With Father Ill, Woods Finds It Tough to Focus

His mood was subdued and his ensemble a somber gray and black, nearly matching the color of the sky Thursday at the TPC at Sawgrass, where Tiger Woods struggled to keep his golf game and his emotions in check.

Woods stopped outside the scoring trailer, where he signed for a 72 at the Players Championship, a round that had begun about 12 hours after visiting his seriously ill father in Orange County.

Woods said he and his father, Earl, hadn’t talked about golf.

“We just talked about him,” Woods said. “It’s not about me hitting golf shots, it’s about him. I want him around as long as possible ... so it’s about him feeling better and keep fighting and keep hanging in there.”

Woods said he had spent time Tuesday night and Wednesday with his father at the house in Cypress where Earl and his mother, Kultida, raised him. The elder Woods, who turned 74 this month, has been battling cancer, and when he took a turn for the worse, Tiger chose to fly to his father’s bedside.

“The situation for our entire family is obviously not easy,” Woods said. “It’s just one of those things you have to deal with. Everyone has to deal with that at some point in their life and, unfortunately, right now it’s our time.”

It was a difficult day for Woods, who is seven shots behind the leaders, Davis Love III and Jim Furyk, after they made the most of the rain-softened, 7,098-yard layout, with matching rounds of 65.

Woods was two over par through 10 holes and his body language seemed to bespeak someone not entirely at ease. But Woods said he drew inspiration from playing partner Darren Clarke, whose wife, Heather, is fighting cancer.

“It puts things in perspective real quick,” Woods said. “You hit a bad shot and you want to get upset with yourself ... but you know in the whole scheme of things, it’s just a golf shot.”

Last week at Bay Hill, Woods admitted to concentration difficulties.

“It’s affecting me quite a bit, which is normal,” he said. “It’s bound to. My golf is not really at the top of my list, it’s nowhere near the top of my priorities.”

Woods said he considered not playing this week and that he would return to his father’s bedside as soon as this tournament was over. The Masters, where Woods is the defending champion, is in two weeks.

“There’s a chance I might not play for a while,” he said. “I mean, who knows? It all depends on how my father is doing.”

Love’s journey was not only bogey free, it was also his lowest opening round in 21 trips to the TPC at Sawgrass.

Love has one top-10 finish in seven tournaments this year -- second to Geoff Ogilvy at the Match Play Championship at La Costa. Two weeks ago, he tied for 55th at the Honda Classic.

He hasn’t won since 2003, when he won the Players by six shots and he turns 42 next month, but says he is no longer bothered by a nagging back ailment and that he expects to find something left in his tank.

“I’m looking forward to the next five to eight years, not just this week or this year,” he said. “I still have the same goals and the same excitement. I feel like, at almost 42, I’m still in my window of opportunity.”

Furyk’s 65 was his first opening round in the 60s in 11 tries in the Players Championship. After beginning with seven pars, he made a 21-foot birdie putt at the eighth and a 23-foot birdie putt on the ninth to get rolling.

He made five more birdies after the turn for his seven-under round, which he said had nothing to do with his hosting a dinner Wednesday night with Love as a guest, even though they wound up with the same score.

That’s because Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard were also part of the dinner party. Leonard had a 72 and Mickelson had a two-under 70 that included a bogey at the 15th when he drove into a lake and a double bogey at the 17th when he missed the island green and knocked the ball into the water.

Did the meal agree with the diners?

“A couple of us, at least,” Furyk said.

Said Love: “Maybe Phil didn’t eat enough.”

Robert Allenby, Bernhard Langer and Miguel Jimenez are tied for third, two shots behind Furyk and Love.

Woods is tied for 67th, which is the projected cut line. He said he’d had time to focus during his difficult first round and that he’d tried to hit the right shots, but that his mechanics were off.

But then, he had a lot on his mind. When he walked into the house in Cypress, Woods said his father, a onetime Green Beret, greeted him warmly.

“He said ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ It was nice to hear that. I’m just trying to make him understand that I love him dearly and just want him to hang in there and keep fighting, which he always does. He’s very stubborn. It’s good to see.”