just got away from it and now I'm going back to it."

Woods, who plays the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this week before going into full preparation for next month's U.S. Masters, said his lack of consistency in putting dates back further than his recent troubles.

"Probably way back in '05, '06, somewhere in there. I would get on runs for two or three tournaments in a row where I would really putt well and then I would just lose it," said Woods.

"I took for granted my putting, and didn't really spend a lot of time doing it. And I was expecting to go out there and putt well every day. I've got to log in the hours, so I went back to doing that and this year I've putted much better."