Jan25 Tigerbaby

Tiger Woods has said he will skip this year’s Open at Carnoustie if his wife goes into labour around that time.

Woods said the birth of his first child was more important than trying to become the first player in more than 50 years to win golf’s oldest championship three straight times.

“If she’s going to have it during the week of the Open, I just don’t go,” he said.

But previous life-changing experiences haven’t stopped him – not his marriage in 2004, not the death of his father last May. Mickelson has three children, and had lacklustre performances during two of those years because of difficulties during the pregnancy. Otherwise, he doesn’t expect fatherhood to change Woods.

“I certainly hope it does, but I don’t see that happening,” Mickelson said. “He’s always been able to balance so many different areas of his life that I think this will just be another area that he adds into the mix, and a very rewarding part of his life.”