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Tiger Woods is making the turn. From the birth of his first child to the projected midpoint of his major career, 2007 is likely to be a bellwether season for golf's unquestioned king.

When Woods told the world on his 31st birthday that wife Elin was pregnant, most folks simply smiled at the somewhat anticipated life step. Jack Nicklaus won all 18 of his majors with wee ones at home, they reasoned. Fatherhood isn't likely to influence Tiger's game any more than did his marriage in 2004.

Don't be so certain.

Woods was an only child and enjoyed a deeper and closer relationship with his father, Earl, than any high-profile athlete in recent memory. When Earl died of cancer last May, Woods lost his closest friend and confidant. Tiger isn't likely to be the stereotypical throwback father, the breadwinning patriarch primarily responsible for bedtime stories, discipline and delivering the occasional life lesson.

Tiger doesn't have a third gear. He's an all-in guy, a mortal lock to embrace the moment-to-moment duties of the modern diaper daddy. Anyone who thinks Woods is going to let some nanny, or even Elin, assume the primary parenting responsibilities simply doesn't know the man.

"My father was always there," Woods said on the subject earlier this season. "He was always there if I wanted to talk to him about anything and everything. He would stop what he was doing. If he brought home a bunch of work and he had to get it done that night, he didn't care.

"He would stop and talk to me about whatever I wanted to talk about for however long -- sometimes it would be hours -- and then he'd go back to his work and work until 3 or 4 in the morning and get it done. But I was the priority. That to me is something that I will certainly do."

In the past, his top priority was to massage his game into peaking four times a season. No longer. Priority one is now Tiger II, boy or girl. If Elin looks ready to deliver the third week of July, which is quite possible, Woods won't even bother crossing the Atlantic to defend his British Open title. There will be no beeper in the bag and jet on the runway a la Phil Mickelson at the 1999 U.S. Open; Tiger will simply ship the claret jug to Carnoustie and skip a major for the first time in his pro career, snapping a streak dating back to his debut victory at the 1997 Masters.

"If she's going to have it during the week of the Open, I just don't go," Woods said. "That's the most important thing, not a golf tournament."

Now, nobody is suggesting the 12-time major champion is going to suddenly lose interest in chasing down Nicklaus. Nor will a shift in focus toward fatherhood change the fact that Tiger's top form is the best the game has ever seen. But all proof to the contrary, Woods is supposedly human. His work ethic and all-consuming commitment to domination are bound to slip, if only a little.