Oakmont, Pa. ? The 2 a.m. feedings. The sleepless nights. Those first tiny baby steps and the first mumblings of “Da-da.”

Tiger Woods is so eager to be a dad, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he reached for his yardage book and pulled out Dr. Spock instead – there’s no hiding that I’m-soon-to-be-a-father beam.

Ask about the baby that wife Elin expects to deliver next month, and Woods says, “This is far more important than any game of golf.”

“Your nights are going to be a little more awake,” Woods said Tuesday, contemplating what fatherhood will mean to the world’s No. 1 golfer. “My practice sessions are going to have to be tailored around a little bit, have to move things around.”

Before he becomes Pops Woods, however, there’s the matter of this week’s U.S. Open.

Woods played his seventh practice round Tuesday at Oakmont, and for all of the fretting and fussing about how difficult it is, he seems eager to confront one of the few world-class championship courses he hasn’t played in competition.

“I’ve had success in the past on difficult golf courses before, yes,” he said.

To Woods, playing Oakmont is far easier than the much more difficult test he had a year ago at Winged Foot, barely a month after his father, Earl, died of cancer.

Woods knew he was losing his dad and spent considerable time with him during his final days – and, because of it, didn’t play between the Masters and the U.S. Open.

That Woods missed the cut in a major for the first time by shooting a 76-76 might have been the result of where his mind was, not necessarily where his golf game was.

“I wasn’t quite ready to play until I got to the U.S. Open – probably not exactly the best tournament to come back to,” Woods said. “So this year, I’m going to be a father, you know, shortly, and I think it’s a complete polar opposite of where I was last year at this time.”