Tiger loose, animated during Masters practice round

AUGUSTA, Ga. - You know what kind of day it was at Augusta National, when the guys who played a practice round with Tiger Woods were doing multiple interviews afterward.

Shockingly, the questions weren't about them.

"I find it weird I'm surrounded by 100 people myself," one of those fellows, Fred Couples, said yesterday. "It's not my goal to talk to Tiger about his life. It will be good for him to get rid of it, and [finally] talk to [the media]."

Which Woods would do, a few hours later, for the first time since November. Or since his life changed forever.

But first, the four-time Masters champion played 18 holes with Couples, the 1991 winner. Jim Furyk, who was playing by himself right behind them, made it a threesome at No. 13.

"Everything felt good," Furyk said. "I wasn't expecting anything different. It was the same as it would have been last year at this time. It was identical."

Maybe this is why Tiger chose this week to make his return to the game, following a prolonged absence in the wake of his sex scandal and subsequent treatment in a rehabilition center.

If this were any other event, major or minor, who knows what might have happened. Perhaps nothing. But this being what and where it is, you had a feeling the patrons were going to receive him the way they did.

Woods had played nine holes on Sunday with Mark O'Meara, when the course wasn't open to the public yet.

Yesterday, the place was packed. And you could tell where Tiger was by monitoring the masses. Remember, the crowds at practice rounds aren't the same as the ones you get once the tournament starts on Thursday. Didn't seem to matter.

On the first tee, Woods was greeted by a "We love you Tiger" shout-out. On No. 2, he actually shook hands with someone in the gallery. Later, another fan yelled as he walked by, "It's a good day to play golf." To which Tiger smiled and replied, "Yes it is."

Things didn't get overly loud. Hey, it was only Monday. Still the support, though merely polite at times, sounded genuine.

"I'm sure he was happy to be out there," Couples said. "I never thought it was going to be a problem. If this were some other spot, it might not be the same. I think they're excited to see him play again. They're not relating it to some mistakes he made. They can't touch and feel him. They can cheer for him for 4 hours. You can't make everyone happy, no matter who you are.

"If we have dinner tonight and he wants to bring [his personal issues] up, I might give him an opinion. I think the world of the guy. He knows he made a blunder. He's back to make up for it. He's the best player in the world. I think he's still the best player in the world. It would be crazy for me to say he won't do well [here]. But it would be crazy for me to say he's the guy to beat . . .

"He still got on me if I made a bad putt, or outdrove him. That's what I like about him. Basically, we're buddies. But I was out there trying to get ready [for the tourney]. We've played a lot of practice rounds here before. So I was asking him a ton of questions [about golf]."

Furyk's caddy, Fluff Cowan, was on Tiger's bag when he won here for the first time in 1997. When Furyk joined the group, Woods and Cowan hugged. At the par-3 16th, all three players skipped balls across the pond together.

It's a side of Tiger the public hasn't always seen.

"It was extremely positive," Furyk said. "Probably even better than I thought it would be. Tiger was very loose. Fred's Fred. Nothing gets too serious.

"I'm sure Tiger was probably a little on edge. But we teased each other as much as usual. I felt like the way he handled it, they treated him like they've always treated him. The crowd was probably a little more chatty with him. And he responded. I think they were very respectful. Men, women, kids . . .

"I never got into analyzing all the [off-course] stuff. A lot of us have reached out [to him] just to say hello."

Yesterday, it became everyone else's turn. *