Tiger Is Ready To Pick Up The Sticks

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.--Tiger Woods has been away from golf for more than two months, so it wouldn't have been surprising if he was rusty Tuesday afternoon when he met reporters for a pre-tournament press conference at the Target World Challenge.

He wasn't.

When a woman with a British accent, accompanied by a TV crew, asked some questions about her boyfriend and sex, Woods sidestepped them with ease.

After that, Woods talked about everything from Golf Digest's U.S. Open contest to fatherhood to his assessment of his 2007 season.

Q. You've probably heard that Golf Digest and the USGA is, kind of, following up on something you said at the U.S. Open last year when you were asked how a 10-handicapper would do on a U.S. Open course, and they're going to have three celebrity amateurs and another amateur play just a week or so before you guys tee it up there. What do you think of the idea?

Woods: I think it's an interesting idea. I think they should play the Monday after the tournament. That's when it's the hardest. A week or two before is not so bad. It's just amazing how the grass seems to grow in the last couple weeks for USGA events. No, I mean, they'll finally get an understanding of how difficult it is and how narrow the fairways are and generally how fast it is, the overall golf course. The USGA loves to have it quick and demanding.

I think what separates--what amateurs don't really probably truly understand is the pin locations, how difficult they can be. At Oakmont--I've played Augusta all these years. I've never seen pins that difficult, and they were actually being nice to us. I think that's the difference is that at say Pinehurst and at Oakmont, you felt you could easily putt the ball off greens. You don't find that feeling very often in tournaments.

Q: Having been off competitively for so long, what's your biggest concern? And also, what's the coolest thing you've found out about the young one?

Woods: Well, I think being off for this long, any time you take time off, just getting back into the competitive flow, just the rhythm of playing a round of golf, it's totally different when you play at home. You can have all the money games you want, you can play with everything on the line, but it's just a little bit different when you get out here and play a tournament.

Hopefully I'll find it fairly soon. Hopefully it doesn't take five, six, seven, eight holes to find it. Hopefully I'll find it in the first two holes and get rolling from there. But as far as having time off and being at home with Elin and Sam, it's been incredible to see how fast they change, how fast they grow, just the little things. You appreciate the little things, and I think that's the most important thing.

Q. You talked about fatherhood and the changes, and they come so quickly. What have you noticed? What's been the most fun? Is she talking at all or . . .

Woods: No, not yet. She's only five and a half months.

Q. The recognition factor I would assume, and what do you do at home? Just goofing around or what?

Woods: Yeah, I think the greatest thing is no matter how rough a night it is, sleep-wise, just seeing her smile in the morning, you forget everything. You hear that from a lot of parents, but until you actually get to experience it yourself and actually feel it, then you truly do appreciate it.

Q. People often talk about how fatherhood changes them as a person. I just wonder if you could tell us how you think becoming a father may have changed you as a person and possibly long-term as a player?

Woods: Well, me as a person, individually, it's very simple. You start appreciating the little things in life. I've said this before, after my father passed away, I think probably every kid feels the same way, that you feel like you didn't spend enough time with him. I felt that way about my dad. I'd call him all the time and I was there as much as I could be, but you always feel this sense of you didn't really capture each and every day with him.

I wanted to feel that with my daughter. I wanted to feel and appreciate that even sleepless nights and the difficulties sometimes when she gets sick. You still appreciate those days because you don't know when it's ever going to end. I always thought my dad would live forever. I thought he'd be immortal, you know? Obviously we all know that's not the case. I wanted to be sure that I truly appreciate those days with my daughter.

Q. If you look at just your performance on the course, you have one fewer win this year, one less major, and yet it looked like it was a pretty good year if not better than the year before. I wonder if you could just square with that, why the numbers would show last year . . .

Woods: Yeah, I think it was a better year this year, even though I didn't quite--I had a chance probably--a great chance to win three of the four majors this year. I finished second in two of them. I was just a few shots away from basically doing what I did in 2000, the number of seconds I had, it wasn't that far away. What did I finish, second to Phil, and then the two major championships. If I get those done, get those squared away, people would probably be comparing it to 2000 if not better.

Q. When you do come close like you did at Oakmont and other situations like that, I think you said that you'll go back and reassess what you did that week. What was that process like and what did you find out from it?

Woods: Frustrating because I thought I played well enough to win the championship, and that's one of the most frustrating things. I didn't capitalize on my opportunities, like at Augusta I did not finish the last two holes well. What did I play them, like 3 over or 5 over par in three days--no, 4 over par in two days. I bogeyed 17 and 18 both Friday and Saturday. You can't do that and expect to win a major championship.

And then what I did on Saturday at the Open, not capitalizing on the best ball-striking round I had in any of the four majors, and I wind up with--what did I shoot, even par or 1 under, something like that? That was a day I could have taken the lead and separated myself a little bit, and I didn't do that.

Q. I was just wondering, given your business interests in Dubai, whether you could ever envision maybe a couple Tour stops and maybe picking up your European Tour card for '09 since they're adding that big tournament on the back end.

Woods: That's a good question. I've contemplated that since basically '99 and since I started going over to Europe and playing over there in Europe. I started playing in Germany, I believe, in '99. I've always been one or two short of keeping my status over there, and there's really no way I can keep up the commitment level that I have by playing that much golf on both sides of the continent and all the things that I have to deal with at a venue. It tends to wear you out a little bit.