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Tiger Woods focus of attention on his return

Tiger Woods doesn't have a single room for all his trophies.

He keeps the majors on the mantle and his eight PGA Tour player of the year trophies at the bottom of the fireplace. His mother has some trophies in her house, others are at Nike's conference center, and Woods made sure to give his father plenty of crystal and cups during the final few years of his life.

The latest prize is a picture Woods wants to put in a special place -- the ultrasound of his first child.

"It was pretty cool," he said Wednesday. "There's one photo I'm trying to put in my office. I know it's my kid because it looked like he was telling me he was No. 1 in my heart."

Woods and his wife still don't know the gender, and he is trying to decide whether he wants to know before the child is born, which should be sometime in July.

And once they figure out whether it's a boy or a girl, the next big question is when it arrives -- and whether that means Woods will have to skip a major. The British Open is the third week in July, and Woods will have a chance to become the first player in 51 years to win golf's oldest championship three straight years.

Maybe.

"If she's going to have it during the week of the Open, I just don't go," Woods said. "That's the most important thing, not a golf tournament."

All that is five months down the road.

The first order of business is the Buick Invitational, which starts Thursday on the North and South courses at Torrey Pines that have little in common except for the length of the grass outside the fairways. Not much rain in San Diego County and a few cold snaps have kept the rough from growing, putting even more of a premium on length.

Woods is making his 2007 debut, although he brings baggage from the previous year, and that's not a bad thing. He ended his PGA Tour season in October by winning the American Express Championship in London by eight shots for his sixth straight tour victory.

A victory this week would be No. 7, the second-longest streak on the PGA Tour. Odds are in his favor, simply because Woods is the two-time defending champion and he has never finished out of the top 10 at Torrey Pines.

"This is one of my favorite golf courses on the whole tour," Woods said.

As for the streak, Woods is the one leading the debate. In his eyes, his winning streak ended at five when he was knocked out of the first round by Shaun Micheel in September at the HSBC World Match Play Championship. In November, he was runner-up in consecutive weeks in China and Japan.

"I was on a losing streak there for a bit," he said.

But for PGA Tour records, the last time Woods entered a tournament without hoisting the trophy on Sunday was at the Western Open in July.

"It's a PGA Tour streak," he said.

And that means something, for no other reason than "it's not easy to do."

Woods knows this by experience, because he has been down this road before. He won his final four PGA Tour events in 1999, finished sixth in the Johnnie Walker Championship in Thailand, then resumed his PGA Tour winning streak by winning at Kapalua and Pebble Beach to start the 2000 season, running his winning streak to six.

Then he came to Torrey Pines, and the streak ended. Such history was not lost on Phil Mickelson, who won that week.

"He didn't get it, did he?" Mickelson said, trying to fool his audience with a quizzical look.

Lefty knew the answer, and while he has experience stopping a streak by Woods, he figures it won't be easy.

"He's obviously an incredibly talented player, but when he gets on runs like this, it's very difficult to stop him," Mickelson said. "But I know a lot of guys in the field are going to be doing their best."

Not many of them are as fresh -- or maybe rusty -- as Woods.

He took a five-week break after his Target World Challenge, skiing in Colorado and going back to the practice range two weeks ago. It was long enough to make him miss the competition, although that has been lacking since July.

Woods began his PGA Tour streak by winning the British Open. His streak included two majors, two World Golf Championships and separation of 20 strokes in combined margin of victory.

Isn't that getting a little old?

"I would love to be the one to beat him so he wouldn't be able to make it seven in a row," said John Daly, the last player besides Woods to win the Buick Invitational. "I don't think it's stale. It's good for the tour. It gets stale for us because he's winning every week. That's what kind of (stinks) a little bit."

About the only thing that might slow him down is becoming a father.

Then again, previous life-changing experiences haven't stopped him -- not his marriage in 2004, not the death of his father last May. Mickelson has three children, and had lackluster performances during two of those years because of difficulties during the pregnancy. Otherwise, he doesn't expect fatherhood to change Woods.

"I certainly hope it does, but I don't see that happening," Mickelson said. "He's always been able to balance so many different areas of his life that I think this will just be another area that he adds into the mix, and a very rewarding part of his life."

Daly, of course, had a different opinion when asked what he thought about Woods becoming a father.

"I wanted to be his child," Daly said. "If I was his child, I wouldn't play golf anymore. I'd be sitting in a boat somewhere, spending all dad's money. I've been trying to get him to adopt me for the last five years, but he wouldn't do it."

January 25, 2007

 




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