Tiger Woods was happy with his performance in his first tournament of 2012 in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
Woods arrived in the Middle East on his usual wave media attention. The last tournament Woods played before Abu Dhabi was the Chevron World Challenge, which he won to break a two-year winless streak. And everyone was eager to see if he could do it again.
He came close, very close in fact. He was tied for the lead heading into the final round, and ended up in a tie for third in a field that included the top four players in the world.
But, of course, eyebrows were still raised by his inability to finish the job off when he was tied for a share of the lead going into the final round.
Woods, bidding to rebound after a year mired in injuries and personal scandal involving his married life, was upbeat.
"I'm pleased at the progress I've made so far," he said of his work with new coach Sean Foley who has been helping him re-fashion his swing to accomodate the leg injuries that sidelined him for most of last year.
"Basically since Australia (in November), my stroke-play events have been pretty good.
"So I just need to keep building, keep getting more consistent and today was a day when I putted beautifully. Just didn't give myself enough looks."
Both Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald said they had been impressed after playing with Woods in the first two rounds and Rock, a former golf pro who prides himself on his knowledge of the golf swing, said he too had liked what he had seen.
"He's definitely playing better," Rock said.
"Maybe he didn't play as well as he would have liked to today, but his stats earlier in the week, his driving accracy was good, his greens in regulation was good and he was hitting the ball well. So there's no doubt about that I think."
