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St Andrews - Scotland, July 13 - Tiger Woods has taken the radical step of throwing out the putter he has used for 11 years in an effort to combat the slow greens at this week's British Open.
"I have a new Nike putter in the bag," said the world number one at a packed news conference on Tuesday. "It (the ball) comes off faster.
"I've always struggled on slower greens (but in my practice rounds here) I haven't had to make that much of an adjustment because the ball is coming off a little bit quicker.
"This putter ... with the new groove technology ... rolls the ball better."
The 14-times major champion said he had been contemplating a change for a long time.
"That's something (caddie) Stevie (Williams) and I have been talking about over the years - what can I do on slower greens?," said Woods.
"I've always putted well on faster greens ... and can't wait to get to the fastest greens that we play on tour. But this week has been a little bit different.
"Some of my best putting rounds were when the greens were running at 14 or something like that on the stimpmeter. These greens aren't up to speed," added Woods.
"Today one of the guys was out there doing a stimpmeter and it was under 10. I've always experimented with other putters throughout the years but I've never put one in play until now." Woods, bidding to become the first player to win a St Andrews Open three times, said his long-range putting played a key role in his victories here in 2000 and 2005.
"You're going to have some real long putts here no matter how you hit it and you just have to get down in two," said the 34-year-old American. "So many times you can three putt.
"The two years I've played well here I've lag putted beautifully and I've also hit the ball in the right spots."
Woods also said the Open demanded a wide variety of shot-making skills.
"I think in order to win an Open you have to hit the ball and control your trajectory more so than what we do in the other three major championships," he said.
"Here you're bringing the ball down, creativity is coming out because obviously you're trying to judge bouncing, how much it's going to roll on the ground.
"You're playing so many more shots here and I think that's one of the reasons why some of the Open champions in the past have been wonderful ball strikers," added Woods.
