When it comes to the success Tiger Woods has had in his golfing career, the man himself would probably admit nobody had a bigger influence on his life and game than his father, Earl Woods.
Earl was still around for Tiger’s main years of success before sadly passing away in 2006 but his impact on the 15-time major winner’s game was massive.
Tiger has spoken of the advice Earl gave him to hit the ball further, although Tiger has admitted that Earl left swing changes to the professionals, like Butch Harmon.
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Still, it’s clear Earl had a huge influence on proceedings. And when it comes to Tiger’s elite mentality in the sport, it seems it can be traced back to some harsh training techniques from Woods Senior.
How Earl Woods distracted Tiger Woods during golf practice sessions
In a recent clip doing the rounds on social media, Earl can be heard talking about how he tried to ensure Tiger was never put off while playing golf.
And in doing so, he revealed some of the bizarre methods he used to help his son.
“Just as he’s beginning to swing, I drop my whole bag of clubs. And he would stop and look at me, teeth gritting and he’d start again and I’d throw a dozen golf balls in front of his ball,” Earl said.
“He’d stop again, I’d say ‘hey look, are you through showboating, the marshal says we have to complete this round in four hours and you’re taking up more than your share of time so either hit or get off the course. And then he would stripe it. Hit it perfect and turn around and look at me, not say a word but the look would say ‘take that’ and then walk down the fairway.
“He’d always push me but never too far. Eventually it would take more, and then more, and then more until finally it got to a point where it didn’t bother me no more,” Tiger says in the clip.
Adding further comment, Earl then commented:
“I said Tiger, your training is over. I said you’ve got it. I promise you you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life. And he hasn’t. And he never will.”
What Tiger Woods was really like in practice sessions
You don’t get to the level of golf that Tiger Woods has without being a stickler for practicing and that’s exactly how Woods has been all his life.
Indeed, Hank Haney recently revealed just how thorough Woods was when it came to perfecting ball flight.
“From day one if the ball went 10’ right or left or 10’ too high or too low on any shot, Tiger would turn to me and ask what caused that, I had to have an answer and the next shot better have a different outcome based on the information I gave him. Golf is what the ball does,” Haney revealed.
Furthermore, another former coach Chris Como also praised Woods’ practice.
“I thought the way he practiced was really cool. This is not so much at a tournament, but a lot of times, people will break up their practice, ‘I’m going to putt for 20 minutes, I’m going to chip for 30 minutes, I’m going to hit balls for 30 minutes, and I’m going to do that everyday’. Again, this is more in an off week, but he would have times where he would spend a whole day chipping, or a whole day putting, or a whole day whatever it is. I thought it was interesting,” Como said.
It goes without saying, then, that Earl’s early methods stuck with Tiger and carried him through many times in his career.
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