Tiger Woods draws on lessons from parents
Family endured tough times together
While every golf fan NEW YORK knows the story of Tiger Woods’ dad, how the ex-Army officer introduced his son to golf and pushed him to become the best in the world, it was his mom who induced fear in young Tiger growing up.
During an exclusive interview Monday with USA TODAY Sports to promote the release of The
1997 Masters: My Story, Woods discussed the role his mother, Kultida, has played in his career. He describes her as “strong and feisty” in the book.
“My dad was always the person who would plant seeds and give me encouragement but also would say things that would fes- ter inside me that wouldn’t come to fruition for a while,” Woods said. “He was very worldly and deep in his thinking. My mom was the enforcer. My dad may have been in the Special Forces, but I was never afraid of him. My mom’s still here, and I’m still deathly afraid of her. She’s a very tough, tough old lady, very demanding. She was the hand, she was the one, I love her so much, but she was tough.
“There was zero negotiation.” Now, Woods, 41, uses his own parenting style on his two children, Sam and Charlie. He’s talked of spending time playing soccer with his kids during his months-long absence from the PGA Tour. Woods hasn’t played on tour since January and withdrew from two tournaments while rehabbing his back. He was also unable to play last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, which he has won eight times.
With the Masters less than three weeks away, Woods says he’s working to get back in time for the major championship that he’s won four times.
“I’ve been a part of so many Masters over the course of my career, I know exactly what it takes to get ready for that event,” he said. “Now it’s my job to go out there and get ready. I hope I can.”
In his new book written with golf writer Lorne Rubenstein, Woods discusses a wide range of topics, including his preparation for the historic 1997 Masters win — he would go on to win 13 more major championships — why he likes to wear red on Sundays and how his upbringing shaped his career.
He briefly references the lowest part of his career: a 2009 scandal that led to his divorce when multiple women came forward to say they had relationships with him. He writes of his now ex-wife Elin Nordegren that “I betrayed her. My dishonesty and selfishness caused her intense pain.”
Throughout Tiger’s early career, Earl Woods was a strong presence. Behind the 18th green during the 1997 Masters win, the two shared an emotional moment when Tiger embraced his dad in front of a packed gallery and with millions at home watching on TV.
Woods touches on race and how the color of his skin and the prejudice he experienced influenced him. Earl Woods, who was African American, died in 2006 at the age of 74. He had battled prostate cancer. When Earl died, Tiger called him “my best friend and greatest role model.”
Kultida Woods came to the USA from Thailand. She has been in the gallery for some of Tiger’s greatest victories, including the 1997 Masters.
At the 1995 U.S. Open, Tiger Woods made up a term to describe his race, he wrote. “I referred to myself as a Cablinasian, a made-up word that includes my Caucasian, black, and Asian heri- tage. I never thought it was right or fair to think of me only as an African-American, and I never will. But I learned that to have one drop of black blood in you in America meant that you were considered an African-American.”
Woods reflected on his father’s struggles. Earl Woods went to college in the 1950s at Kansas State, where he was on scholarship as a baseball catcher.
“I didn’t have it anywhere near as difficult as my father had it; this was before the Civil Rights movement ... all the things he had to endure,” Woods said. “I never had to endure them at that level. Was it tough at times? Yeah. There were some tough moments I had to endure, when I was in a sport where I was a minority, and often times the only one.
“My dad had to endure a lot of that stuff, and my mother, all the things she had to endure being an immigrant from Thailand. We always felt it was a team, a family, we had to endure some tough moments together. That is part of my life. It’s part of being a minority in golf.”