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Tiger spies improvements in his game

Tiger Woods is back on top of the world after victory at Bay Hill © AP

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• Profile: Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods has fired a warning to his rivals by claiming there is still improvement in his game.

After a lengthy period in the wilderness, Woods secured his third win of the year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational to leapfrog Rory McIlroy and become world No. 1 once again.

Woods will take in the Tavistock Cup on Tuesday, which will be his final public action before The Masters, and he will head to Augusta with confidence running through his veins.

"It will be nice to shut down for a few days, well, after tomorrow," Woods said. "Then I'll shut it down for a few days and then start gearing up, and working on the shots I need for Augusta.

"I've cleaned up a lot of different things in my game and I'm very pleased with where it's come along.

"I've turned some of the weaknesses that I had last year into strengths. I'm really excited about the rest of this year. As I said, the very beginning of the year I was excited because of how the end of last year turned. My short game game-wise came around, I thought my swing was getting better, my short irons got better, Lo and behold, I won a few tournaments this year."

And in response to a question on if his game is where he wants it to be, Woods said: "I'm getting there. I'm getting there. I'm very pleased that some of the shots that I struggled with last year are now strengths.

"One of the things that we need to continue to work on is getting it more refined. Because my good ones are really good. Just making sure the bad ones aren't that bad, whether it's a driver, three wood, long iron, wedge, whatever it is, that I'm missing the ball in the correct spots. That's getting way better. Still continue to improve and clean up my short game."

For the first time in 29 months Woods now sits atop the world rankings, while Justin Rose's fine effort in chasing him at Bay Hill has taken the Englishman up to No. 3 in the world.

World rankings: 1. Tiger Woods (USA), 2. Rory McIlroy (NIR), 3. Justin Rose (ENG), 4. Luke Donald (ENG), 5. Brandt Snedeker (USA), 6. Louis Ooisthuizen (RSA), 7. Adam Scott (AUS), 8. Steve Stricker (USA), 9. Matt Kuchar (USA), 10. Keegan Bradley (USA), 11. Phil Mickelson (USA), 12. Ian Poulter (ENG), 13. Lee Westwood (ENG), 14. Bubba Watson (USA), 15. Charl Schwartzel (RSA), 16. Graeme McDowell (NIR), 17. Sergio Garcia (ESP), 18. Jason Dufner (USA), 19. Webb Simpson (USA), 20. Dustin Johnson (USA).

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