Chapter 64

John Nichol’s Field

San Diego County, California

December 30, 2006

The cake, topped with a skydiver figurine, reads HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIGER! The only other decoration in this room in the Tac Air building is the Navy SEAL flag that hangs on the wall. Tiger and Elin began his thirty-first birthday with a drive through the desert to John Nichol’s Field, where he practiced advanced air maneuvers with the SEALs, who are now singing “Happy Birthday.”

Dressed in a navy-issue blue-and-white jumpsuit, Tiger blows out the candles. He’s already gotten his wish. The USPA A-level license he earned last month allows him to jump from a plane without an instructor in tandem.

“The dude’s amazing,” one SEAL says of Tiger’s ability to process the tutoring he receives between jumps. “He can literally think himself through the skydives.”

Elin and Tiger have also taken another leap. They’re starting a family.

On New Year’s Eve—the day after Tiger’s thirty-first birthday and the day before Elin’s twenty-seventh—United Press International reports from Orlando: WOODS REVEALS WIFE’S PREGNANCY ON BIRTHDAY.

“Obviously, we couldn’t be happier and our families are thrilled,” Tiger writes on tigerwoods.com. “I have always wanted to be a dad. I just wish my father could be around to share the experience.”

He soon finds a new way to honor Earl’s memory. On February 28, Tiger visits Capitol Hill with breaking golf news: He’s bringing a PGA event to the nation’s capital. Perfectly timed between the U.S. and British Opens, the “Woods-Washington” event during Fourth of July week looks to be a major draw.

Plans come together quickly in Washington. By March 7, the tournament has a date, a name, and, with the Tiger Woods Foundation, a cosponsor. “I’m thrilled the AT&T National is helping facilitate my foundation’s East Coast expansion,” Tiger says. “We plan to make a lasting impact in this community—both on and off the course.”

Tiger envisions an Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am honoring the military. During tournament week, active-duty service personnel will be welcomed onto the grounds of the Congressional Country Club, where during World War II the Office of Strategic Services trained troops in espionage and parachute jumping.

“It’s just a small way of saying thank you,” Tiger says. Still, there’s an unspoken disconnect to overcome. Earl’s military career was indisputably authentic. Tiger can’t make that claim.

According to the SEAL who runs the Nichol’s Field training facility, “Tiger Woods never got wet and sandy.” He has completed a free-diving course—with a personal-best free dive of one hundred feet (the record is more than three times that depth)—but that was during a Caribbean vacation on his yacht, Privacy. “Tiger Woods,” he’d introduced himself to his free-diving class. “My whole deal is to go deeper and longer so I can shoot bigger fish.”

And to build a bigger frame. Tiger’s bulked up his six-foot-one-inch body with twenty pounds of muscle. He’s agreed to an interview and cover photo shoot for Men’s Fitness magazine. But with his weight hovering near 190, Tiger’s trainer and surgeon urge him to ease the stress on his joints by losing between ten and twenty-five pounds.

Tiger ignores their warnings. He increases his workouts and makes more trips to Southern California, where he perfects SEAL strength-training routines by logging the graveyard shift at Gold’s Gym. At home, he runs for miles through the secluded streets of Isleworth.

Neighbor, friend, and fellow PGA player John Cook reacts with awe to Tiger’s enhanced physique. “I would be on the back of the range, beating balls,” says Cook, “and Tiger would come up after an eight-mile run: no shirt, hat backward, sunglasses, body soaked with sweat. He would grab my 2-iron and start hitting these missiles. How you going to beat that? You can’t beat that.”

Even so, some PGA players begin to chip away at Tiger’s long-held edge.

On April 8, American golfer Zach Johnson wins the 2007 Masters, his first major. Tiger finishes two strokes back, in a three-way tie for second.

Expectations surrounding Tiger’s level of play have never been higher. Hank Haney worries that Tiger’s focus isn’t where it needs to be to stay ahead of rising talent.

He has two months to prepare for this year’s U.S. Open, three months for the inaugural AT&T National—and he’s still talking about becoming a SEAL.

“For as long as I’ve known him, Tiger’s had a huge interest in the military,” says caddie Steve Williams. “He always read a lot of military books and watched war documentaries on The History Channel and liked military movies. And when Earl passed away, maybe Tiger thought it was a good thing to indulge in a bit more of what Earl went through.”

Williams has been noticing “more mood swings” and “a sense of loneliness” lingering in Tiger since Earl’s death but bites his tongue. “There are times in people’s lives when you have to be more understanding,” he says.

Tiger tells the Charlotte Observer that he commemorated the exact one-year anniversary of Earl’s death, staring at a clock in a hotel room to mark the minute. “I just wish I could talk to him, hear his voice and ask him for advice on certain things,” Tiger says.

Physical trainer Keith Kleven is especially concerned with the impact military drills might have on Tiger’s vulnerable left knee. When Haney notices Tiger coming in from a run wearing combat boots, Tiger explains that even in heavy tactical footwear, “I beat my best time.”

Warning bells are clanging for Team Tiger.

During bunker practice one day at the Isleworth country club, Haney confronts him. “Are you out of your mind? What about Nicklaus’s record? Don’t you care about that?”

“No,” Tiger says. “I’m satisfied with what I’ve done in my career.”