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Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh see life on the PGA Tour the same way: Each believes he can be the No. 1 player in the world. Only Woods knows what that feels like; he has led the world rankings since 1999. But both Singh and Mickelson have enjoyed superior results in the first half of the 2004 season.

All three have embraced new approaches--from attitude to technology--in their quest to raise their games even higher. During his recovery from the knee surgery that caused him to miss the first two months of the 2003 season, Woods had to adjust to a strength and conditioning regimen that didn't include running. "I'm lighter now than I was last year because I wasn't able to run," Woods says. "I had to hop on that stupid bike and ride it. It's not quite the same fat-burning exercise as running."

Woods also has been making adjustments to his swing, trying to eliminate the occasional wild shot that has kept his performance below the peak he achieved in 2000, when he won three major championships. Woods hasn't won a major title since the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, a situation he'll try to rectify when the Open begins at Shinnecock Hills June 17.

The changes in his swing now are subtle, hardly the radical retooling he undertook after winning the 1997 Masters. Before then, Woods says, "I played differently with my hip action and my feet. Now, it's nowhere near as drastic.

With his longer putter, he's money on the greens and closing on Tiger in the world rankings.

"We're all golfers, and we're all trying to improve, and we're always piddling around with trying to get a little bit better. Even if you win like I did in 1999 and 2000--I won 17 times on our tour--you're always trying to get better. That's just the way it is"

The conventional wisdom about Mickelson is that the reigning Masters champion has reinvented himself. Mickelson says that's not the case. "But I've got a new outlook and a new attitude" he says. "I practiced real hard last year, but I wasn't getting anything out of it. Now I'm practicing the right things"

Specifically, Mickelson has worked diligently on keeping his driver in play and on distance control with his irons. Often criticized by the press for a full-throttle, risky style of play, he has dialed back his driver and often plays a soft cut. Mickelson has sacrificed 12 to 15 yards off the tee in switching balls from the Titleist ProV1x to the ProV1, and he has abandoned Titleist's Scotty Cameron Futura putter in favor of the conventional blade that was his mainstay in earlier days.

Mickelson also is in better shape. He says his strength and conditioning program provides "better lower-body stability and balance to allow swing changes more easily."

In Singh's case, the switch from a conventional putter to one that is anchored in his belly has transformed him from an excellent player into a great one. Always a workaholic on the driving range, Singh now believes he can make putts, and that confidence has taken the pressure off his long game.

With his newfound navel power, Singh grabbed the money title from Woods in 2003 and was on top of the money charts in '04--with Mickelson second and Woods fourth--entering this week's Buick Classic. Singh also has made enough inroads into Woods' lead in the world rankings to make Tiger nervous.

Next week Instant replay comes to college football

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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