Woods taking six-week break

• By Jason Sobel
• Dec 2, 2012 9:02 PM ET

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – After completing his 22nd and final tournament of the year – his most in more than a half-decade – Tiger Woods was eager to get to the next event on his schedule.

Six weeks off.

“I need it,” he said after taking a share of fourth place at his own World Challenge. “It's been a long year and I've played a lot. I’m just really looking forward to it, just having nothing to do with golf for a few weeks, just put them away, enjoy the holidays, be with my kids and just really enjoy that. Then after that I'll start cranking back up again and start focusing on my shots.”

Woods’ final tally shows three wins and a dozen top-10 finishes in those 22 worldwide starts. Even so, he’s already started thinking about which facets of his game need work going into the 2013 campaign, which for him will officially begin with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship Jan. 17-20.

“My short game has been really good from late summer on,” he contended. “I was hitting the ball a little better and I was spending more time chipping and putting, but now I’ve got to hit the ball better than I have. I've got six weeks off, so it will be nice to throw the clubs in the closet for a few weeks and then get back after it.”

Will he really put the clubs away and not hit a single shot for the rest of this calendar year? Well, maybe not exactly.

“I'm sure I'll [mess] around and hit a shag bag or something like that with [son] Charlie,” Woods said. “It's not going to be any dedicated practice; it's not going to be any focused practice. He may want to go out there and hit a few balls or whatever it is. And if so, I'll hit a few balls, but as far as actually sitting out there and working on my technique and my numbers and all that stuff, that's probably not going to happen at least until after Christmas.”