Tiger Woods, and 1 part of his history that he thinks you’ll be ‘amazed’ at 

Tiger Woods, in his first start after the Covid shutdown of 2020, was struggling. Then wasn’t. After a respectable 71 during the Memorial’s first round, he was six-over through 15 holes in round two, only to finish birdie, birdie, par, leading to a made cut — and a thought. 

Did he consider himself a grinder?

Really? Woods? The 15-time major winner? The 82-time PGA Tour winner? A scrapper? A ham-and-egger?  

“Always have,” Woods said.

And apparently still does. 

This week, as part of a curtain-raising for its plush, new multimedia digs, the PGA Tour released a video of Woods touring the campus, and most of it was Woods’ fan catnip. There were highlights and commentary about his win at the 2018 Tour Championship. There were highlights and commentary about his chip-in at the 2001 Players Championship. There were highlights and commentary about his fist pump. There were highlights and commentary about his 82 Tour wins.  

During the latter, though, Woods offered this:

— He felt he putted “really well” only twice in his career — at the 1997 Masters and at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He won both convincingly — the margin of victory at those events are tournament records. (He won by 12 at the Masters, and by 15 at the U.S. Open.) 

— He felt the “best” he ever hit it in his career was at the 2000 Open Championship at St. Andrews, where Woods won by eight. “I felt like I had the ball on a string and I could do anything that I wanted to,” Woods said on the video. 

— He felt at most of his events, he “didn’t really have it.” 

Really? Woods? The 15-time major winner? The 82-time PGA Tour winner?

Here’s the full quote:

“People are probably amazed to hear this, but most of my events, I didn’t really have it. Those are the ones that I won by a lot, but most of them are just hanging in there and not making a double, making a key par save. 

“And that was most of the events that I’d won, is in order to win the tournament you have to get to the weekend, you have to first make the cut, and that’s one of the things I was very proud of in my cut streak is that I gave myself an opportunity to make a run on the weekend. Torrey [Pines] one year, I made the cut on the number, and I came out and shot 62, 65 on the weekend to win. But that doesn’t happen unless I make the cut. So first things first, I made a lot of cuts in my career, which allowed me to then go on to have opportunities on the weekend to win.”

Amazed? Maybe. 

The takeaway may be, though. It’s understandable, too.  

Keep grinding. For the high-handicappers, turn the 99 into a 98. For the scratch gang, dig out a closing par. The moments of having “it” are just fleeting, and it’s honestly why we play. To get ourselves to that point.  

Woods knows this well. Think of his play at the 2020 Masters, in his last title defense. During the final round, he took a ghastly 10 at the par-3 12, then finished this way: birdie, par, birdie, birdie, birdie and birdie. 

To finish things here, we’ll give Woods’ definition of grinder, which he also offered at the 2020 Memorial. 

“I think that anyone who fights all day,” he said. “I think that’s the guys that have typically been grinders, guys that don’t ever want to make bogeys.”