LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Tiger Woods, indeed, has arrived. He's on the cover of Time magazine, which says something about the young golf legend and his impact.
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The "exclusive" story, however, is a bit of a reach. Yes, Time got Woods to itself, but the story about how he "risked it all" to change his swing is as old as Woods pounding on the rest of the PGA Tour.
By now, astute golf fans already know how Woods revamped his swing after his 12-shot Masters victory in 1997 under the watchful eye of swing coach Butch Harmon.
Woods has been talking about his bold move for more than two years, about how he felt it necessary to corral his length, build a swing that would hold up under pressure, while allowing him to contend in tournaments when his timing was not as good as it was that week at The Masters.
Golfers know they play a fickle game, one fraught with frustration. Short streaks are followed by long slumps. Mastery of one aspect means misery in another. The search for perfection is endless.
Then there is Woods, who seeks his third major championship victory in a row, having won the previous two by a combined 23 shots.
He holds the scoring records at three of the biggest tournaments in the game. He's finished every tournament on the PGA Tour this year under par. He is first in six PGA Tour statistical categories -- not including money -- and is second in another, driving distance.
And he says he can get better?
"I want to be a better player every year," said Woods, who holds three major titles at the moment and defends his PGA Championship beginning Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club. "That means improving my swing and my control. It doesn't necessarily mean that I will have to win more events than this year. Winning is not always a barometer of improvement."
That's what Woods continually claimed while he endured a mini-slump that saw him win just one PGA Tour event during an 18-month period.
But once everything clicked, in May of 1999, Woods has become a golfer his peers have difficulty describing. He's won 13 of his last 24 starts, three of the last four major championships, a career Grand Slam.
"He's so far out there now, there is no weakness," said Jim McLean, a noted golf instructor who was recently ranked third by Golf Digest among its 50 Greatest Teachers. "Could he get longer? Unlikely. Could he get straighter? Not considerably. Could he get it up and down better? Could he putt better? He's a phenomenal putter for a guy hitting that many greens (in regulation). I guess he could do that better. And he might get a little better out of the bunkers. Maybe. But he's still really good at that."
McLean, who runs the Jim McLean Golf School at Doral in Miami, gushes when he talks about Woods. But he questions whether there is much room for improvement.
"I would say there is not a lot of upside, in my opinion," McLean said. "I would say there is much more room for things to go the other way. I'm not saying they will. I'm certainly not predicting that. I'm just saying, when I look at it ... to say you're going to get better for the next 15 years is highly unlikely. Of course, he's the first guy to do a lot of things."
Another well-known instructor, Dave Pelz, also chuckles at the notion of Woods improving. But he believes it can happen, especially on the greens. Woods is just 81st on the PGA Tour in putts per round with an average of 28.93. That stat is misleading, because Woods leads the tour in greens hit in regulation. Hence, he will take more putts. In the stat that measures putting for greens hit in regulation, Woods is eighth.
Still, Pelz believes Woods can make even more putts.
"His putting has never been as consistent as it could be. Not because of mechanics. They are pretty good," said Pelz, who operates the Dave Pelz Scoring Game School and just wrote a book called "Dave Pelz's Putting Bible." Pelz was ranked seventh in Golf Digest's list.
"But he tries to force the ball a little bit too much for my taste. The finesse game is much better if you let the ball do what it wants to do. Give it the best start you can and let it go after that. Don't try to make the ball do things.
"When Tiger putts poorly -- which isn't really bad -- he sometimes tries to take the break out. He tries to jam it. He misses it because of that. It's an amazing truth of the game, but I think he still can improve."
Pelz marvels at how Woods, with Harmon's help, has taken his game to such a level.
"I give Butch Harmon the highest marks," Pelz said. "He has helped Tiger work on his weaknesses while maintaining and maybe improving his strengths. Most golfers, in my experience, love to work on their strengths, groove them and maintain them, and hate to work on their weaknesses. But the weakest areas determine your scoring ability.
"Tiger has taken his short game over the last two or three years, and whenever he sees a shot he can't hit, he goes back and works on it."
Woods' exploits continue to amaze. For example, from the eighth hole of the first round to the 17th hole of the second round at St. Andrews, Woods hit 27 consecutive greens in regulation. He missed just two all week on the back nine -- both at that dreaded Road Hole, No. 17. He managed to avoid all 112 bunkers on the Old Course for the entire tournament.
A great week? Perhaps. But it came just more than a month after he was the only player to finish under par (12-under) at Pebble Beach, which caused fits for everyone else. He won the U.S. Open by a record 15 shots.
Woods averages 292 yards per tee shot, hits 74 percent of the greens in regulation, leads the tour with a scoring average of 67.77. He is first in eagles, birdie average, par-breakers and the tour's all-around ranking.
What's to improve?
"Everybody worked out harder this past offseason, practiced harder and became more determined," said two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen. "And he's still at a level no one can match."
"If Tiger stands still," Pelz said, "he won't be the king for very long. There is nothing he has done to indicate he is satisfied. You're either getting worse or you're getting better. There's no standing still in golf."
Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a column every Tuesday for ESPN Golf Online.
