Each guided his child toward his destiny with love and discipline. Each allowed his youngster to fall and pick himself up, helped dust him off, and selflessly set him back on track. The likes of Earl Woods and Charlie Nicklaus are even more rare than their remarkable children considering that the highway to sporting immortality is littered with wreckage from collisions between over-talented kids and overzealous parents.

But, like I tell my own kids, when it comes down to it, blame the parents.

Ask Todd Marinovich or take a quick tour through the scrap heap of women's tennis, where Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce discovered that their enemies were closer than their friends. Even a stalker has the decency to be a member of somebody else's family!

Venus and Serena Williams' father, Richard, straddled the line for a long time, with his much-too-big camera, but in the end he gets a B+ because both of his girls are successful and seem to be happy.

Sean O'Hair escaped a horrifying ordeal with his father, and we can only hope Michelle Wie can do the same. What happened to those days when golf was just a game for Michelle? You know, before the $20 million and being pushed one way and then pulled another. By this stage, that poor child must have the selfesteem of a Spam donut in a French bakery (although $20 mil must ease the pain a bit).

When Michelle dubiously withdrew mid-round from an LPGA Tour event on the advice of her father, B.J., and her agent, to avoid shooting an 88, it raised questions of character and respect for the game, because that number would have made her ineligible for further play on the Tour this year. Can you imagine Earl Woods or Charlie Nicklaus encouraging their respective kids to take the easy way out on that one? And the circus goes on and on like the last three rings of hell, and Michelle's the only clown, and she's crying real tears.

When a child feels this way, the first people to help should be mom and dad, but in Michelle's case, it appears they both need to put their hands in the air and back away from the stroller. Go borrow a kid from Brad and Angelina and start over, but for God's sake, leave this one alone.

If B.J. and the missus aren't willing to do this, then someone needs to call Child Protective Services, or failing that, Macaulay Culkin. Next on the list is Larry King, or please God no ... Barbara Walters. You know you've effed up when she rings.

When I heard that little Sam Woods had entered the earth's atmosphere, my first thought was of my only daughter, Erin, whose crush on Tiger almost rivals my own.

Tiger was kind enough to sign a photo of himself to her a couple of years ago, and earlier this year, while I was reading to Erin at bedtime, she was holding it, clearly paying no attention to me.

"Daddy," she said. "Do you think Tiger would like a photograph of me?"

I'm not a candidate for Parent of the Year either, but I can figure out the answer to a question like that, so I said, "Of course he would, baby, but you'll have to sign it for him, too."

The very next week, before Tiger teed off in the first round of the Buick in San Diego, I interviewed him for our Masters preview show, and when we were done I sheepishly handed the expectant dad a 4-x-6 of my angel, signed in her best first-grade cursive, "To Tiger, love Erin."

I wished him and Elin someone similarly healthy and amazing. He went on to win the tournament, and now, the greatest prize of all — a daughter!

Who knows what great things Sam Woods will do in her lifetime, or how Tiger and Elin will do as parents? At this stage, we can only be certain that their little girl will grow even more beautiful, and her dad will fall more deeply in love with her every day.

My daughter now takes credit for one of Tiger's wins, and, as bad a parent as I may be, I'm a good enough one to believe she might just be right.

Published with permission from GOLF Magazine. Article appeared in September 01, 2007 edition.