again. For the first year of Tiger’s life, fatherhood mostly involved
strapping the baby in a high chair while hitting golf balls in the
garage. It was in fact in watching his father play golf—instead of
being able to play like a regular kid—that Tiger developed his almost
unnatural obsession with the game. According to family legend, at
nine months old Tiger slid down from his chair, picked up a club,
and hit a golf ball.
It’s a story that is both cute and utterly abnormal. At age two,
Tiger Woods appeared on The Mike Douglas Show to show off his
golf skills. The audience loved it, but Jimmy Stewart, the other guest
that day, was not amused. “I’ve seen too many precious kids like this
sweet little boy,” he told Douglas backstage, “and too many starry-
eyed parents.”
Still, his parents’ dedication is undoubtedly what allowed Tiger
Woods to become a great golfer. Thousands of hours in the garage
watching his father hit seared the beautiful mechanics of a swing into
his mind. The thousands more hours they spent at the driving range
and playing golf—thanks in part to the discounted rates Earl Woods
got at the military course near their home—were instrumental. His
parents sacrificed for him, drove him to tournaments, and hired the
best coaches.
They didn’t stop there. Earl Woods knew that golf was a mental
game, so he worked to prepare his son for the unforgiving world of
sports. Starting when Tiger was about seven, Earl took active
measures to develop his son’s concentration. Whenever Tiger teed
off, Earl would cough. Or jingle change in his pocket. Or drop his
clubs. Or throw a ball at him. Or block his line of sight. “I wanted to
teach him mental toughness,” Earl recounted. “If he got distracted by
the little things I did, he’d never be able to handle the pressure of a
tournament.”
But as Tiger got older, the training became, even by Earl’s
admission, an increasingly brutal finishing school. It was a boot
camp of “prisoner-of-war interrogation techniques” and
“psychological intimidation” that no civilized person ought to inflict
on another. “He constantly put me down,” Tiger said later. “He
would push me to the breaking point, then back off. It was wild.”
Yeah. Wild.
barry
(Barry)
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