When I’m swinging well just step up there and hit that

“When I’m swinging well, just step up there and hit that ball to the right with a nice high draw. He has rarely looked confident of hitting the fairway this year but immediately from the first two tees yesterday he hit long, high draws. “It does not come easily at first but I got into it pretty soon,” he said. Then he went fishing and diving, “where you can’t hear any cell phones ringing.”For the last two weeks he has been practising hard with his latest driver, a prototype that is not yet on the market. The world No 1 started his four-week break from the circuit by doing absolutely nothing.

I am still working on the putting but I prefer courses like this which are tougher and it takes the pressure off my putting.”Woods admitted to being nervous on the first tee, not because of the number of spectators which amounted to little more than a handful, but because he had not played for a month. He has had only two top-10 finishes all season and is 103rd on the US money list.Just as he decided to alter his swing, his putting went and it has taken a while to work through the problems “I don’t have to think about the swing any more,” he said. “When I hit the ball crisp it feels a lot better than it did I still need more consistency. Woods had a 67 alongside South Korea’s K J Choi.Garcia did not drop a shot and picked up five birdies on a course that some found severely penal because of the tangly Bermuda rough and the hardness of the greens. The greens were playing firm and extremely fast but the young Spaniard took a one-stroke lead over Tim Herron and Rocco Mediate. Garcia, after a season of changing his swing and struggling with his putting, is looking for confidence.
A 65 on the Crabapple course at the Capital City Club here should help. In their own way, Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia still have much to achieve this season.

Woods, driven to distraction by his inability to find the fairways regularly in the majors, collects World Golf Championship titles for fun and has already won the AmEx World Championship twice in its three previous stagings. The Rangers manager, Alex McLeish, who played under Ferguson at Aberdeen, is confident of making the most of home advantage.He said: “I think people thought Manchester United would run away with it. But Stuttgart’s win proves that on their day every team will be a threat in this group, especially on their own ground.”We have got ourselves in a good position, and the next game is at Ibrox It should be interesting.”.š. You have to put them under pressure, especially if you are playing against 10 men, but they got back into the game and did well.