With his tooth back, Tiger Woods reiterates his account of accident

Steve DiMeglio | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Tiger Woods on missing tooth: ‘Even breathing hurt' USA TODAY Sports golf writer Steve DiMeglio discusses Tiger Woods and the tooth that the golfer says was knocked out by a cameraman.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Tiger Woods is back.

So is his tooth.

The former world No. 1, making his first start of 2015 in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, showed up before the crack of dawn Tuesday at TPC Scottsdale. Upon reaching the driving range he flashed a smile that revealed not a single gap.

On Jan. 19, in a surprise visit to Italy to see his girlfriend, Lindsey Vonn, win her record 63rd World Cup race, Woods was wearing a mask sporting a toothy skull figure. But when the mask dropped, there was a gap where one of his upper incisors used to be. Another tooth also was cracked.

Woods's agent, Mark Steinberg said Woods had been hit by a shoulder-mounted video camera by one of the members of the media in a rush to the victory stage.

Woods said the same on Tuesday.

"The photographer changed positions and I got hit," Woods said. "It was an accident. ... And yes there was blood everywhere.

"All good now."

Race officials, however, disputed that account, saying there was no report of any incident involving Woods.

Woods said he flew home and had dental work the following morning.

"The flight was a joke," he said at a news conference later Tuesday. "I couldn't eat, couldn't drink until he fixed them, put the temporaries on. I couldn't have anything touch it. Even breathing hurt."

He got some laughs when describing how the tooth was knocked out. He said he was wearing his mask while waiting on the mountain so he wouldn't be recognized.

"Trying to blend in, because there is not a lot of brown dudes at ski races, OK?" Woods joked.

"So that was the whole idea of why I work the mask."

He described how he was hit. "Dude with a video camera on his shoulder, right in front of me, kneeling, stood up and turned and caught me square on the mouth," Woods said. "He chipped that one, cracked the other one. And so then, you know, I'm trying to keep this thing so the blood is not all over the place, and luckily he hit the one I had the root canal on. That's the one that chipped. But the other one had to be fixed, as well, because it had cracks all through it."

Woods was asked if he was surprised by how much attention the story received. "It's a new world," he said. "We need to talk about something. Have to fill up space.

"The story is about Lindsey breaking the record. That's the story."

Woods is playing the Phoenix Open for the first time since 2001.

He is playing just his second tournament since he missed the cut in the 2014 PGA Championship.

PHOTOS: Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn