Only a short list of pros have set foot in Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Island, Fla., manse, but they always come away with great stories. That is, as long as they choose to share those stories.
Rory McIlroy was there in March 2021, just over a month after Woods was in a near-fatal car accident. McIlroy later said he was in awe of Woods’ 15 major trophies, but he was more impressed by Woods’ response regarding the location of his other non-major hardware. (“I don’t know,” Woods told him, when McIlroy asked where all of his other trophies were. “My mom has some and a few are in the office and a few are wherever.”)
“I was driving home, and I was thinking [those major trophies] are all he cared about,” McIlroy said. “So how easy must that have felt for him to win all the others?”
There’s also this story from Justin Thomas, who has become one of Woods’ best pals on Tour. Thomas said the first time he went to Woods’ house, which was right before a Masters that Woods wasn’t going to play in due to injury, Tiger asked him to stop over and chip and putt in the backyard.
“And so he’s just teaching me so many shots around the greens, and holes I’m going to use them on [at Augusta] and how to hit different bunker shots and why I can’t do this and why I can’t do that,” Thomas said on GOLF’s Subpar Podcast in 2020. “And I was like, ‘Man, that was unbelievable.’ And then the next year, I’m like, ‘Hey, let me know if you want to do some short-game work this week, I’m around.’ He’s like, ‘I’m playing this year.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know? But let me know if you want to practice.’ He’s like, ‘I’ll see you in Augusta.'” [Laughs]
Which brings us to Patrick Cantlay, who spoke to the media on Wednesday at this week’s season-opening Sentry. In the wake of Scottie Scheffler winning PGA Tour Player of the Year honors over Jon Rahm, Cantlay was asked how he thinks Tour pros prioritize things like scoring average and top finishes and wins.
“Well, I think it comes down to the individual,” said Cantlay, before the ordinarily private pro decided to unveil a little extra. “I’ll tell you a story.”
A story? Count us in.
“I went over to Tiger’s house, I think to talk Ryder Cup after I had won Player of the Year [in 2021], and it felt like a big deal to me at the time that I had got a Player of the Year, and they give you this little Jack Nicklaus bronze trophy,” Cantlay said. “So we’re walking through Tiger’s house and we’re in the basement and he’s got like, 11 of ’em lined up right next to each other all in the corner of the basement — boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I go, ‘Hey, I’m catching up,’ and he looked at me and he goes, ‘You got a lot of work to do.'” [Laughs]
