Despite all the distractions, Tiger remains focused

While much of the talk around Oakmont so far this week has centered around a certain left wrist belonging to the best lefthander in the world, the world's No. 1 player prepares for "probably the most difficult championship that we face" -- and fatherhood -- with equal enthusiasm. One we know will bring great joy, the other remains to be seen.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.com Correspondent

OAKMONT, Pa. -- The sleepless nights are just around the corner.

So too is a reworked practice schedule, new workout times in the gym and a total lack of down time all to himself.

And then there's that little matter of learning the difference between a smile and a smiling face that's, well, made for another reason.

Fatherhood. It's the Tiger topic of the month. His wife, Elin, is due to deliver their first sometime in early July and, of course, everyone wants to know if Tiger is excited. And what he'll do when she goes into labor. And whether the nursery is ready. And whether he'll play in the Open Championship at Carnoustie. And ...

What no one is talking about is winning his third U.S. Open.

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a jillion times. Oakmont isn't a good fit. It's a Jim Furyk kind of course; a brutal test for someone who finds more fairways and hasn't been lipping putts the way one T. Woods has the last month. Take away a dozen of those in the final two rounds of THE PLAYERS and we're talking Tiger here, not Phil. Same goes for The Memorial, where he finally saw some fall on the final day.

That he hasn't won an Open in five years? C'mon. He's won two -- the first one was perhaps the best performance in history. That Oakmont isn't the least bit forgiving with it's length, the rough and those church pews? Think he's practicing in those bunkers from holy hell? Think again.

While the headlines talk diapers and one of Pennsylvania's own, Tiger is concentrating on what he can control -- hitting fairways and making putts. And about those pews? He's not practicing negativity.

"You're not going to place the golf ball there (church pews) and, if you are, if you do make a mistake there, you just basically are going to wedge it out anyways," he said. "Accept your mistake and move on."

Yes, he knows what it takes. He played on a different level from everyone else at Pebble Beach and he pulled it off again at Bethpage Black. And he's about to tee it up on a course where Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Ernie Els won; where Johnny Miller shot an iconic closing round that everyone knows as a The 63 to win the first of his two Opens.

The course is brutal. Worse, Tiger said, than last year at Winged Foot. He lost his father a little more than a month before last year's Open and admits now he came back too fast. It wasn't the tournament to start back with.

"It's not an easy championship," he said. "It's probably the most difficult championship that we face all year because you're so tested from tee-to-green and you're tested on the greens. Generally, if you're missing one facet of your game, more than likely you're not going to win the championship. You have to have everything going.

"And, then you've obviously got to, you know, get a break here or there."

A ball that you think might run off the green and hangs up, giving you a putt at it. A kick onto the green, not off it. A shot that sits up in the rough and gives you a little bit of hope instead of settling down into the grain where you take a whack and pray.

And about that rough ... Did they thin it?

"I know they had mowers out there," Tiger said with a grin. "I don't know if they did anything.

"From what I hear, you should be able to get a 5-iron on the ball from the first cut. That's what I hear. I have yet to experience that."

What he did see was Bubba Watson, who generates incredible club-head speed, hack it all of 30 feet.

"You can have strength, speed and sometimes that grass wins," Tiger said.

The rough is always an Open liability. But on this course, it's well, let's just say defending champ Geoff Ogilvy reportedly lost seven balls in a practice round a few weeks ago.

This course smacks you in the mouth at the first hole and keeps coming at you. And if you think you see an easy shot? Think the Steelers. The Steel Curtain. And their signature trap that everyone knew was coming, but no one could ever seem to stop.

The toughest part isn't the 288-yard par-3 eighth hole or the 500-yard par-4 15th. It's the tilted greens, the toughest, Tiger said, he's ever putted.

"I thought Winged Foot's pretty tough, Augusta's pretty tough," he said. "But both golf courses have flat spots. Augusta may have these big slopes, but they have these flat shelves that they usually put the pins on. Here, I'm trying to figure out where a flat shelf is.

"And most of the greens here are all tilted. Some even run away from you ... Depends on it they give us a chance to play or if they are going to make it really impossible. We'll see."

Tough has always been right up Tiger's alley. He lives for making it look easy. Yet he couldn't do that at Augusta this year. It was his ball striking the first two rounds and his putting the last two that cost him another jacket.

And here? Well, we'll see. Despite all those missed putts, he's still won three times, leads the money list and is ranked in the top 10 in putting and third in greens in regulation.

The winners here know how to work the ball, place the ball and give themselves a chance at the lowest number -- notice we make no reference to par -- possible on a given day. Sound like anyone you know?

An expectant father, perhaps?

When that child is born, it will be the biggest day in his life. Golf won't matter. Neither will jackets or Jack's record.

It will give him a new perspective. But it will also drive him even harder when does step back onto the course.

Which brings us to one final dad thing -- the single-most important thing he got from his parents. Something we've marveled over as we've watched him grow from a gangly kid to the best player in the world.

"I was never afraid to go fail because I knew that I would always come home to a home of love. My parents loved me unconditionally no matter what," he said.

"If I went out there and gave it my best and I screwed up, it didn't matter. My parents told me they loved me every night. Every time we said goodbye, that was just something that I was never afraid to go out there and push myself to the limit. And if I failed, so what? I always had them to pick me up."

So talk all you want about impending fatherhood, who else Oakmont might favor, missed putts or that it's his 13th Open. But make no mistake. Tiger's focused on this one and he's going for it just like he has in the dozen other majors he's won.

Whether he makes it a baker's dozen this week or becomes part of an Open horror show, we know he'll be pushing the limits -- of his game and his body and trying to outsmart the USGA at their own torture-chamber of a chess game.

And if he happens to walk away with another story to tell that first born, all the better.