Tiger Woods is engaged to his girlfriend, Elin Nordegren. This is great news for Tiger, Elin and Ernie Els, who has spent the last seven years in Woods' vapor trail. Vijay Singh is so stoked, he has been hitting sand wedges for the last six hours.

All the No. 1 wannabes just saw a light at the end of the Tiger domination tunnel. If they can't slow him, maybe Elin can.

When Tiger's father, Earl, said a few years ago, "a wife can sometimes be a deterrent to a good game of golf," we were ready to fit him for a swine suit. "Finite little problems like that would destroy" his son's game, Earl decided. You don't have to see marriage as a finite little problem (sometimes it's a finite big problem) to understand the man might have a point.

Tiger Woods will have more than the roll of his putt to worry about after he gets married. (Associated Press photo)

Golf is a demanding beast, especially the way Woods wants to play it. Tiger is a golf wonk. He won't entertain you with stories about his personal life. But he'll talk about swing planes all day long. At the 2000 British Open, after holing practice putt after practice putt, Woods expressed to the world's press his displeasure with his putting. The ball was going in the hole, yeah. But according to Tiger, it wasn't rolling properly.

Will he be able to maintain his golfing Zen when he is married? When he wants to practice and his bride informs him they're going to a dinner party, what happens to the roll of his putts then?

And if the couple decides to have kids, oh man. Can you chase history and a 2-year-old around Toys R Us?

Maybe Phil Mickelson nodded and said, "Now, we'll see what he really wants." At the '99 U.S. Open, Mickelson's wife, Amy, was any-day expecting. Mickelson was in contention until the 72nd hole but said he'd pick up and leave the minute he got the word his wife was in labor.

Would Tiger do that? More likely, he'd schedule the kid around the Skins Game or the Greater Hartford Open. You can be sure no child of Tiger Woods will ever be born in the second week of April.

Marriage can be good for the soul. It can complete your life. If you're questing to be Best Ever, in golf or anything else, marriage can make that effort, um, interesting.

Only a very few of us can be great at more than one thing. There is only so much energy to go around.

Anyone who has ever turned down a better job in a different town because his or her spouse and kids liked it right where they were, knows exactly what Earl Woods was trying to say.

Jack Nicklaus is the finest athlete of his age, if only because he tackled family life and golf and won big at each. Throw in a successful course design business, and no one has lived the American Dream like The Eternal Jack.

Nicklaus says he was never away from home more than two weeks at a time. After he got his own airplane, he says he never missed any of his sons' games. As recently as 2000, all five of his kids lived within 10 minutes of him and his wife, Barbara.

"Barbara gave me a steadying influence," Jack told Golf Digest. Yet Nicklaus also has said one thing Woods had in his favor was he didn't have anything else in his life to distract him.

Beyond the occasional promotional appearance or charity gig, golf is all Woods has to do. In the golf cocoon, life is focused to a fine edge. What happens when Tiger II is flunking Earth Science and smoking in the boys' room, Elin is hammering the cell phone while holding dinner, and all dad wants to do is roll some putts?

It will happen. You can try to insulate yourself with nannies, maids, drivers, tutors and chefs. But at some point, your presence is required, lest you be referred to as Daddy Dearest. Can Tiger be doubly great?

Life is interesting. And never dull.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com