With Father on His Mind, Woods Ready for Return

MAMARONECK, N.Y., June 13 -- Tiger Woods's first swing at the first tee Monday afternoon in his first practice round for the 106th U.S. Open may well have answered any lingering questions about his ability to focus on golf five weeks after the death of his father. Woods crushed a drive 340 yards down the middle of the fairway, a clear signal that once again he must be considered a favorite to win his 11th major championship.

"There's no rust in his game," said veteran Jeff Sluman, who played with Woods Monday. "If he drives it straight, he'll win the tournament. And if he doesn't, he'll have a hell of a chance to win."

On Tuesday, Woods, somewhat subdued and more contemplative than usual in such a public setting, held his first news conference since Earl Woods's death on May 3 at age 74 from prostate cancer. He said he was "excited" about the way he's been playing back home and on the West Course the past two days. He hasn't had a competitive round since he shot a final-round 70 on April 9 to finish tied for third at the Masters. It's the longest break he's ever taken between major championships since he turned pro in 1996.

"I thought about coming back earlier, as well as later," Woods said. "I didn't feel that I could be as focused as I could be to win the championship. If you're not focused 100 percent, there's really no need to go play, so I didn't. I didn't come back until I felt that I was ready to win a championship."

Woods said that after the death of his father, who taught him the game and helped him develop into the No. 1 player in the world, he went at least a month without even touching a club and admitted that, for the first time, "I really had no desire to get back to the game."

"One of the hardest things for me, in all honesty, was to get back to the game of golf because a lot of my memories, great memories I have with my dad, are at the golf course," he said. "It was hard at times going out there late in the evening like I always do, to practice. Any time you take time off and start back, you always work on your fundamentals -- grip, posture, stance, alignment. Well, that's what I learned from Dad.

"Then again, it brought back so many great memories, and any time I thought back, I always had a smile on my face. As I was grinding, and getting ready, it also was one of the great times to remember and think back on all the lessons, life lessons, Dad taught me through the game. All these things come rushing back at you."

Woods has taken long stretches of time off from the game. He had knee surgery in December 2002, missed eight weeks and won his first event back, the Buick Invitational in San Diego. He took six weeks off this past offseason and won the same tournament in a playoff.

"It's just one of those things where it's your preparation, your practice, your attention to detail," he said. "It's something I've learned and I've done very well in the past, and it's applied to this stretch. I've had plenty of time to get ready. I just didn't feel I was ready to deal with all this [media attention] and also try to prepare for the Open.

"My dad was always adamant that whenever you're ready to play, play. If you're not ready, don't play. If you're not mentally ready to play, you're not going to be there. For my entire career, he was always adamant that I take more time off. He thought I always played too much. I played 20 times a year on tour and he said 'Why are you playing so much?' So for this stretch, I think he certainly would have approved."

After his disappointing performance in the Masters, when his putting stroke disappeared on Sunday, Woods said he asked his father whether he minded if he went to New Zealand to be best man at the wedding of his longtime caddy, Steve Williams.

"He said, 'I'm not going anywhere, get your [rear end] out of here. Go be with Steve, that's where you need to be.' When I got back, we had a great conversation about it," Woods said. "That was really neat. . . . I'm going to love my dad and will always miss him, always miss just having a chance to rap with him. It could be about anything, I didn't care. That was the neat thing about our relationship."

As always, the Open will end on Father's Day, and Woods smiled when he was asked about his own Father's Day experiences growing up in Southern California.

"It was actually a pretty cool day because I would always try to beat my dad on the golf course and then come home and catch the back nine of the U.S. Open," he said. "It was always a great day when I beat my dad. It wasn't always a great day when he beat me. I beat dad when I was 11. I shot 71 to his 72 at the Navy Golf Course. I birdied 16 and 18, made about a 15-footer, a little right to left. I gave it the fist pump walking off the green and everything. It went in, and we celebrated."

Woods also was asked Tuesday to pinpoint the one ingredient a player needs to win a U.S. Open.

"Heart," he said. "Because you're going to go through periods where it's just tough. It tests every bit of you. But if you've got a heart, you're going to be all right."