Even those close to Woods don't know what to expect

By far the biggest question of U.S. Open Week is how Tiger Woods will handle his first major without his father. Swing coach Hank Haney says Woods has shaken off some rust, and good buddy Mark O'Meara says the time off has been beneficial.

MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) -- Hank Haney wasn't sure what to expect when he met Tiger Woods at Winged Foot to start getting ready for the U.S. Open.

The major is known as the toughest test in golf, and it takes on a new meaning for Woods. It will be the first tournament he has played in nine weeks, his longest break from the game since he climbed out of a high chair and imitated his father by swatting a ball into the net.

It will be his first tournament since standing at his father's grave.

"I was surprised at how rusty he was,'' Haney said. "But that look went away in one hole. And that surprised me even more.''

No one is sure what to expect from the world's No. 1 player.

When last seen at a golf tournament, Woods walked off the 18th green at Augusta National ready to snap his beloved putter over his knee after seven three-putts that week. It cost him a chance to win a fifth Masters, perhaps one last gift to a father dying of cancer.

Earl Woods died less than a month later.

If there was relief that the suffering was over, there also was a void that was inevitable.

"I don't really know what to expect at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot,'' Woods said in his monthly newsletter. "I've never had to experience anything in life like this and never had a nine-week layoff before, so we'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully, my game will be sharp. No matter what happens, it won't be from lack of effort on my part.''

Woods skipped the EDS Byron Nelson Championship a week after his father died, which was expected. He skipped the Memorial for the first time, surprising to those who thought he would want at least one tournament before the U.S. Open, for no other reason than to be back in a routine and get through the flood of condolences that are sure to meet him.

"The thing about Tiger is that if his game is not ready, he won't play,'' said John Cook, a neighbor at Isleworth in central Florida. "He's not just going to show up and not be ready. He just started hitting balls and playing holes. It's not like he's going to come out here not being fully prepared. The last thing he wants is to not be 100 percent.''

Mark O'Meara, a surrogate big brother to Woods from the time he turned pro, has spoken to Woods twice by phone since the funeral, not to talk golf, but just to talk.

"The time off has been beneficial to him with his father passing,'' O'Meara said. "It hasn't been easy for him. But yet, I think it was a way for him to get away from the game, and not have to explain why he was away from the game. His focus wasn't what he wanted it to be. When he comes out, he wants to be focused to where he's going to win.''

There is ample reason to question how Woods will perform.

This is only the fourth time he has failed to play any tournament between majors -- two three-week breaks between the British Open and the PGA Championship, and a four-week break between the U.S. Open and the British Open in 2002 when he was scheduled to play in Chicago but withdrew because of the flu.

But nine weeks?

Even when he had surgery on his left knee at the end of the 2002 season, Woods missed eight weeks and slowly worked his way through his bag in the weeks before he returned to the PGA Tour at Torrey Pines, which he won.

"I'm working my butt off to get ready,'' Woods said on his Web site. "It's time to go back to work.''

There are inevitable comparisons with Nicklaus, because there always are. As a child, Woods had a timeline of what Nicklaus achieved and what he achieved, mostly through his amateur career, checking them off as he matched or surpassed them.

It was an eerie coincidence that Nicklaus also was 30 when his father died in February 1970.

But Nicklaus was at a different time in his career. He had gone 10 majors without winning, the longest drought of his career, and found himself not working as hard as he should.

"My father lived for what I did,'' Nicklaus said. "He loved watching me play golf, and I realized that I hadn't given my best effort the last two or three years of his life. I was playing sloppy golf. I didn't have any goals. I thought I let him down. I realized if he were here, he would have kicked me in the rear end.''

Asked what Woods was going through, Nicklaus shrugged his shoulders.

"You can't say he needs to be kicked in the rear end,'' he said. "Everybody reacts differently to different things. It would be a pure guess what his reaction would be. The U.S. Open ends on Father's Day, and maybe he's focused on that's what he wants to do.''

Woods tied for 29th when he played Winged Foot in the 1997 PGA Championship, the end of a whirlwind year when he was on the verge of revamping his powerful swing because he couldn't control how far he hit his shots. That's crucial at Winged Foot, where the trick is to keep out of the rough and, perhaps more importantly, keep the ball below the hole on greens that slope severely toward the front.

Haney said the practice session was cut short because Woods was sick. Instead of 36 holes a day on the weekend, he played only one round on one day. But Haney saw enough to understand the challenge.

"The course was difficult. Geez, every time I go to one of these courses, I think it's the toughest one I've ever seen,'' he said. "We had a little wind into us, and he was hitting 5-iron, 6-iron on the first two holes. On No. 3 [245 yards from the back tee], he hit 5-wood and couldn't get there. What are the other guys doing?''

All Haney cares about is his guy.

He remembers how pure Woods hit the ball in the final round at Augusta, and he knows Woods' history when coming back from long layoffs. He won at Torrey Pines after the knee surgery. He won at Torrey Pines this year after a six-week break.

What remains uncertain is how Woods responds to the loss of a role model, friend and father.

"I think he's going to play well,'' O'Meara said. "He's fired up. He's refreshed, ready to go. He'll answer questions the first day with the press, then after that, he's ready to move forward with his life.''

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.