Woods reveals pride in father

Tiger Woods talked today of the pride he has in his father as his battle with cancer continues.

In Augusta for his attempt to win a fifth Masters title – one less than the record of Jack Nicklaus – Woods is in daily contact with his father back in California.

“I’m very proud of my dad,” he said. “He’s a tremendous fighter and an unbelievable will.

“Hopefully he’s passed a little bit of that on to me. That’s kind of how I play, I guess my competitiveness on the course.”

Last year Earl Woods made the trip to the tournament, but never got to the course because of his health and the world number one broke down in tears at the presentation ceremony.

Now he is gravely ill at the home where Woods grew up and two weeks ago the defending champion skipped his final practice round for the Players Championship after hearing his condition had deteriorated.

There were fears then that Woods may not play this week and if there is any change, of course, he still may not.

“At least he was able to travel (last April). That’s no longer the case. But if anyone can fight and grind it out it would be him. He’s as tough as they come.

“It’s always been a very emotional week for us as a family because my first year as a professional (1997) actually he was dead and then somehow they revived him.”

Woods has not finished in the top 20 of his last two events and inevitably there has been speculation that his performance has been affected by the situation off the course.

“As far as that being a distraction – no, I had plenty of time to focus on each and every shot. I just hit poor shots and I putted terrible.”

Woods believes the number of possible winners this week has been reduced by the lengthening of six holes.

He does not agree with them all. After seeing practice partner Mark O’Meara use a driver on the par three fourth Woods, who used three-wood himself, said: “I didn’t think you needed to mess with it – I thought it was one of the cool holes as it was.”

And by pushing the tee back on the seventh Woods believes the “risk-reward” character of the hole has been changed.

“I certainly agree that the changes narrow up the field a little bit. Some of the shorter hitters are definitely going to struggle.”