Tiger Woods hasn’t won a golf tournament in over a year and has seen his world ranking fall from No. 1 to No. 3. Thursday in Dubai, he’ll tee off in the same group with the two men who’ve passed him in the world rankings, Lee Westwood of England and Martin Kaymer of Germany. But a day before that intriguing threeball, it seems like Tiger is more focused on repairing his image.

In Wednesday’s pro-am in Dubai, Tiger was paired with Lt. Col. Michael Rowells, a 47-year-old American serviceman deployed in Afghanistan. Rowells was supposedly randomly selected from 16,000 entrants who entered hoping to play with Tiger.

CNN also released some quotes from an interview Tiger did, which will air on CNN Living Golf on March 3 (a clip can be seen here). Tiger talks somewhat woodenly about how spending time with his kids is “the greatest thing in the world.” To me, it just feels weird that a guy who sexual escapades ended his marriage to the mother of his two young children is so eager to try to draw attention to his devotion to said children.

“Being present for your kids is far more valuable than anything you do,” Tiger tells CNN. “It’s all about them. Whatever they want to do, we do. When I don’t have them I can practice a bit more but when I’m around them it’s all about them.” It sounds scripted, and makes me wonder what’s the bigger distraction to Tiger’s game: spending time with his kids, or spending time trying to make sure everyone knows how much he likes spending time with his kids.

written by Chalk \\ tags: Dubai Desert Classic, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods interview, Tiger Woods kids, Tiger Woods scandal