Just heard on the Dan Patrick show that Earl Woods passed this morning at 74. RIP Earl, you raised a hell of a son.
Earl Woods Passes at 74
- Thread starter jpblack34
- Start date
- Mar 19, 2006
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solid direction for Tiger from his parents from the day he was born...
Mr Woods was a smart as they come..RIP
Mr Woods was a smart as they come..RIP
The man behind Tiger
Former Green Beret trained his son well -- and then just let him be
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Bill Livingston
Plain Dealer Columnist
Earl Woods walked every hole with his son that day in 1995, which was the way it usually went with the former Green Beret and the golfing prodigy he had raised.
This was during the first round of the 1995 NCAA Championships at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State, which Tiger Woods desperately wanted to win because it was the old par-stomping grounds of his idol, rival and target, Jack Nicklaus.
Tiger was 19 then, cut lean as a flagstick. He wore shorts in the heat and carried his own bag.
His father was 63, but he looked like he could walk all day. The emphysema and heart problems that would arise from his smoking habit were in the future.
Near each green, Earl would stake out the high ground, if any, and jam his walking stick into the grass like an explorer claiming new land. Then, he would unfold the portable seat attached to it.
Tiger struggled that day, shooting a 1-over-par 73. He would not win the tournament. At one point, he bashed a wedge so hard against his bag that the shaft bent, and the head poked up at a weird angle, like Dizzy Gillespie's horn.
Earl simply sat there, mellow jazz playing in his wraparound headphones, a couple of drags on a cigarette the only indication of the stress he was feeling. "It's 90 minutes of nothing but music," he said, handing the headphones to a curious reporter.
"I learned a long time ago that the best possible hands are handling his game. I wish I could communicate that to other golf parents," he added.
It wasn't what you expected from the man who had trained Tiger. Everyone had heard the stories. How Earl would stand in front of the young Tiger and say: "I'm a tree," and the boy would have to flop-shot the ball over him. How Earl would jingle the change in his pocket to disrupt his son's concentration. How he would step into his son's line on the green. How anything went.
I watched him sitting there, stoically, while his son tried to work out what was wrong. Tiger would, of course, figure it out soon enough. A year later, Tiger turned pro. Two years later, he humbled the Masters and hugged his father on the 18th green after breaking the scoring record.
I thought that day of Marv Marinovich, who burned his son Todd out on football. Of Jim Pierce, who was banned from the women's tennis tour because of his physical and verbal abuse of his daughter Mary. And I realized the Woodses were different. Earl Woods was the rare sports dad who loved his son enough to let him go.
Former Green Beret trained his son well -- and then just let him be
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Bill Livingston
Plain Dealer Columnist
Earl Woods walked every hole with his son that day in 1995, which was the way it usually went with the former Green Beret and the golfing prodigy he had raised.
This was during the first round of the 1995 NCAA Championships at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State, which Tiger Woods desperately wanted to win because it was the old par-stomping grounds of his idol, rival and target, Jack Nicklaus.
Tiger was 19 then, cut lean as a flagstick. He wore shorts in the heat and carried his own bag.
His father was 63, but he looked like he could walk all day. The emphysema and heart problems that would arise from his smoking habit were in the future.
Near each green, Earl would stake out the high ground, if any, and jam his walking stick into the grass like an explorer claiming new land. Then, he would unfold the portable seat attached to it.
Tiger struggled that day, shooting a 1-over-par 73. He would not win the tournament. At one point, he bashed a wedge so hard against his bag that the shaft bent, and the head poked up at a weird angle, like Dizzy Gillespie's horn.
Earl simply sat there, mellow jazz playing in his wraparound headphones, a couple of drags on a cigarette the only indication of the stress he was feeling. "It's 90 minutes of nothing but music," he said, handing the headphones to a curious reporter.
"I learned a long time ago that the best possible hands are handling his game. I wish I could communicate that to other golf parents," he added.
It wasn't what you expected from the man who had trained Tiger. Everyone had heard the stories. How Earl would stand in front of the young Tiger and say: "I'm a tree," and the boy would have to flop-shot the ball over him. How Earl would jingle the change in his pocket to disrupt his son's concentration. How he would step into his son's line on the green. How anything went.
I watched him sitting there, stoically, while his son tried to work out what was wrong. Tiger would, of course, figure it out soon enough. A year later, Tiger turned pro. Two years later, he humbled the Masters and hugged his father on the 18th green after breaking the scoring record.
I thought that day of Marv Marinovich, who burned his son Todd out on football. Of Jim Pierce, who was banned from the women's tennis tour because of his physical and verbal abuse of his daughter Mary. And I realized the Woodses were different. Earl Woods was the rare sports dad who loved his son enough to let him go.
