US Tour News: Tiger Woods may have lost his Western Open crown last Sunday but there was a silver lining for the world number one - one that might give some of his biggest rivals a few sleepless nights.

Woods, who finished tied for seventh at the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club, tried out a new graphite driver and, although things did not click immediately, he was a happier man by the end of the tournament.

With the British Open less than a fortnight away, that could spell trouble for the other competitors .

"I'm hitting out of my shadow now and that's nice," said Woods. "I hit it well and it's going a lot further because it's going straight. The ball is also coming off it faster, which means it has less spin on it. So it should go straighter."

Woods would not discuss in detail the overall state of his game as he prepares for Royal Troon. "I'm very happy with it," he said.

When asked if he could expand on his reply, a smiling Woods declined: "You all saw me play on Friday and saw I wasn't swinging the club very well," he added. "But I started hitting better (Saturday), and it was just a matter of not hitting it close enough. I was putting well, too, but when you have 20- and 30-footers all the time it's hard to make a run at the leaders."

Woods used his stinger shot a few times during the final round, causing some to speculate he was working on it for the Open, a tournament he won in 2000.