Tiger: The Power and the Passion
BY Grant Dodd | 30 Mar 2008
One of the world’s leading golf coaches was asked recently by one of his charges (a player in the top 75 players in the world) why it was that Tiger Woods was so much better than him, and everyone else?
The coach, known for his frank views and forthright communication, responded in the following way,
“Well, for starters, you’re overweight and unfit, and Tiger’s not. Tiger works out four hours a day, and you don’t. Tiger practices his putting three hours a day, and you don’t. Everything in Tiger’s life is channelled towards him being the best player in the world, whilst you are settled into a nicely comfortable place mentally and physically – there’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to decide just how badly you want to beat him. At the moment, it’s fair to say that you don’t have the same hunger, and that you don’t want it bad enough.”
How such an assessment was received wasn’t disclosed. Nonetheless, it is likely that such brutal honesty would register an uncomfortable truth with any number of the world’s elite professional golfers. Tiger Woods is the best because, apart from great technique, iron will and great mental strength, he wants it more than everyone else, and he is prepared to do things that few others are in order to stay there.
Central to an argument regarding desire or hunger is Woods’ training regimen away from the golf course. Not since Gary Player has a world class golfer taken physical fitness to such a level. However, whilst Player was undoubtedly superbly fit, Woods has introduced a strength training component to his program that sees him now possessed of a physique like no other in the history of elite professional golf.
I had a glimpse of Woods’ workout routine in 1999 when we played the Johnnie Walker Classic in Taiwan. The gym in the tournament hotel was the haunt of favour for a younger and decidedly slighter world number one, then only in his early twenties. His focus on the task at hand was impressive, and performed with a similar intensity to that which he bought to the golf course. Compare photos from then and now and you can see that Tiger has taken his weights regime up another level again. His arms are bigger, his torso and core thicker, and the degree of muscularity in his physique is now more defined than ever.
Logically, this allows Woods to generate great power, a positive now accompanied by increasingly impressive control. It also allows him to play with something in reserve, and to reach for an extra few yards at will when he needs it. One can only guess too at the mental benefit of standing on the tee knowing that you are more physically prepared than every other golfer in the field.
Once upon a time it was considered gospel that golfers could not lift weights and still play effectively. ‘It will destroy your swing’, we were told. Woods has taken that hypothesis, shredded it, and then flushed it down the toilet for good measure. Like the flat earth theory, and in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it is unlikely to ever surface again.
Whilst there are clearly a number of elements that combine to make the complete golfer, Woods has shown the world, at least in part, one of the key secrets that has helped to create his present dominance. With such an example on show, it would be logical to expect that his competitors would be falling over themselves to get to the weights room to benefit from the obvious advantage that increased strength offers.
On current indications though, the average body shape of leading tour professionals doesn’t seem to be evolving at a dramatic rate. Sure, there is a different awareness to the rewards of strength training, and there are more players out there putting in time at the gym than ever before. But who amongst them has embraced the Woods model to the extent that he has? Who of the current and next crop of potential challengers could demonstrate a level of commitment matching that of the world number one?
It is, of course, ridiculous to suggest that simply pumping weights at the gym will elevate someone to Tiger’s stratosphere. At the same time, convincing arguments will be mounted against the necessity of such an approach on the basis that golf relies largely on touch and finesse to cross the t’s and dot the i’s, and that such qualities are at odds with the power game.
But regardless of contrary opinions, it remains a truth beyond question that Woods’ physical regimen is an integral part of his disciplined and obsessive pursuit of excellence, and with his dominance of the mens game arguably at its zenith, the only obvious conclusion to be made is that if you want to beat Tiger, you are going to have to match him with both word and deed.
We may never know if Tiger Woods is the most talented player to ever play the game, because he can be accused of absolutely maximising whatever innate ability he was blessed with. It is a claim that some of his peers will need to make if they are to ever seriously challenge him.
