Tiger Woods of the U.S. hits his drive off the tee on the second hole in final round play on Torrey Pines South course during the Farmers Insurance Open PGA golf tournament in San Diego, California January 30, 2011. REUTERS

LA JOLLA, California - Tiger Woods' bid to end his 14-month victory drought on a Torrey Pines course he has long dominated dwindled on Saturday with a two-over 74 in the third round of the US PGA Farmers Insurance Open.

Woods struggled with his re-tooled golf swing all day on the Torrey Pines South Course, the same track where he defied a badly damaged knee to beat Rocco Mediate in a US Open playoff in 2008.

That triumph followed a run of four straight US PGA Tour titles at the seaside course from 2005-2008 and took his total of professional victories here to seven.

He missed the past two US tour tournaments here - in 2009 as he recovered from knee surgery and last year amid the fallout from revelations of his marital infidelity.

But a return to Torrey - where his only prior over-par round in the US tour event was back in 2002 - seemed just what Woods needed as he sought to put his horrendous 2010 season behind him.

Instead, Woods' erratic effort left him eight shots behind third-round leaders Phil Mickelson and Bill Haas.

"I didn't swing the club very well at all," Woods said. "Didn't feel comfortable until 16. By then it was too late and the damage had already been done."

After finding the fairway at the second hole, Woods hit his approach into a greenside bunker en route to a bogey.

He followed with a three-putt bogey at the par-three third and at the fifth was in the rough off the tee and, from an awkward stance in a fairway bunker, hit into another bunker en route to a bogey.

He managed to birdie the front nine's two par-fives, but gave back a shot at 15.

Woods said the swing changes he implemented last year with coach Sean Foley have yet to stand up under the pressures of tournament play, but he made it clear he believes he is on the right path and determined to add to his tally of 14 major championships.

"I know what I can do," Woods said. "I know what I'm capable of hitting, the shots I'm capable of hitting, and I just need to keep improving and keep working."

Woods' timetable for improving is clearly based not on the gap since his last victory, at the Australian Masters in November of 2009, but on the first major championship of 2011.

"Augusta," Woods said, targeting the Masters for time when his game needs to be in shape.

"I need it in June, I need it in July and I need one (week) in August," said Woods - a nod to the dates for the US Open, British Open and PGA Championship.

"You want to peak," Woods said. "That is the whole idea. I've always tried to peak four times a year. I've been successful at it 14 times in my career."

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 01/31/2011 page23)