Hungry Tiger eyes another green jacket

GOLF/US Masters: Tiger Woods sits and stares and looks just the same, has that look of a winner all over him. He's still bombing his drives, mostly down the middle, and the putter is still like a magic wand in the hands of a magician.

He looks lean and hungry and determined to slip that old green jacket on to his own shoulders and nobody else's come Sunday evening.

Last year, when Woods won his second US Masters and became the first player to hold all four modern majors simultaneously, and everyone talked of the "Tiger Slam", the player wasn't as invincible as he seemed.

The next day, he woke up with a temperature of 104. "I got pretty sick after the tournament was over," he recalled yesterday. "A lot of that is due to having allergies and with the pollen out here - but it is also stress, and what it can do to your immune system."

Twelve months on, and people have stopped pestering him about the Slam.

Instead, the questions relate to the course changes. Could you talk about the 18th hole? Is recovery a bigger deal now? How is your strategy and gameplan going to be different on certain holes? What's you mindset coming into this tournament compared to last year? Tell us about this red meat bet?

Yeah, for a month, Tiger stayed away from all red meat. Not to lose weight or anything scientific, just as a bet with a pal.

"There were a lot of times I was tempted, especially after a bad round, but I held on," he quipped. Indeed, evidence that red meat is very much back on his menu came at last night's champions' dinner were the main course was porterhouse steak, and also sushi and grilled chicken for those not inclined to feast themselves.

More seriously, Woods - who hasn't played since the Players' Championship, where he failed to break 70 on any of the four days - has arrived here with his game in good shape, or so he would have us believe with that old confidence of his.

"I actually played well at the TPC, it's just that I was missing the mounds a little bit either side. Instead of having 10 or 15 footers (for birdies), I had these 40 footers over elephant burial grounds. It was one of those weeks where I was a bit off, but I knew I was close and I have worked on it and the practice sessions I had at home were very, very positive," said Woods.

When the changes for Augusta National were first mooted a year ago, the opinion initially was that it was further "tigerproofing" of the course.

On the contrary, it seems that the changes will further help the longer hitters and Woods acknowledged that power would be a key factor.

"It certainly helps to have distance off the tee, but you have also got to be accurate. With the fairways now a little narrower than they were last year, and with some more trees, the golf course favours a guy that hits the ball further but straight too."

He added: "I think placing the ball becomes a premium again, in the greens - but, more importantly, off the tee. You have to hit the ball on the fairway in order to control the ball on to the greens."

Rather than the additional length to the course, other nuances took Woods by surprise when he arrived here on Monday.

"For instance, and this may sound ridiculous, but when I went on the putting green out there and was hitting putts, I missed every one. I knew all the breaks on that putting green (which has been changed, like a number of greens on the course) and now you come here and you've got to learn all over again."

Indeed, John Daly reckoned that the course was playing two or even three shots more difficult than when he last competed in the Masters, and Woods concurred that "if you are playing just under par, then I think you've done well."

Woods, though, looks completely relaxed. "I thoroughly enjoy playing these majors. It's the challenge. The course will be a lot more difficult but you always have the best players in the world attending," he said.

In his voice, there was more than a hint that the time has come for his barren spell in major championships to end.

Three majors have come and gone since he took the green jacket last year. In Tiger's eyes, that's too many; and that is what has most players' worried.

The Woods intimidation factor, aided and abetted by the changes to the course, is back and hungry for more success. Just something else for the other 88 players in the field to cope with come tee-time tomorrow.