Golf: 'Tigermania' engulfs Woods

Golf

In his first post-Masters golfing appearance, Tiger Woods conducted a four-hour clinic and exhibition for hundreds of young players on Sunday, answering their questions about his life since his remarkable 12-shot victory at Augusta.

Woods, joined by his parents Earl and Kultida, said he was enjoying the worldwide attention generated by his record victory, but was saddened by some of the media stories and coverage of his private life.

"I never dreamt Tigermania would be like this, but I think this is great for the game of golf, because it's bringing all of you into the game," he said.

On Thursday Woods will play his first PGA tournament in five weeks - the GTE Byron Nelson Classic in Dallas, Texas. He is also scheduled to play the following week at the MasterCard Colonial at Fort Worth, Texas. The latter event will be Woods' first face-to-face meeting with Fuzzy Zoeller, who generated a storm of controversy with his post-Masters comments about Woods.

Woods was introduced at the invitation-only clinic by Byron Nelson, the golfing legend who gave his name to this week's PGA event.

"I said the first time I saw Tiger play, he was the best 15-year-old golfer I had ever seen. He was the best 16-year-old, 17, 18, 19, 20 and now 21-year-old golfer. I've never seen anything like it," Nelson said.

The tournament is totally sold out for the first time in its 30-year history, with officials expecting crowds to exceed 100,000 on both Saturday and Sunday.