By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — They pick at him, but it’s hopeless. Tiger Woods’ shell is much too hard, his advisers much too heady. There is a change in putters, for the first time in 11 years, but the determination to keep us out of his life remains unchanged.
It’s the week of the Open Championship, the 139th, this year at the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews. It’s the week Woods returns with his triumphs (winning here in 2000 and 2005) and his troubles.
It’s the week the British press gets its chance to dig and confront and ask about infidelity and irresponsibility.
It’s the week Tiger gets his chance to prove not only can he lag a putt but he can avoid an accusation.
There were some 20 minutes of Tiger Tuesday, two days before the Open’s first round on the Old Course at St. Andrews, and it was educational, if not at all enlightening.
Tiger did say for the first time since 1999 — and 13 of his 14 majors — he’ll swap his Scotty Cameron by Titleist putter for a Nike model he believes will be more effective on greens slow by championship standards.
And, oh yes, the most important thing in his life is family. The children, that is. Any mention of estranged wife Elin was virtually ignored by Woods.
There’s little new to ask Woods, now some nine months after the accident which opened Tiger’s life. Divorce? Image? Public support? Tom Watson’s (now figuratively ancient) remark Woods needed to clean up his act?
That was essence of the questions, although there was one query about the remaking (and some pros say, the ruination) of the famed Road Hole, the 17th.
“I know they wanted us to hit more club into that particular green,” said Woods, a response which typified his well-practiced art of saying nothing when he says something.
“I’m pretty neutral on it.”
To the question about Watson’s admonishment, Tiger offered more contrition than neutrality. ”I’m trying to become a better player,” he said, “and yes, a better person.”
And to whether he’ll ever be able to resurrect his image, Woods added, “I don’t know. I don’t know. As I said, that’s all that really matters. I have two beautiful children, and I’m trying to be the best dad I can possibly be, and that’s the most important thing of all.”
The English pro Ian Poulter told The Times of London that Tiger carries in his cell phone a video of his 17-month-old son, Charlie, swinging a cut-down golf club. “You wouldn’t believe it,” said Poulter. “When he’s 15, he’ll probably have won Augusta by 25 shots.”
The shots the British press fired missed the mark. Asked if the divorce between him and Elin had been finalized — the papers here say she will receive $100 million — Woods said, “I’m not going to go into that.”
He did go into the misconceived idea his image would have an impact on his week at St. Andrews.
“It doesn’t impact it all,” he said. “I’m here to play the Open Championship at St. Andrews. I mean this is as good as it gets.”
British journalists, seeking the lurid and juicy, hardly would agree.
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