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Beijing - After his last-minute charge at the Masters came up short, golf great Tiger Woods said on Wednesday he is still getting better and is ready to take risks to get back to the top of the game.
Woods fired a five-under par 67 on Sunday and briefly grabbed a share of the Masters lead on the front and back nines but settled for a share of fourth for the second year in a row, finishing on 10-under 278 after 72 holes.
Immediately after the Augusta event, Woods headed to China for a series of promotional appearances, including Wednesday's chat with Olympic gold medal winning hurdler Liu Xiang that had both discussing their comeback efforts.
"In order to become better, you have to take risks - that's just a part of becoming better," Woods told a group of students at the Beijing Sports University.
"I believe deep down that I will become better. Sometimes you have to take a step or two back in order to take a giant leap forward."
The 14-time major champion has not won in 22 starts since his infamous sex scandal erupted in November 2009, having spent much of the time working on changes to his swing to ease damage to his surgically repaired knees.
"We all have difficulties that we are going through, that we run into, and we all have to deal with that," he said.
"I'm going to try to become a better person each and every day... change is good, if you are not getting better, you are getting worse."
Woods, chasing Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors, has not finished better than he did Sunday since his comeback began last April at Augusta National.
He added that he was prepared to retire if he did not improve and start winning again.
"For me, I will retire when my best is not good enough, when I go out there and play my best... I can't win, I'm done," Woods said.
US sports clothing and equipment giant Nike organised the appearance of the two stars, both of whom have lucrative sponsorship deals with the company.
Liu, who won China's first-ever track gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games and is a former world record holder in the 110 metre hurdles, is coming back from an Achilles tendon injury that kept him out of the 2008 Beijing Games.
In November, Liu ran 13.09 seconds in the race, the third fastest in the world last year, as he won his third consecutive Asian Games title.
"Right now my form is pretty good. The key for me is that I still must continue to push myself," said Liu, who is hoping to win a medal at next year's London Olympics.
"At the Asian Games, I felt pretty good. I hope this year that I can get better in all areas."
