Tiger Woods ready for new start in 2011

As someone who has studied under numerous coaches, Tiger Woods recognizes that the one common fundamental in every teacher's syllabus is that balance is absolutely essential to a golf swing. Woods believes that balance is just as important in a golfer's life.

He said Wednesday that he now has it, as he prepares for his 2011 season debut Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, one of his favorite spots. In fact, part of his new equilibrium was having appeared at a news conference strictly as a golfer, and not the soiled, shaken tabloid figure of 2010.

Another part was acknowledging that his damaged reputation and season last year were all his fault. "I went down a path I should never have gone, and now the determination is keeping my life in balance. That's where it's at," he said in a session that was carried live on Golf Channel. "What's most important to me are my kids. I need to be in balance for them, and that's what it's all about."

Woods added that his young daughter and son are "doing great" following a tumultuous 14 months in which the 14-time major champion was divorced after a stinging series of revelations surfaced about his many affairs. For the first time in his career, he failed to win even one tournament during a season.

"I obviously was consumed by other things in the last year and had to deal with that. Life goes on and life moves forward. That is what's most exciting about this year is having the proper perspective on things," he said. "In order to play this game at a high level, it helps to have a clear mind. 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."

For the first time in six years, he said, he had a quiet and productive offseason. This time, he was not rehabbing an injury (notwithstanding a cortisone shot in his ankle last month) or a scandal-scarred psyche. He spent most of his time working with new instructor Sean Foley (who also teaches Long Island teenage star Annie Park) on a revamped swing and on the putting stroke that failed him in 2010.

He could not return to a more comfortable environment. He first played Torrey Pines at seven. It is where the Southern California native first saw a PGA Tour event, when it was named for Andy Williams. He has won the tournament six times, including 2003, in his first outing after knee surgery.

This will be his first competition at the site since his most fabled victory, a 19-hole playoff win over Rocco Mediate in the 2008 U.S. Open -- on a broken leg. "It was stupid to play and go through that much pain," he said Wednesday, laughing at the "random" groupings that will have him playing with Mediate Thursday and Friday. "I kept re-breaking the leg. I have a bit of a hard-headed side to me."

Woods insists he still has a hard edge, regardless of speculation that he has lost his intimidating, dominant aura. "That's fine. I've heard it before. I've gone through stretches where I haven't won," he said. "All I have to do is keep working and stick to the game plan, just like I have in the past. I think my record kind of speaks to that."