Different strokes: for golf to remain Tiger Woods' domain, the king of swing must fix his game--which U.S. Open contenders Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson already have done.(Innovations In Sports)

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh see life on the PGA Tour the same way: Each believes he can be the No. 1 player in the world. Only Woods knows what that feels like; he has led the world rankings since 1999. But both Singh and Mickelson have enjoyed superior results in the first half of the 2004 season.

All three have embraced new approaches--from attitude to technology--in their quest to raise their games even higher. During his recovery from the knee surgery that caused him to miss the first two months of the 2003 season, Woods had to adjust to a strength and conditioning regimen that didn't include running. "I'm lighter now than I was last year because I wasn't able to run," Woods says. "I had to hop on that stupid bike and ride it. It's not quite the same fat-burning exercise as running."

Woods also has been making adjustments to his swing, trying to eliminate the occasional wild shot that has kept his performance below the peak he achieved in 2000, when he won three major championships. Woods hasn't won a major title since the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, a situation he'll try to rectify when the Open begins at Shinnecock Hills June 17.

The changes in his swing now are subtle, hardly the radical retooling he undertook after winning the 1997 Masters. Before then, Woods says, "I played differently with my hip action and my feet. Now, it's nowhere near as drastic.

With his longer putter, he's money on the greens and closing on Tiger in the world rankings.

"We're all golfers, and we're all trying to improve, and we're always piddling around with trying to get a little bit better. Even if you win like I did in 1999 and 2000--I won 17 times on our ...