Woods assumes new role as Masters elder

After a dozen Masters and four jackets, Tiger Woods has settled into the role once reserved for the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Though he's still only 31, Woods' presence has become a tradition like no other.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.com Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It was a little oh-by-the-way.

One of those things he plops into a conversation or an answer so seamlessly, with such ease that you can miss it. And everything that goes with it.

The subject was Augusta, the Masters. The plop-in was the Champion Dinner.

The one night of the year at this event when Tiger Woods is just one of the boys.

He can hang out at his favorite spot at the table and reminisce. He can tell a few war stories. He can laugh and joke and help remember the man who presided over the other seven dinners he attended: Lord Byron Nelson.

Tiger still remembers sitting there in 1998 at the first one he hosted. Nelson and Ben Crenshaw were talking about the grip. Hands twisted around butter knives. Milkshakes -- the highlight of his burgers and shakes menu -- still to come.

And then there was the night he wasn't going to let Sam Snead get away with telling the same bad joke two years running. So Tiger cocked his head at Sam and made a few faces. Then a few more. Sam sputtered, exploded and the room doubled over , laughing so hard they cried.

We're not here to predict how many more dinners Tiger will host. Rather to point out that Tiger has finally settled into that role here at the end of Magnolia Lane once reserved for his elders. He's the player at Augusta at 31 that Jack and Arnie were at fortysomething. His presence here is a tradition like no other. Think CBS or anyone namd Ike, Cliff or Bobby.

The man who changed the face of golf a decade ago on this magnificent piece of land is changing it once again. Right here. Right now.

He's beginning a new chapter in his life. He closed one here last year when he pressed so hard to win so his father could see him slip another green jacket. He tried to let on how difficult it was, but his eyes always gave him away.

"I knew that was the last tournament he was ever going to watch me play," Tiger said Tuesday. "I just wanted to win one for his last time and didn't get it done and it hurt quite a bit.

"Probably one of the reasons why you saw the emotions so, I guess, so apparent at the British Open is because I wanted that to be when he was alive, just one last time, and I didn't get it done."

But he learned. He made mistakes. Phil Mickelson played brilliantly -- Tiger's words -- and Tiger didn't get it done.

Read between those broad lines. It won't happen again.

Tiger is in a different place this time around. He won the final two majors of last year and is thisclose to making us talk Tiger Slam II.

And, he's going to be Dad for the first time this summer and he plans on being the tough one. "Trust me," he smiled. "I take after my mother."

One more thing about mom. Tida Woods is probably more outwardly fierce than Earl ever was.

"She's certainly more abrasive about her emotions and she wears them on her sleeves," Tiger said. "Dad was not like that. Dad was more icy and more cool.

"So when I'm out there on the golf course, I get a little fiery, I think that's Mom coming out. If I'm playing pretty cool and pretty level headed, it's definitely Dad."

And then there's that Jack-Arnie thing. You can't think about either one without thinking about Augusta. Now, well, it's the same thing with Tiger.

You think back to that moment when time stood still in 1997. When everyone paused to watch a kid make the kind of history that runs so much deeper than numbers in a record book.

Tiger settles into his chair every Tuesday of Masters week and chats. The questions range from kids to changes into terrain to the newest canine member of the family -- Yogi, the Labradoodle.

"He's definitely not a Border Collie, that's for sure," Tiger said, referring to Taz, his jogging buddy. "He doesn't run 20 miles a day."

As for how fatherhood will change his life? "Sleepless nights," he said with a grin.

It's no longer about asking him what he can do here. It's about knowing nothing's impossible -- not even four rounds in the 60s. Twenty-three players have tried, but no one's shot more than three. Including Woods. Twice.

It's about knowing he'll break Jack's record of six jackets -- sooner, not later. And knowing that he knows and understands this course with the heart of Ben Crenshaw and the talent and grit of Jack and Arnie.

All he's thinking about is getting his ball around the course. He knows it. He sees it. A tweak here or there if need be. No grand game plan. Just feel your way round.

The only variable? The greens.

"I just have to get the speed of these a little bit better," he said. "They have changed every day; they have got a little bit quicker and I'm sure they will get a little faster, and come Thursday they will be really quick.

"Just the adjustments you have to make around this golf course, and, you know, whatever you do practice round-wise, come Thursday, they are always a little bit different; they just turn the vacuums on these greens and suck out all the moisture.

"It is what it is, and I feel good about my ball starting on line, and I just need to get the pace and I'll be all right."

We never doubted it.

He's played in a dozen Masters now and has four jackets, three more top-8 finishes, 14 rounds in the 60s and a scoring average hovering just above 70. Yes, he missed a cut, but that was at as an amateur. The very next year he sprinted to that 12-shot victory in his first Masters as a professional.

A decade later, you think of Augusta and Tiger comes to mind.

The dad thing was inevitable. He was raised by two strong parents and is about to be one. And anyone who says it will mess with his game? Well, they must not know Jack, whose game didn't suffer in the least raising five children.

And as for changing the face of the game? He's doing amazing things with his foundation and has says the minority faces on the PGA TOUR will come.

"The more players you have, they are introduced to the game at a younger age; you know, 15, 20 years from now, you'll probably see it," he said.

By then, he'll be pushing 50 and he'll have won -- what? -- a dozen jackets. Maybe more.

But one thing's for sure. He?ll still be front and center in our minds and he'll be sitting on that second floor on Tuesday night of Masters week telling stories and being just one of the guys.