Woods' return to golf will be bittersweet

MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- The toughest moments are the ones you don't see coming.

Reaching down to put a tee in the ground and thinking about the first time he showed you how to do it. Starting one of those back-to-basics drills that get you back on track and seeing him standing behind the kid with giant glasses and bigger hair.

Catching a glimpse of a father throwing his arm around his son and wishing you could feel his arm just one more time. Grabbing your cell phone to call the only person in the world who always has the answer and -- in a split second -- realizing he can't answer.

Tiger Woods couldn't prepare for this. No one can. You can deal with the reality, the finality, the inevitability of losing a parent. But you can't stop the little things that grab you and twist your already heavy heart.

Sometimes you cry. Sometimes you laugh. Sometimes you smile.

Sometimes you do all three at once.

Grief has stages, but they're personal. Very personal. Yet this Father's Day week, the most famous athlete of our time will take center stage still working his way through that process.

And, yes, he's ready. Ready to take another swing at one of the most brutal U.S. Open courses in the rota -- Winged Foot. Ready to handle the emotions that are sure to come at him. Ready to win this -- and not just for Pops.

That he didn't pick up a club for more than a month during this extended time away. .. That he hasn't played a competitive round since Sunday at the Masters. .. That he waited until the toughest mental test of any year to come back. ...

So? He's finally ready. And well, that's just one of those life things Earl taught him.

"Dad was adamant of whenever you're ready to play, play," he said. "If you're not ready, don't play."

Tiger Woods and his father, Earl, had a tradition of watching the U.S. Open on Father's Day. (Getty Images)

This is, perhaps, the perfect place for Tiger to step back into the game he can dominate. After all, he did win his first event after knee surgery in 2002 and he did it again after a layoff last year. And don't forget, he and Earl used to tee it up on Father's Day and head back to the house to catch the U.S. Open's back nine. Every year.

"It was always a great day when I beat my dad, and then we'd go home and watch the U.S. Open," he said. "It wasn't always a great day when he beat me and then we'd go home and watch the U.S. Open."

And, just in case you're wondering, Tiger's first win came at age 11. He shot 71 to Earl's 72 at the Navy Golf Course.

"I birdied 16 and 18, made about a 15-footer, a little right to left," he said smiling. "I gave it a fist pump walking off the green and everything. It went in and we celebrated."

Tiger and Earl. They were a team. An unbeatable one with an incredible bond. The kid and the Special Forces operative. The father and the son. The times they shared. The lessons, the laughs.

So did Earl have a special gift?

"Love," Tiger said as a broad smile crept across this face. " That's basically it. The love that we shared for one another and the respect that we had for one another was something that's pretty special, it really is.

"To have had my dad in my life and have him be that supportive and that nurturing, it's pretty cool because obviously there are times when I would have easily gone down the wrong path, but Dad was always there."'

Dad. Pops. Earl. As the cameras rolled, Tiger spoke from the heart. He laughed. He smiled. He made it part of his process. No tears, just honest feelings and answers.

And for anyone who's gone through it, you know it wasn't all that easy. Especially on this kind of stage.

We don't walk in Tiger's shoes, we just try to help you understand what it's like. And this week won't be a mindboggler like Pebble Beach.

The first thing you have to understand is he's ready to win a major championship. He wouldn't be back here if he wasn't. The game is good, thanks, and he's finding these thread-the-needle fairways. And that putter that wasn't behaving at Augusta? "I had the putter fixed," he said, drawing a laugh. "It was not in the same playing position that I ended the tournament with, so I had to."

The second thing? When he steps inside the ropes. We all go away. No one's asking questions and hoping to elicit a tear. No one's offering condolences. It's him versus the golf course.

"Everything else," he said, "goes away."

For the past month, he's focused on family. He's let Tida and Elin and close friends in. He's been stunned over the calls, the emails and the notes. He's allowed himself the chance to heal and get through all the difficult things you have to deal with.

"I'd always smile back when I think back to my childhood," he said. "It's one of those things where I'm very lucky to have that. And I can say that with truth and honesty that I have a smile on my face every time I think back to my childhood because not everyone has that. I was very lucky."

Yes, before Earl passed, he went bungee jumping, raced cars and stood up as best man in caddie Steve Williams' wedding. With his father's blessing. But not without media scrutiny.

"I look at it this way," he said, "I'll live once and I enjoy going for par fives in two."

And Earl's thoughts on the bungee jump? Well, he jumped out of planes for a living. "I had to do it," he said. "Why would you do it?"

Another moment. In a lifetime of them.

You'll have a chance to see some of those unguarded moments -- like Tiger in a football helmet -- in a Nike Father's Day commercial that airs this week. It's all Earl and Tiger, set to The Zombies' "This Will Be Our Year." Some have wondered aloud if it's appropriate. Tiger said it is.

"It's not a tribute to my father, it's a tribute to all fathers," he said.

Yes, it will bring a tear to your eye. But Tiger? He'll be smiling.

"Am I going to miss my dad?" he said. "I'm always going to miss my dad, each and every day I live."

But it's time. Time to tee it up. Time to see if that incredible mind of his can focus and go 3-0 in comebacks from long layoffs. Time to channel those emotions back into the game, the dream, he and Earl shared.

Time to get through that next moment. The one he won't see coming. The one he'll deal with, then smile and remember his dad may be gone, but he'll always be with him.