Masters 2012: How Hank Haney's 'The Big Miss' Will Affect Tiger Woods at Tourney

Tiger Woods will have his resolve tested at The Masters next week in many more ways than one.

Sure, there will be (and already has been) plenty of talk regarding whether or not Tiger is "back," after emerging victorious at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday for his first PGA Tour triumph in two-and-a-half years. 

Beyond pronouncements of either sort, Woods is sure to be bombarded with questions concerning Hank Haney's The Big Miss, a memoir written by Tiger's former swing coach that's due to hit bookshelves on Tuesday. He'll be pelted with queries about his alleged use of a Navy SEALs training regimen that may or may not have precipitated the knee injury that he exacerbated during the 2008 US Open. He'll be asked, time and again, about his thoughts concerning the book, and will likely respond like this, more often than not.

But the real intrigue will come not from what Woods says or does in direct retaliation to such seemingly unnecessary interrogation, but rather how he handles yet another distraction while competing under intense pressure and scrutiny on arguably the biggest stage in golf.

In that respect, Haney's book will likely register somewhere toward the bottom of the long list of distractions occupying Tiger's psyche, well below concerns about his children, regrets from his past transgressions and, of course, his desire to don a fifth Green Jacket by the end of next week. It's unlikely that Haney would have anything to say in his book that could possibly worry Woods any more than the flood of fingerwagging that followed the unleashing of his personal exploits in 2009 and 2010.

In other words, Tiger's been through much worse before. He's dealt with the death of his father, the reconstruction of his knee and the schism of his family, among other things and aside from the veritable media circus that follows his every move.

He should be able to brush Haney's cash grab aside just fine, and if he can't (or doesn't), then it'll be right back to the usual chatter from the talking heads about how Tiger's in a slump and how his career is still in the dumps.

Or, as Tiger probably refers to it, Tuesday.

Follow @J0shMart1n