Everywhere Tiger Woods went during the late 90s and early 2000s, people stopped, looked and were amazed at what he could do with a golf ball.
So much so that people thought Woods was using some sort of edge with his equipment, specifically to create the ridiculous distances and heights he could hit his irons. Woods was one of the first players who routinely pulled a 7-iron from 180 yard or farther.
But, with Woods playing iron lofts that were a club weaker than what was the standard of the era, there was no such cheat code, and his coach, Butch Harmon, devised a method of showing people just how impressive Woods really was.
On the latest episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, former Titleist Tour rep Larry Bobka joined co-host Johnny Wunder to talk about creating Woods’ 2000-era bag and revealed Harmon’s strategy.
“Butch called me one time and he said, ‘Hey, could you do me a favor? Could you build me a set of irons just like Tiger’s?” Bobka said. “I go, ‘Not for yourself. He goes, no, not for me.’ He goes, ‘But everybody thinks that Tiger’s lofts are strong and that there are these magical clubs.’ He goes, ‘So do me a favor, just build me a set of clubs because when I get some of my lessons and good players in here, you know, I want to have them hit them to show them.’”
It wasn’t long before Harmon called Bobka back with a result.
“He calls me up about, I don’t know, a week after I set up the clubs and he goes, ‘Larry, it’s the funniest thing in the world to watch, to watch these scratch handicaps hit Tigers’ 6-iron 138 or 140 yards. And the ball doesn’t go anywhere and they’re like, why doesn’t it go anywhere?
View Product
“‘And it’s like, because you’re not Tiger Woods.’”
Woods was able to create his distances through pure speed and keep the ball down, even with the high lofts through his delivery, despite not leaning the shaft much at impact.
Bobka dialed the lofts back to give him the control he needed at such high speeds. But when a mere mortal tried to hit the clubs, they would just go straight up in the air and carry nowhere.
To anyone who thought Woods was doing what he was doing through with any sort of “juiced lofts” or anything, they were quickly humbled.
