Woods provides long-sought answers

As the gates to the 74th Masters were thrown open, the man who has been a punch line on all the late-night shows greeted the official opening of this Masters week like a man just granted parole.

"What a great day today," Woods declared to lead off his first prolonged news conference since his multiple affairs became tabloid manna late last year.

In advance of this week, Woods said he was nervous about how he'd be received by the Masters galleries on his formal return to golf.

Those fears were quelled by consistently supportive, if not exactly boisterous greetings throughout his 18-hole tour with Couples. Jim Furyk joined them for the final six holes of the day.

"I tell you what, the galleries couldn't be nicer," Woods said. "I mean, it was just incredible. The encouragement that I got, it was just ... it blew me away."

Couples called the reception "awesome. That's really the way it should be."

The crowds built at dawn's first light around the new Augusta National practice facility, as Woods, a habitual early grinder, took his first hacks of the day.

At 8 a.m., as soon as the course was opened, he launched his first public tee shot since mid-November. It went so far left, Woods didn't bother to play it. That portended an erratic day off the tee.

Woods said he had vowed that as part of the process of revamping himself and his image, he would make more of an effort to interact with the folks on the other side of the ropes.

"I haven't [acknowledged the fans] in the past few years and that was wrong of me," he said.

The Tidwell family of Decatur, Ala., has been coming to Masters practice rounds for 14 years, often shouting encouragement to their favorite player, Woods.

"And this is the first time he ever said anything back," said John Tidwell, here with his sister and two children.

It was a simple exchange.

"Welcome back, Tiger," he said as Woods passed by on his exit from the practice area.

"Thank you, sir," Woods responded.

To another fan who shouted, "Good putt, Tiger" while he was rolling the ball to a potential pin placement on the seventh green, Woods joked, "I'd hate to see a bad putt."

"You should see us play," the fan retorted.

Golf banter was the easiest part of Monday. Addressing 200 media members in a no-limits afternoon news conference was 34 minutes of pick-and-shovel work, mining the faults of one of the world's most noted athletes.

The highlights of his round with the Fourth Estate:

But he said he has taken the prescription drugs Ambien and Vicodin to deal with the pain of various injuries and the death of his father in 2006.

"When I strip it down and start realizing what I have done -- the full magnitude of it – it's pretty brutal," he said.

"I'm trying as hard as I possibly can each and every day to get my life better and better and stronger and if I win championships along the way, so be it."

After a lost winter spent facing the darker side of his ego, Woods said he learned much about himself that he didn't much like. And in the process he also may have discovered one thing about his sport that had been lost in the complications of a double life.

Yes, Monday was great, Woods said. But the first tee shot of competition promises even a greater relief.

"That first tee shot [Thursday], I'm looking forward to it. I haven't looked forward to that tee shot in a long time, not like this," he began.

"I've won numerous times the last few years but I wasn't having anywhere near the amount of fun. Why? Because look at what I was engaged in. When you live a life where you're lying all the time, life is not fun. And that's where I was.

"Now that's been stripped all away and here I am. And it feels fun again."