Tiger Ready To Go After PGA Tour Win No. 80

Tiger Woods kicked off his annual start to the PGA Tour season with a stop in the Farmers Insurance Open media center, but before he could dazzle us with stories, jokes and memories, Woods received his PGA Tour Player of the Year in a joint ceremony with Rookie-of-the-Year Jordan Spieth.

After a trophy ceremony choreographed by Mel Brooks, Woods answered the inevitable questions about his recent break (he's refreshed), his quest to win more majors than anyone, his pursuit of Sam Snead's PGA Tour wins record (he's three away from tying!) and why he just had to take home the Farmers trophy last year even though the man has more trophies than most of us have old pennies in a jar.

First, Bob Harig with the majors and goal talk. Doug Ferguson zoned in on the story involving last year's Farmers trophy while also previewing Woods' pursuit of his ninth professional win at Torrey Pines.

Woods told a story of 6-year-old Sam being curious about the Torrey pine on the trophy, which reminded his daughter of the Bonsai tree she had seen in “Karate Kid.”

“She thought that's what it was,” Woods said. “I said, 'No, they're a little bit bigger than that.' I had to go online and show her the pictures and everything. I had all these trophies lined up and she said, 'You need to get one of those.'”

Woods tried to explain that it wasn't that simple, that he had to play better golf than 155 other guys to earn it.

“She said, 'OK, go do it,” he said.

And so he did. Woods had an eight-shot lead on the back nine before the final round in a fog-delayed tournament was so backed up that it took forever to finish and Woods lost patience.

He won by four shots, and then surprised tournament officials when he wanted to take the trophy home on the plane instead of the tradition of shipping. He did not want to walk in the door as the winner at Torrey Pines without that trophy.

“They put it literally in the middle of the living room,” Woods said. “Everybody was dancing around the trophy.”