Pieces coming back together

The frenzy has faded. The paparazzi are gone. The question, however, remains the same.

Can Tiger Woods find his game at Augusta National Golf Club?

A year after his return from a four-month, scandal-induced exile, Woods isn't any closer to reaching the milestones that have been his long-standing targets. The first winless season of his career has raised more questions than answers.

Yet Woods remains convinced he is on the right track with rebuilding projects involving his swing and his confidence.

"It's definitely getting better, there's no doubt," he said after a tie for 10th at Doral in March, his best finish of the season. "I'm putting the pieces together. Everything is kind of shaping up and heading in the right direction, which is good, and peaking at the right time."

For all of the distractions that surrounded Woods in Augusta last April, his performance was remarkable. He opened with a career-best 68 in the first round and broke par all four rounds to tie for fourth.

"I don't know how I did that," he said earlier this year.

In retrospect, Woods understands. The reason he chose Augusta National for his return is because it is a course he knows better than any other and where he understands how to recover from misses.

"I know the golf course," he said. "I know where to miss it on every hole and every flag. That's the key there at the Masters. You have to hit the ball well, yes. You have to putt well, yes. But in order to have the ability to chip and putt well, you have to miss the ball in the correct spot."

While Woods was out of the spotlight, he worked on his game on the practice range at Isleworth. It was more work than he put in over the two months before he won the 2008 U.S. Open on a broken leg and torn-up knee at another course in his comfort zone, Torrey Pines.

"To come back to a major championship and to play that well, I kept saying to myself it's very similar to what I did at the U.S. Open," Woods said of his 2010 Masters challenge.

"I didn't play at all or do anything or even touch a ball then. I hit more balls getting ready for the Masters than I did getting ready for that Open. You have to play the mental mind trick with yourself to feel confident."

The mind tricks could only take him so far. He played as much on adrenaline as anything else, but for the most part he was a bystander on the weekend when Phil Mickelson dueled with Lee Westwood, K.J. Choi and Anthony Kim down the stretch.

"I wasn't as prepared physically or mentally for the event," Woods admitted in February. "But as I said, I came back to a golf course that I had success on and knew how to play it. Of all the golf courses we play, St. Andrews and Augusta are probably the two golf courses that you have to know how to play. You can't just go out there and hit the golf ball and expect to shoot good numbers."

Woods threatened again in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, shooting 66 in a third round in which he looked like his old self. But he failed to get anything going Sunday and tied for fourth again.

Those were the high-water marks of his season. Signs of hope -- his Ryder Cup singles performance and his playoff loss to Graeme McDowell in his season-ending Chevron World Challenge -- were rarer than signs of trouble.

While undergoing the third major swing overhaul of his career with new coach Sean Foley, Woods has endured a succession of career-worst performances at some of his favorite venues. He finished next-to-last at Firestone, 30 shots behind the winner on a course he has won on seven times. He faded to 44th to start the season at Torrey Pines, where he has eight career wins. He went from a shot off the lead to tie for 20th in the last round in Dubai.

At Doral, where he has won three times, he smothered one drive 83 yards and popped up another shorter than 200 in the same round, forcing playing partners McDowell and Mickelson to stifle giggles.

Former swing coach Butch Harmon called it "shocking" to see a player of Woods' caliber make such pedestrian mistakes.

"It's good to have some of the mistakes I've made, to have those things come out and become very apparent, so I can go back and work on them and rectify them and they are becoming less and less," Woods said.

His last victory was 16 months ago in Australia.

Despite signs of his driving and putting in disarray, Woods insists he is better prepared to face the challenges of Augusta and perhaps win his first green jacket in six years.

What's the difference?

"Well, I had not played a tournament and all of a sudden show up at Augusta," he said of last year. "Here I have some rounds under my belt and been working on some different things and in a much better state because of it. It helps to have your life in balance in order to play well, and you know, that's always a good thing."

Woods is not a unanimous favorite at Augusta for the first time since 1997. The bookmakers have as much faith in the 40-year-old Mickelson.

But after a Sunday 66 at Doral, Woods flashed the same confident smile that has accompanied Masters questions for more than a decade.

Are you still on track for Augusta?

"Oh yeah."

You're liking your chances.

"Mm-hmm."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 orscott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.