PORT ST. LUCIE, FLA. - Tiger Woods looked as if he'd just walked off the set of another Gillette commercial as he spoke about Nike's new club-fitting system and Sumo 5900 and 5000 drivers at the PGA Learning Center on Monday.
Wearing all black, minus the coat and tie he sported in the ad, Woods sat for a 30-minute Q&A moderated by the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman. A small audience of reporters listened to him talk tech (moment of inertia, spin-rates, shaft flex) before he hit the range for a 20-minute clinic.
He said it was the most he'd played in nearly two months.
"I put [the clubs] away right after [the Presidents Cup] and basically didn't do anything until this past week," he said. "It was my longest non-forced break."
Woods, who had knee surgery in December of 2002 and missed the first five events of 2003, was due a little R&R. In 2007, he started a new tournament, the AT&T National in Washington, D.C.; did the bulk of his design work on his first signature golf course, in Dubai; became a father; and tended to his Foundation. Woods also won seven times in 2007, including his 13th major at the PGA Championship and the inaugural FedEx Cup.
But not everything went Woods's way. At the Masters, he lost the lead on Sunday, the first time in his career he had done that in a major. At the U.S. Open, he again failed to win despite playing in the final group. At the Deutsche Bank in Boston, he lost to his nemesis, Phil Mickelson, while playing with him on Sunday for the first time ever.
"My favorite stat from this year? Seven wins," Woods said.
He wore a goatee and looked slightly leaner, a result, he said, of having worked on his body and not his swing. He arrived by helicopter with his entourage, including the agent Mark Steinberg and the ex-heavyweight champion Michael Moorer, Woods's bodyguard.
Much has happened during his layoff. Mike Weir, who beat him in the Presidents Cup, broke a three-year winless streak on the PGA Tour, solidifying his return to the game's upper echelon. Mickelson won the HSBC Championship in Asia, an event that has eluded Woods. And the rank and file battled it out at Q-school in Tiger's hometown of Orlando.
Fresh and hungry again, Woods will play the Target World Challenge at Sherwood C.C., outside Los Angeles, next week. He hosts the 16-player event and is the defending champion, which is why he's started to dust off the clubs.
"The first day back I hit it like a god," he said. "The next day like a 5-handicapper, the third day like an 18, and the next week or two I try to get back to hopefully a 0-handicapper. That's kind of the progress. I don't know why it's like that. I always start off hitting it great and have this immediate fall-off, start thinking about it, and it just goes all to pieces, and I end up going back over it again, so it's kind of fun.
"I'm looking forward to getting back out there and competing," Woods continued. "This past week I really missed getting out there and trying to beat people. Anybody at Isleworth who wants a game, we get out there and play and hopefully the cash goes my way."
Woods said his 5-month-old daughter Sam Alexis has been attentively watching his practice sessions.
"She kind of shakes every time I hit a shot, like she gets excited," he said. "I'm thinking this could be a good thing. She'll never beat me, though."
