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Woods' goal: 'to try to beat all their butts'

SAN DIEGO - Tiger Woods said he's focused on what he wants to do this season. "The goal hasn't changed," Woods said with a laugh yesterday. "Try to beat all their butts."

Tiger Woods answers questions during a news conference at the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)
Tiger Woods answers questions during a news conference at the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)Read more

SAN DIEGO - Tiger Woods said he's focused on what he wants to do this season.

"The goal hasn't changed," Woods said with a laugh yesterday. "Try to beat all their butts."

Speaking with the media before his pro-am round at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Woods didn't address the sex scandal or divorces that dominated the headlines last year. Instead, he said he feels he has restored a sense of balance to his life, and he's eager to see how that will translate to golf.

"I think in order to play this game at a high level, it helps to have a clear mind," Woods said. "I've played at the high levels before in the past without a clear mind, but it helps to be consistent. It helps having your life in balance. Certainly, my life is much more balanced than it was in the past."

Woods said he's fresh going into a new season for the first time in about 6 years, although his 2-month break was not pain-free. He had a cortisone shot in his right ankle 2 days after the Chevron World Challenge, which he said kept him out for a week.

Even so, there wasn't much else on his mind besides golf.

"It's nice to have an offseason where I wasn't in pain and recovering from something," Woods said. "I've had so many darn surgeries and everything."

Not by coincidence, Woods will be playing with Rocco Mediate (along with Anthony Kim) the first two rounds. The PGA Tour this year is moving around some of the pairings to create story lines.

At the same course at the 2008 U.S. Open, Mediate lost to Woods in a sudden-death playoff after 18 extra holes.

That was Woods' last major victory.