Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

Will fans be on the edge of their seats watching the Masters Sunday or opt for a nap instead?

Uncle.

If this is all that is left of the biggest sports scandal of the decade, then alas, it is time to move on.

A press conference that began with this one-and-done, say-it-but-don’t-say-it warning to the media — "I’d like to tell the players that, hopefully after today … the players will be left alone to focus on the Masters this week, and going forward as well," — ended as so many Majors used to, with Tiger in form control.

The golf media tried. They asked about the alleged steroids doctor, Dr. Anthony Galea. They asked about the accident. They grilled Woods about his absence between the car wreck and his first, scripted interviews.

The only thing we learned on Monday, as Woods’ waded back into the world of being golf’s Wayne Gretzky, was that he tore an Achilles tendon while running during his time off from his 2008 ACL surgery. Oh boy.

Of the car wreck, Tiger would only admit to "A busted up lip, and a pretty sore neck."

But we will never find out how a man, at three in the morning, slams into a fire hydrant on his own cul-de-sac hard enough to cause those injuries. He knows, we know, that there is more to it.

But if that is the case, then so be it. Let us move on.

But to what?

What will the "New Tiger Woods" mean for you, the golf fan who really only wants again what the old Tiger Woods used to give him: three hours in an easy chair on a Sunday afternoon, unable to nod off because you knew you were watching history. Because the golf was so good.

Will he ever be that guy again? Can this new and improved person off the golf course be the same champion on it?

"I’m going to try to not get as hot when I play," Woods admitted Monday. "But when I’m not as hot, I’m not going to be as exuberant either. You can’t be one without the other."

He pledged to acknowledge the fans more — "show my appreciation for them" — which would also be a departure for the man whose caddy has damaged more than one camera over the years.

The question hangs however: Can a player who showed the emotion that Woods has always exhibited simply tone it down and continue to win?

How much of that fist-pumping was integral to the Tiger Woods confidence that melted his opponents, when they found themselves on the same fairway, wrestling with Woods for a title?

Can the confidence be less overt, but remain as potent? Can you change the process, even by simply smiling a little bit more often, and continue to get the same result?

For sure, if you are willing to believe the person sitting behind that microphone on Monday, the Tiger Woods who came out of 45 days of therapy is a vastly different person that the man who entered into it.

"Because of the time frame of it, I missed my son’s first birthday. That hurts. It hurts a lot. I vowed I’d never miss another one after that," he said, humbly. "It’s something I regret and probably will for the rest of my life."

Those sentiments, those priorities, form the foundation of the personality rebuild that the world’s best golfer is trying to make.

No one is saying a nice guy — a family-first guy — can’t be a great golfer. But it is also fair to ask whether a man can make such profound changes in his life away from work, and maintain the same level at the office. Whether he becomes like that ageing hockey player who gets one, last big contract.

Whether he becomes comfortable in his revamped priorities. A little less hungry.

Especially when it was a merciless, me-first attitude that helped to make you better than your peers all along.

"It’s not about the championships (now)," he admitted Monday. "It’s about how you live your life. I need to be a better man going forward than I was before.

"If I win championships along the way, so be it."

He talked a good game Monday, but before it was done, Tiger Woods was asked how he thought he’d play at The Masters this week.

"Nothing’s changed," he said. "I’m gonna try and go out there and win this thing."

Nothing’s changed? Something has changed?

Has everything changed?

Let’s just hope we’re not opting for the nap on Sunday. Because that’s a change nobody wants.