Mark O’Meara suggests the part of Tiger Woods’ game which was actually ‘terrible’ early on in his career

Add as preferred source on Google

It is hard to imagine that there has ever been a single flaw in the game of Tiger Woods, with the American confirming his superstar status from the moment he made the turn in the first round of the 1997 Masters.

Tiger Woods is potentially the greatest talent to have ever played the game of golf. He won 14 majors between 1997 and 2008, with that 11 year spell somehow including three years in which he failed to win a single major.

Had it not been for injuries, you would imagine that the 49-year-old would have indeed overtaken Jack Nicklaus‘ record of 18 major titles at some stage.

Woods changed the game when he burst onto the scene. His playing style was so charismatic that he had thousands and thousands of people eating out of the palm of his hand every time he teed it up.

But perhaps it did not come as easily to Woods as some may have assumed.

The part of Tiger Woods’ game which was ‘terrible’ early on in his career

One of the frightening things about Woods’ game is that he could produce a highlight reel of incredible shots from each spot on the golf course. There seemed to be something different about the way he drove the ball, while no-one needs any excuse to rewatch the chip on 16 at the 2005 Masters for the 82nd time. And of course, no player seemed to hole more putts when the pressure was on than Woods.

There is an argument that his most iconic shot at a PGA Tour event came at the 2000 Canadian Open, when Woods hit his six iron 218 yards from a fairway bunker. He had to carry the ball over a long stretch of water, while the pin was tucked into a position where it probably would have felt fairly inaccessible had he been 100 yards away.

And yet, Woods was able to pull the shot off and set up the birdie to get across the line.

And speaking on Subpar, Mark O’Meara explained how that was one part of the game in which Woods made huge strides in the early stages of his career.

“I’ve seen him hit so many shots, but I’m going to make it real easy. If I ever wanted Tiger Woods to do something in my relationship around him, all I would have to do is say hey, he’s like, ‘what?’ I said, ‘don’t go over there’. That’s the sure way to make him go over there. So what I’m going to bring up is something that I’ve never really told too much, this story, and I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but anyways we’re up at Glen Abbey playing in the Canadian Open, and we play a practice round, nine holes before the pro-am day, and it’s just Tiger and I, everybody comes out to watch Tiger Woods. And we get done and we’re driving back to the hotel and we stop at a Boston Pizza to get a pizza and a Caesar salad, so we’re sitting there in this booth and it’s like Tiger and Steve Williams, and myself on the other side. And I look over at Tiger and I look right at him, and I say hey. He’s like, ‘what?’ And I said I’ve got something you don’t have. And he goes, ‘what’s that?’ And I said, ‘I’ve won the Canadian Open, you haven’t’. He paused and he just looked at me, stared at me for like five seconds and he goes, ‘well, not yet anyways’,” he said.

“And guess who hit the five or six iron from the fairway bunker on the 18th hole on Sunday at Glen Abbey over the water on the green and wins the Canadian Open that week. That’s the way he was.

“Unbelievable. To be fair, early in his career, he was not a good fairway bunker player. In fact, he was terrible. I never hit the ball that good, I never took much divot and I picked the ball, and I was a decent fairway bunker player. He asked me, he was like, ‘how do you hit those fairway bunkers like that?’ I said, ‘just pretend you’re hitting off the cart path, you’ve got to pick it, you can’t lower like you do on all your shots. That’s why you’re such a great ball-striker and I’m not’, but I could hit good fairway bunkers.

“So he’d be out there practicing and sure enough, that week he hit some remarkable shots, not only the one on 18, but a lot of other ones.”

Arguably the greatest shot of Tiger Woods’ career

It is certainly one of the most iconic shots from Woods’ illustrious career. It is hard to think of anyone else who would have had the audacity to take that shot on, particularly when a more cautious approach could have still led to the birdie that he needed.

Unsurprisingly, his long-time caddie Steve Williams once told the PGA Tour that it was probably the best shot he can remember Woods hitting.

“Tiger hit an incredible amount of brilliant shots whilst I was caddying for him. Given it was the 72nd hole with the tournament on the line, the approach shot to the 18th hole at Glen Abbey from the fairway bunker at the 2000 Canadian Open tops my list,” he said.

It just goes to show how Woods was built differently – even to the large majority of athletes who reach the very top of the game. He turned what O’Meara would suggest was an overwhelming weakness and developed an ability to simply make it the stage from which he would win tournaments.