Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson struggle in lead up

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson struggle in lead up

After their final rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, though, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were proverbial miles from contention.Neither was a factor at the top of the leaderboard all weekend as they finished in a tie for 24th at one under, seven shots behind Scottish winner Martin Laird.Yet, Woods and Mickelson insisted they were feeling good about their games before the Masters.Both headed to Augusta National early this week to play practice rounds.Afterwards, Woods returned home to Florida while Mickelson, who likes to play his way into Augusta National And Jack Nicklaus majors, headed to Texas to play in this week's Houston Open."It was a very good week and a week I needed to see," Woods said.I really hit the ball well and the things that we were working on the last couple weeks, really, really felt comfortable."I felt I was able to control just about every shot."It's getting better every week I've played, and I just need to keep progressing and hopefully it will peak two more Thursdays from now."A year ago, with Woods in hiding for months after the news golf channel of his sex scandal broke, the Masters was his first tournament of 2010, and he tied for fourth.This year, Woods has played four tournaments - a tie for 44th at Torrey Pines, a first-round loss to Thomas Bjorn in the World Match Play in Arizona, a tie for 10th at Doral and the tie for 24th at Bay Hill, a course where he has won six times."It's nice to have got some tournaments under my belt (this year)," Woods said."Now it's nice to be actually (in) more tournament shape going in."