Tiger Woods says we haven't seen the best of him yet

Tiger Woods didn't win a tournament in 2010 and he's still in the midst of swing changes with his third instructor Sean  Foley, but he spoke confidently during  a Tuesday pre-Masters interview.

Asked if we've seen the best of Tiger Woods, he answered simply, "No.''

Pressed to elaborate, Woods said, "I believe in myself. There's nothing wrong with believing in myself. God, I hope you guys feel the same way about yourselves. You know, that's the whole idea, is that you can always become better.''

Woods said his body today could not handle the swing he was using in 1997, his first full year on Tour.

"It involved too much timing. My knee was killing me then,'' Woods said. "That was a very difficult swing on me physically.  I tore cartilage and my ACL over the years, so I don't want to swing that way. It's too much pain.

"That's why I knew I had to change it.  That swing I had would not put me in contention each and every week and I need to change that.''

Woods changed his swing again, switching coaches from Butch Harmon to Hank Haney and had a good run of success, so he believes that will happen this time with Foley.

"Moving on to Hank, I felt that I could go to another level,'' Woods said. "I felt like I did, and I'm here with Sean and I feel like I can go to another level.'

Woods has 14 professional majors, four behind the record held by Jack Nicklaus, and said he is still focused on that goal.

"I absolutely want to do it,'' he said. "That's the benchmark and gold standard in this sport is 18. ''

Asked if he still believed he will get it, Woods said, "Um, humm,'' as he nodded and smiled.

Embarking on his third swing change at age 35, Woods knew he was sacrificing some time while he was still in his prime in his race to catch Nicklaus.

"I felt that taking a step back, or sometimes even two steps back, there's nothing wrong with that if I'm going to make three, four, five steps forwards and becoming better in the end,'' Woods said. "I'll sacrifice that for a bit knowing that I'll become better. If you look at my track record, that's exactly what's happened. So it's been, I think it's been good. I got to 14. Can't be that bad.''