Striking a Balance

Tiger Woods knows how he stacks up against Riviera Country Club, not that it’s going to cause any gray hairs to show up among his neatly trimmed chin whiskers. Sure, he may be winless in five tries to win the Nissan Open at Riviera since he turned pro, but Woods has another type of counting on his mind.

“It’s all about four tournaments a year, isn’t it? That’s what it boils down to when you think about it,” a relaxed Woods said Tuesday as he took a break on the putting green behind the brown, stucco Riviera clubhouse.

Anyone counting the number of attempts Woods has made at Riviera is wasting his time if he believes Woods is interested in the accounting.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “That’s just the way it is.”

The number Woods remembers is that he has eight major titles to his credit, trophies of silver and of glass, but they could just as well be measuring sticks of a career.

“Sam Snead won the most tournaments, but no one knows that,” he said. “No one knows what the number is, but everybody knows how many majors Jack [Nicklaus] won. Nobody knows the number of tournaments that Jack won, either.”

For the record, Snead won 82 tournaments, and Nicklaus won 73 tournaments, 18 of them majors.

“It’s the same thing with tennis. Nobody knows how many tournaments [Pete] Sampras won, but everybody knows how many slam events he won. Those tournaments are so much bigger than the others.”

Sampras won 64 events and a record 14 grand slam titles.

As for Woods, he has won 39 times on the PGA Tour. At the beginning of his eighth full season as a pro and a year in which he will turn 29, some of those closest to Woods believe he is more relaxed and happy than ever. Woods, who usually does not expand on his personal feelings, said he agreed completely and was more than happy to talk about it.

“I have a balance in my life,” he said. “You start realizing that golf is not the end of all things. It is what we do, but it does not define you as a person. A lot of times, we get caught up in that.

“By having a balance in your life, it makes things much more harmonic. I have great people around me, Elin [Nordegren] is just fantastic for me. I have great friends and hobbies that I love to do to get away.”

Woods became engaged to Nordegren last fall on a game reserve in South Africa. They have not set a wedding date. Woods said he and Nordegren are inseparable, and are both very competitive. He also said he has developed a keen interest in scuba diving, owning a yacht that he keeps in South Florida.

Former Stanford teammate Notah Begay said he has noticed that Woods seems more at ease, despite not having won a major title since the 2002 U.S. Open.

“The truest indication is his reaction to the criticism and scrutiny his game is under,” Begay said. “He hasn’t played up to his potential last year, but you know what, he’s a happy guy. His worst times are some people’s best times. We all know this is a cyclical game. It’s just good to see him smiling.”

Woods has learned to put himself in places for fun that do not involve golf. Two weeks ago, he sat courtside with Nordegren at a Stanford-Arizona basketball game in Maples Pavilion and rose out of his seat when the Cardinal won in the closing seconds. The photograph of Woods, wearing a Stanford booster T-shirt and his cap on backward, showed another side of the perfectionist golfer that he has kept to himself for the most part.

He said he has more than golf to think about now, and it’s better.

“I think you are happier as a person if you have that balance,” he said. “Not one thing dominates my life. I think what it was, I didn’t have anything to do when I got home. You have nothing to do, so you go hit balls. Eventually that wears out your body, and it wears out your mind. Nobody can concentrate that much. Then you start wearing out your body because you get sloppy. Bad things creep into your swing, and then you have to go fix that. It’s a never-ending cycle.

“Things just have to be in balance. Things are so much easier now.”

Mark O’Meara, who is probably as close to Woods as any of his peers, said there is no question that Woods has matured as an individual.

“His life is not a normal life, and he deals with it tremendously well,” O’Meara said. “Elin has been a big plus for him.

“A lot of people might think he might not be as driven as he once was. I’d say he’s still driven. The only difference now is that he knows to have longevity out here, if he wants to have diversity in his life, it can’t just be golf for 365 [days].”

O’Meara said Woods knows, just as the other players realize, that Woods will not win every time out. But O’Meara also said part of the reason for that is because players have improved their games because of Woods, which reflects positively on Woods’ influence.

Getting away from it all has been good for Woods, said O’Meara, especially the scuba diving.

“The fish don’t know who you are,” he said.

Woods clearly knows who he is. On Tuesday, dozens of fans strained against the ropes that separated the putting green from the sidewalk, many hoping for an autograph. Woods operates in the accepted fashion of signers -- head down, keep walking, sign what you can. He sighed and then grinned as he left the practice green and said, “Elbows up.”

There isn’t anything that Riviera owes him, certainly not a victory, simply because he hasn’t had one there yet. Sure, Woods would like one so he could add it to his victory total, but you get the feeling that it isn’t going to change his life when it happens.

Actually, Woods seems too full of bliss. He said he is ready for the grind, trying to add to the important numbers, the ones that mean majors. But he was ready before he arrived at Riviera.

“When you focus on your game when you are away, when you come here, you just play,” he said. “A lot of guys try to do both, try to practice and fix everything and then go play. Steve [Williams] caddied for guys who are a lot like me, Greg [Norman] and Raymond [Floyd]. You do all your work at home. When you come here, you come here to win, and that’s it. You don’t worry about everything else.”

Woods doesn’t seem like the worrying type, at least these days.