Tiger Woods explains what makes a ‘good golf dad’

Now in Year 3 of the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie, Tiger Woods has noticed the trend: there might be more eyes on Charlie than him.

“Yeah, nothing wrong with that,” Tiger said on Friday in Orlando. “As long as the people are excited about coming out here and supporting us and supporting all the legends and the people who are in this event, it’s always special.”

As the son of a legend, there’s obvious interest regarding Charlie, his game and interactions with his father. On Friday they were filmed as Tiger broke down Charlie’s swing on a video he took with his phone. It’s something millions of golf dads have done themselves, and on Friday, Woods was asked to explain the difference between a good golf dad and a bad golf dad.

“Any parent in any sport I think is being supportive and being encouraging,” he said. “I have been fortunate enough that my father was into golf and understood sports. He played sports. So from that standpoint, understanding the verbiage and understanding the work ethic of what it takes to play sports at a high level. And then being a parent, you always want to be the protector and guider of them and teach them skills that they will need in life when you’re not around. And so that’s the most important thing about being a parent.”

Woods’ second half of that answer was more in a general life advice sort of way, but it also translates to the sports world. He mentioned it’s important to “teach them skills that they will need in life when you’re not around,” but also said something similar about Charlie’s golf swing on Friday.

He said Charlie’s biggest growth in the past year has come from identifying his own fixes on the fly when his dad isn’t around.

“I always tell him why we’re doing what we’re doing, so that he can retrace the steps,” Tiger said. “And when he gets a little off, now he knows what to go back to and understand that, ‘OK, if I hit that shot, it’s that pattern, this is the fix.’ And you’ve got to be able to do that when you playing tournament golf. You have to understand in tournament golf you’ve got to make a switch on the fly and trust it.”

Woods’ history with his own dad, Earl, is well-known. Earl was tough on Tiger and used training tactics that helped make him into the fierce competitor that won 15 majors. But Tiger’s also talked often about how his dad was his best friend and greatest mentor.

We even found out last year that Tiger used some of his dad’s tactics on Charlie.

Team Woods tees off at 12:02 p.m. ET on Saturday. The NBC broadcast begins at 2 p.m.