Tiger Woods faced the world's press on Tuesday and made quite an impression. "He's funny. He's kind. He's even a little bit humble," wrote a bemused USA Today, while The Guardian was similarly surprised by the new-look Tiger, commenting that this was "the most relaxed" they could recall seeing the 39-year-old on the eve of a Major.
As if any further proof were needed that Tiger appears to have changed his stripes it came with confirmation that he will spend Wednesday playing in Augusta's Par 3 Contest, described as the "light-hearted preamble to the Masters in which wives and children and friends and brothers carry players' bags".
It's 11 years since Woods last deigned to take part in the knockabout tournament and so it will be the first time his two children, Sam, 8, and Charlie, 6, will walk the Augusta course with their old man. "It's special," he said. "It's nice to be able to share these things with my family and it just means the world to me. They are excited, I'm excited and can't wait to go out there."
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Not that Woods is in Augusta for the fun of it. Beneath the sunny exterior the steely core that won him 14 Majors before the age of 32 remains, as he showed when asked was his objective was in Augusta. "Winning," he replied, smiling. "I quite like it."
In truth Woods will tee off tomorrow with little of the customary expectation that accompanies him to every tournament. The golfing world is pleased to have him back after his two-month break from the game, but no one expects him to seriously challenge the tournament favourite, Rory McIlory. Without the pressure might Woods finally perform like the Tiger of old?
It's seven years since he last won a Major but Woods seems to be more at ease now than he has for a long while, telling reporters the reason why: "I worked my ass off," he said. "That's the easiest way to kind of describe it. I worked hard… People would never understand how much work I put into it to come back and do this again."
Woods took what he described as an 'indefinite break' from golf in February after shooting a career-worst 82 at the Phoenix Open. He subsequently dropped to 111th in the world rankings (his lowest ranking since 1996) and on Tuesday he explained what had gone wrong. "Earlier in the year, I was caught right between two [swing] release patterns," he said. "I had to get rid of that and make sure I had one release pattern in me. It took a while. It took a lot of hard work. I finally got to the point where I feel I can do it now."
So after all the work on the comeback trail, a reporter enquired, what would victory this week at Augusta represent? Woods replied cheerily: "It would be my 15th major. We have a long way to go before that. We have a lot of work."
