Original subtitles

A presentation of HBO SPORTS.

1996 HASKINS COLLEGIATE AWARD BANQUET

Please forgive me,

but sometimes I get very emotional

when I talk about my son.

Daddy! Daddy!

There it is.

My heart fills with so much joy

when I realize

that this young man is going to help so many people.

He will transcend this game

and bring to the world a humanitarianism

which has never been known before.

The world will be a better place to live in

by virtue of his existence and his presence.

This is my treasure.

Please accept it

and use it wisely.

TIGER

Right now, I'd like you to meet Tiger Woods and his father, Earl Woods.

Tiger? Come here a minute.

Would you like to enter into a little competition with Mr. Hope?

Tiger? First can I see you swing?

Maybe we'll try the driver first.

Set up. Hit that ball.

Perfect.

Earl, how old is... How old are you, Tiger?

- Daddy. - Two. He's two.

When did he start with a golf club?

Remember the first time he picked one up?

- Three months. - Does he really love golf?

- Do you ever take him out? - Oh, loves it. He loves it.

How 'bout a putting contest with Mr. Hope? Can he putt, too?

Oh, yes.

Okay, we'll let him putt first. He knows.

- Rap it right in there. - Tap it right in there.

When Tiger came out with that bag of clubs,

a lot of people from a lot of corners

saw the potential of greatness.

And I think his father, Earl, was one of them.

He told me he knew from the very start

that Tiger was going to be a legend.

And Earl would say, "Let the legend grow."

When Tiger was less than ten months old,

I brought him in the garage,

put him in a highchair, strapped him in,

and he'd watch me hit balls into a golf net.

He was totally immersed in that activity.

So much so that he had to be fed in there.

'Cause when my wife tried to take him out of the highchair to feed him,

no way. No. He said, "Mhm."

So she would have to feed him between shots.

And he'd go like this...

Between shots. And it was beautiful to see.

But the level of concentration

at that age was off the chart.

At ten months, I unstrapped him out of his highchair one day

and he walked over, set up, and hit the ball.

I said, "Oh my God, I've got something special."

Good shot.

Earl would take him to the golf course

and started working with him on putting.

He worked from the green back.

That was the secret to how Earl instructed Tiger.

And his mother, Tida, she was just as instrumental as Earl was.

Normally the mother take the kids to the park, but I didn't.

I take Tiger to the golf course.

I had a stroller, the bottle,

so I let him hit the ball a little bit.

And when he get tired, I give him the bottle,

I put in the stroller, he go sleep.

- Too hard. - Too hard, you're right.

Tiger's vocabulary was not that advanced, as you might imagine.

And when teaching him how to navigate a golf course,

Earl had to dumb it down.

He had to talk at the level of a one- or two-year-old.

So when they came upon a water hazard,

Tiger would say, "Wawa daddy, Wawa."

And Earl would say, "Wawa, son. Wawa. Wawa bad."

His name is Eldrick Tiger Woods.

Tiger is only two and a half years old,

and since he was eight months, he's been playing golf.

Do you like playing golf? Yes or no?

Is it a lot of fun?

Yes or no?

Tiger. Tiger, my career is in your hands right now.

Will you please help me? Do you like playing golf? Yes or no?

I want to go poo-poo.

We can't dictate to him what he can be and what he cannot be.

So as a consequence,

what we do is we participate with him in golf,

and if it was bowling, we would participate with him in bowling.

Each and every one of us has our own life to live

and he has a choice to live his life the way he wants to live his life.

Earl would claim that he would have been just as happy

had Tiger have been a tuba player,

or guitarist or, you know, anything other than a golfer.

But trust me, Earl was a well-versed bullshitter.

Par, par, par.

Okay. You gonna make a par on the last hole?

Okay, alright, let's go do it.

I think Earl had the master plan since Tiger started walking.

Tiger had a small stammer and he didn't speak with you

until he felt comfortable around the person

and then he would talk freely.

One day, Tiger opened up and he asked me

to ask his dad if he could play some other sports besides just golfing.

And I told him I would.

None of the teachers were happy to see Earl coming in

for a conference or for anything at all.

They said he was a pain in the ass.

That's what they said, and I agreed with them.

He was a definite SOB.

So I didn't want to say anything to aggravate Earl,

but I did say that I thought it would be nice

if Tiger could play other sports.

But Mr. Woods said he had to concentrate on his golf.

I know what I'm looking at and I know what I feel.

The talent is there to be the best in the history of golf.

The world is ready

for a non-white golfer to be successful.

I have availed Tiger of this,

and he takes that responsibility seriously.

Tiger, first thing I gotta ask you,

golf's quite often seen as an upper class white game.

Do you feel in some ways that you can help change that if you became

like the next Jack Nicklaus.

Since I'm black, it might be even bigger than Jack Nicklaus.

I might be even bigger than him, to the blacks.

I may be sort of like a Michael Jordan in basketball. Something like that.

1994 U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

How about Tiger Woods?

Brent, on paper, Tiger Woods looks like the prohibitive favorite in his match.

Alright Steve, and of course, as everyone knows,

if Tiger Woods can win it,

he would become the youngest Amateur Champion in history.

Breaking both age and color barriers,

Tiger Woods won the U.S. Amateur Championship.

In sports, we report tonight on a new face to watch on the golf tour.

Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods extended his streak today.

The nineteen-year-old phenom successfully defended his crown.

1995 U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

What an impressive shot.

Best teenage golfer in the history of this game.

Certainly well-deserved hoopla

as Tiger Woods goes for his third straight,

which has never been done before.

He misses this putt, he's got his work cut out for him.

- Looks good. - Great speed. It's in!

Are you serious?

Tiger was a cultural phenomenon as well as a sports one.

Golf is basically a bastion of caucasian America.

And Tiger was walking into this white world and just dominating it.

The magazine editors at SI wanted me

to start peeling the layers away and seeing what's going on here.

As the army of Tiger continues to follow him in the fairways,

there's been a lot of speculation as to when Tiger will turn pro.

Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike, has been in the gallery every single day.

And a lot of other potential suitors, as well.

Just seeing all the forces that were at play here,

I felt that the pressures were already starting to multiply exponentially

and Tiger was a kid that was in deep.

It's been awfully hard with the enormous crowds and demands,

but I've done a very good job I think and hopefully I'll continue.

Tiger answered my questions,

but wanted to give off that he was in control

and everything was cool.

You always felt you weren't getting all the way to the bottom of it.

Now this is nail-biting time for the Woods contingent.

Good looking shot.

Great shot by Tiger Woods.

If I'd just been reliant on Tiger at that point,

I would have been in deep scramble mode.

But Tiger's father, Earl, he loved to drink,

he loved to talk, and he just starts saying

that his son's gonna have this grand effect

on the level of Gandhi, Buddha, Nelson Mandela,

you know, basically the Chosen One.

I know that I was personally selected by God himself

to nurture this young man and bring him to the point

where he could make his contribution to humanity.

He was adamant.

Tiger was gonna be this incredible bridge

between all the different races and tribes of humanity.

And I'm just kind of sitting there like, "Holy crap."

This for the championship.

I had a real sense that there was this looming question.

In order to become what his father's vision for him was,

to have this large an effect on our planet and our species,

this boy had to walk into the maw of this machine of celebrity and fame.

And could he survive that?

Gentleman, congratulations on a well-played final.

Tiger, a place in golf history.

What does this do as to your feelings

as to whether you will turn pro or stay in school?

I really don't know right now.

I just know one thing, I'm gonna celebrate like hell tonight.

In sports today, the inevitable.

The most talented amateur player in the history of golf

has decided to turn pro.

Tiger Woods is quitting college to take his game

and his considerable appeal on the professional tour

and to accept a multi-million dollar endorsement from Nike.

In one short week, Woods reinvented the business side of golf.

He will rewrite the record books for sports marketing.

When Tiger came to us at Nike,

everyone at the campus was talking about who's the next Michael Jordan?

That was always the Nike question.

And then lo and behold, Tiger Woods comes along

and he kinda was the next Michael Jordan.

One of the first things we do with a Nike athlete

is get them media trained.

But when we told Earl about the media training program,

he said, "I've already trained him how to talk to the media.

We don't need this."

I think Earl was objecting because someone else besides him

was gonna talk to Tiger about how to be Tiger.

Earl thought Tiger was his creation.

So Earl was a little nervous that he's gonna lose some control.

I think Earl just didn't realize the magnitude

that Nike advertising can bring.

When you make a commercial,

you want to find what makes that product unique.

Golf was very lily white and there was some discussion

I brought it up and said, "Do we want to play the race card?"

Nike's not stupid financially.

Using Tiger to reach a wider range of golfer

and expand the golf universe is a no-brainer.

They said, "Fucking yeah. Let's do this."

Hello world.

There are still courses in the U.S. I am not allowed to play

because of the color of my skin.

Hello world.

I've heard I'm not ready for you.

Are you ready for me?

Now this is the first time we can remember

when a company like Nike used racial discord to help sell its products,

used it as a way to give a tough new edge

to a very nice young man.

I think it's a message that has been long awaited.

Because it's very true.

And being a person who is...

I guess how you could say non-white, I've had to experience that,

and the Nike campaign is just telling the truth.

The fact that Nike is marketing him as a black player

tells you that Tiger Woods is the great black hope for golf.

When this thing happened, I said, "Well this is wonderful for golf,

but I wonder how great this is for just a 21-year-old kid."

The bar is now way up here.

After that ad ran,

I felt like, did we put too much pressure on this young man?

But then I thought to myself,

"This kid is built for pressure."

1997 MASTERS TOURNAMENT AUGUSTA NATIONAL GOLF CLUB

This is an African American playing in Augusta.

This is still a place that for all its glory of golf,

harbors a nice little corner of prejudice

and an ugly side of America.

I mean, yeah. When you look at the history of the Masters,

I mean, you know, it's built on a slave plantation.

And he's going to blow that up today.

Record throngs showed up to see golf's legend in the making.

For decades, advertisers and fans have longed for an American hero.

The question is whether anyone, no matter how talented,

can live up to such expectations.

The number one attention from the media was Tiger.

They would call it buzz around him,

but it was way bigger than buzz.

It wasn't just like, "There's a rumor in the parking lot,

there's a new kid in town." It was full out, full on.

Can Tiger Woods win the Masters? He's paired with Nick Faldo.

Faldo and Woods are favorites.

Make a hole please, gentlemen, young ladies.

When Tiger came out that morning, he had security guys around him.

There was a genuine aura shift.

The patrons, all their attention went to him.

The players sensed it. All their attention, like, here comes Tiger.

Everybody wanted to know, can Tiger do it?

Fore, please. Tiger Woods now driving.

Wait a minute, what happened?

Wow, that is as far left as we've seen anybody hit it.

The look on Tiger's face tells all.

I played with him that day.

We tee off and we didn't play well at all.

He's over in left trees, I'm in right trees, whatever it was.

We were in deep shit.

- Left again. - Woods struggling.

Everybody's gonna choke.

When you play nine holes like that, and you're kind of out of control,

you lose that confidence and it's a very fast snowball effect.

But the best golfers in the world have the ability to forget things quickly.

You've got to go, "Okay yeah,

I've now got to learn to play in this different environment."

All the pressures, all the media attention disappear.

You are completely engrossed in what you're doing.

That's what Tiger was able to do.

Kinda likes it.

And he introduces his ball to the flag.

That's the finest shot we've seen here today.

That's the momentum, you need one good break.

Eagle three for Tiger Woods.

That was the moment. He turned things around.

Kenny, let the record show that a little after 5:30, Friday April 11th,

Tiger takes the lead for the first time ever at the Masters.

And then we didn't see him for dust for the next twelve years.

That was it.

Tiger Woods has just been brilliant today.

Woods walloping the field in the third round of the Masters.

A nine shot lead.

This is a culmination of a lot of hard work,

years and years of training, dreams.

And it's now turned into reality.

Going in the final round,

it was a foregone conclusion that Tiger was gonna win.

However, the night before the final round,

Tiger was restless. Couldn't sleep.

During the '97 Masters,

I know that Tiger received some racially-motivated threats.

And during the tournament itself,

he would hear the n-word from some of the folks in the gallery.

And as strong as he is mentally,

he wasn't able to block all of it out.

So he got up, he saw a light under the door in Earl's bedroom.

And he knocked on the door and went in and Earl eased all of his fears.

My dad says, "Hey, son, when you go out there,

it's gonna be the hardest round of your life.

But if you just be yourself, stay cool,

it's gonna be one of the most rewarding rounds."

I don't know how many strokes Woods is gonna shatter this record by,

but it's apparent he's set a new standard for golf.

Right now with 12-shot lead, he's taking everybody else out of play.

You know, walking up eighteen, I had a little tear in my eye.

It was something you always dream of.

I knew that I'd won the tournament,

but still, I still had to take care of business.

This putt to break the all-time record at the Masters.

That incredible 12-shot margin.

There it is. A win for the ages.

We made it. We made it.

Other people now know what I knew all along.

They were just too stubborn to see it.

He is just getting aware that he has this power.

When he is in full control of this power,

he can then make a difference in the world.

Look at this. This is the Daily News in New York.

If this is not a big story, "Tiger Woods' Awesome 18 Performance,"

This is the New York Post. This is USA Today.

- This is the Washington Post. - Little bit of attention.

Tigermania takes the boardwalk here in Atlantic City tonight

as the 21-year-old golf phenom eclipses other stars

who turned out here for the grand opening of the Official All-Star Cafe.

Tiger Woods receiving a standing ovation

from this crowd here in Chicago.

He's been referred to as Michael Jordan in long pants.

After the win, it seemed like the entire world embraced Tiger.

Unharnessed enthusiasm for the young legend.

I'm talking about white folks, black folks,

Asian folks, you name it. Everybody wanted him to be theirs.

Hey, Tiger.

The reaction to him said something about this country,

often accused still of a pervasive racism.

America was thrilled by and for Tiger Woods.

Glad that such a young man could reach such heights.

Gladder still if anything, that a black man could.

It was like white America almost patting itself on the back.

Like look, this is the promise that America makes.

That anyone can use the tools that this country offers

and make it to the highest levels, regardless of race, color, creed.

Go get 'em, Tiger.

We like to believe that we're this place without racism,

but that's a great American myth.

He has an amazing opportunity now, beyond the golf course.

He does have a great opportunity. He's got a great burden also.

I think the expectations were enormous for him going into this thing.

They're double that now.

The social burden will be considerable.

This is a guy who a lot will be expected of.

He'll be asked to be a spokesman,

and maybe that's unfair for somebody who's 21.

A lot is asked of athletes of color that is not asked of other athletes.

It's a racial society.

It's not just how you play basketball or how you play baseball,

how you play tennis, how you play golf.

People thought that Tiger was gonna introduce this groundswell.

Tiger Woods? Oh, the golf man? I think he's kinda cool.

I think it's great, I think it's history.

He's gonna be a role model for anyone that wants to do good in life.

As an African American, I know how we are.

We take great pride in our young people

who accomplish great things.

And we claimed Tiger Woods. He was ours.

Please welcome Tiger Woods.

- That'll wake you up. - That will.

Of course you've received all kinds of adulation.

You also get hate mail. I hear you insist upon reading it. Why?

It reminds me of what I have to try and do.

As people know, golf has been a kind of elitist sport,

and unfortunately, it's kinda closed its doors...

Wasn't it just six years ago

that Augusta National even allowed people of color?

A black member? Yeah.

Many of the clubs still practice that,

and unfortunately, I've had to deal with that all growing up.

I got kicked off of golf courses numerous times,

been called some pretty tough words to my face.

And it's tough. Golf needed to be shaken up.

You're right about that.

Can we get this straight? What do you call yourself?

Your father's half black, quarter Chinese, quarter American Indian,

mother is half Thai, quarter Chinese, and quarter white.

So does it bother you to be called African American?

Yeah it does. Growing up, I came up with this name.

- I'm a Cablinasian. - A Cablinasian?

Ca - caucasian, bl - black, in - Indian, Asian. Cablinasian.

I remember when Tiger Woods was black.

You see, you don't know what he is now.

After he won the Masters, I'm flipping through the Sports Illustrated

and I read, "Tiger Woods is a quarter black."

I'm like, "Damn! He's down 25% now, man."

But you know, as soon as he gets in trouble, what will we read?

"Black Golfer Arrested."

TIGER WOODS DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS 'CABLINASIAN'

People of color had so much invested in him.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

My grandkids are bi-racial.

And somebody asked me, they said,

"What do you tell them?"

And I tell them they're black. They're African-American.

They said, "Why?" And I said,

"Because that's how America is gonna look at them."

And that's the reality of Tiger.

To force Tiger to choose I think is ridiculous.

Why choose? Why do you have to choose?

All of that is very much true, but you go back,

and Tiger Woods will sit there and tell you

that there were courses that he couldn't play

as he was coming up as a youngster.

It wasn't that he couldn't play

because he was Cablinasian or whatever else he wants to be.

He couldn't play because he was a black man.

I believe Tiger knew that there was racism.

He knew that there was an unlevel playing field,

but was he going to be a messiah? No way.

Your dad thinks that you're going to be the most important man

that ever lived, more so than Gandhi and Jesus.

I think that's just a dad speaking, a proud father.

Tiger never really saw himself as the unifying force that Earl saw him as.

That was Earl's dream.

And I don't think he realized the pressure that he had placed on Tiger.

I hope you got some ripe ones. Don't eat 'em all up, Tiger.

- You took the biggest one. - Yes, I want the biggest one.

There is no question that Earl loved, loved Tiger.

But I think there was always a grand plan for Tiger.

There's nothing better than stolen strawberries.

In Earl's head, he really thought it was the best thing for Tiger.

That he wasn't doing anything to hurt him. But it was a plan.

And that was the stuff that would bother me.

Why would you put that on your kid?

Tiger and I met in my accounting class.

Tiger was very shy. He didn't have friends.

He had the highest grade in the class,

so it kind of became this competition

and I think I was teasing him a little bit about it.

And that's kind of how it started.

Just as friends.

You know, growing up, the boys were so typical.

The football players were the cool kids.

But Tiger said that he golfed.

And I was like, "Oh, okay."

I didn't even know we had a golfing team at the school.

The first time that I understood the magnitude of who he was

was when I went to his house

and saw the shrine on the wall of him

with all the trophies and pictures and magazine clippings.

This was like a whole 'nother level of "Hello, welcome to my home,

and it's all about Tiger Woods." Like it was just a lot.

On the tee, Tiger Woods.

He had invited me to go to a tournament.

That was the first time I saw him play golf.

He became like a completely different person when he got up there.

He was like in control and confident.

And I loved that about him.

It was a quality that I thought was very attractive. I loved it.

I just remember the people surrounding him.

People were asking for his autograph.

I'm like, "Who would want your autograph?

What are you talking about?"

- Here you go. - Shake his hand. Thank you.

Thank you.

He knew that the fame was not normal. He always knew that.

I think he definitely saw the bridge

to me being able to give him a normal life.

DINA'S HOME VIDEOS

Tiger enjoyed going to my house because it was always loud

and I think the quietness of his house sometimes drove him crazy.

He knew that he could be himself and there was no judgement

and no pressure to live up to all these expectations.

Dina, let's see some leg, baby. Some leg.

Okay, Tiger, some leg.

I loved taking him to do new things.

Going to see, you know, a movie,

going bowling for the first time.

Seeing his face. It's like seeing a kid at Christmas.

I don't know, it just was so natural with us.

I was in love with him.

And I would tell him all the time, "Golf is great and it's your passion,

but it's not everything. There's more to life."

I wanted to protect that sweetness of him.

Because I could tell he didn't know what was coming.

That fame, it scared me.

Listen to the crowd.

Tiger's got 152 yards.

They're gonna go nuts when he hits this thing.

It went in.

It looks like a ticker tape parade.

Every time he went to play,

the gallery was a completely different scene compared to what I was used to.

His autograph became so wanted that people were desperate to get it.

People were pushing and shoving,

and he would come away many days with a golf shirt

that had all the different Sharpie marks on it.

When you get to know Tiger

and you're a little bit closer to him than most people,

when you understand what it is to be Tiger Woods,

what it is to be in his shoes, to go through what he does,

I think you can't but admire the guy.

And you feel like you want to protect the guy a little bit.

So working for Tiger was certainly more than just being a caddie.

You've also got to be a bodyguard.

Folks, can you hold the camera please?

A New York Daily News photographer said that Steve came over

and kicked his camera after he was taking pictures

during Tiger's practice swing.

Genius, Tiger.

Obviously throughout my time caddying for Tiger,

I did a couple things that I regret.

But, you just gotta try and make it as easy as it can be

for Tiger to perform at the level he wants to

without all the distractions.

Life is always full of goals. What's yours?

Mine? Ultimately? To be the best.

You want to be known as the best to ever play this game?

Yeah, exactly.

Tiger's main focus was to win major championships.

He always believed he could get better and he could strive for perfection.

I remember we were driving down this freeway and he goes,

"Stevie, stop the car. Stop the car."

And he got the golf club out of the trunk

and he's swinging on the side of the road.

Now here's Tiger Woods on the side of the freeway in Toronto,

swinging a golf club.

He's got this thought in his head, "If I can just do this."

And he couldn't wait 'til the next day

or 'til he got back to the hotel or wherever it was, it had to be now.

There is no one would do that. Just nobody.

I remember I said to Tiger,

"How much better can your swing actually get?

This is probably as good as anyone's ever played golf."

And he looks at me and he says, "You always ask me that question.

I'm gonna be way better than I am now."

You took a lot of criticism for changing your golf swing.

You can always become better.

It's almost like it's an obsession.

It is. I'm addicted. I'm addicted to golf.

Tiger, back then at least, was obsessed.

He was always practicing.

A lot of the changes, he had to get stronger to make them.

What are you, about 20 pounds heavier now

than what you were when you first came on the Tour?

Yeah. I came on the Tour at 158, now I'm 180.

And then the gym took over.

And the key here is just to keep the right arm higher than the left.

You can see the chin gets up, the back is much straighter.

And it's taken him over a year to feel comfortable with that,

hitting thousands of balls.

The fascinating thing for me about Tiger Woods,

he's never satisfied.

The hunger never goes away.

It's this monk-like pursuit of the goal.

The common goal.

Perfection.

The U.S. Open. Pebble Beach. It has a very very special ring to it,

and here we are to decide the championship.

It's a very interesting course in that it tests every single skill you have.

Now, Colin Montgomery.

He has hit it very high, but it needs to get up and a little left.

Oh, that ball is down in the hazard.

Tried to get a little too cute I think, Mark.

U.S. Open likes to set its courses up so it tortures the players.

I'm convinced of that. It wants to see 'em like break down and cry.

That means heavy rough.

The grass is high on either side of the fairway.

Out of bounds everywhere.

That's a miss. That's left. That's left.

On the cart path. Watch this thing go.

I mean, that was a really hard golf course.

Tiger Woods well back, getting ready for his shot.

One of the more gut-wrenching shots in the world.

None of that bothered Tiger.

Be the right club, baby. Be the right club. Come on.

The ball started at the left side.

It's cutting into the center of the green. This looks really good.

Oh, my goodness.

Is this really happening? Double digits.

2000 at Pebble Beach is where it all came together

and Tiger Woods played, quite simply, the greatest golf of all time.

You just couldn't take your eyes off of him.

There was this element that Tiger brought between the ropes

that no golfer had.

He was wearing a shirt the color of blood.

He was so hyper masculine.

He strutted around like a toreador. It was riveting.

Look at that bicep on his left arm.

This guy bench presses three hundred plus pounds.

I guess that means this one's really going far.

That is really deep. Just a driving machine.

As he was coming down to the last hole, he was leading by fifteen.

It was absolutely incredible. And I remember sitting there,

thinking to myself, one day the golfing record book will be two words

in every category: Tiger Woods.

And Tiger Woods is the 100th U.S. Open champion in history.

You have long been a student of this game.

Your dad taught you the game of golf.

Today, of course, is Father's Day.

Your dad's not here, but I'm gonna make a wild guess

and say that I'll bet you he's watching.

Any thoughts you'd like to share with him today?

It's not too bad a Father's Day present, is it?

Earl was a Green Beret.

Did two tours in 'Nam.

Earl was demolition.

So they would send him behind enemy lines,

not with a gun, but with C-4, dynamite.

Like the most dangerous job you could possibly have

is to go behind enemy lines and blow up a headquarters.

He had the mental fortitude that it took to survive in Vietnam

and that's how and why he was able to create

this little assassin within the ropes.

And he did it at the Navy Golf Course,

the Bethlehem of golf.

The Navy Golf Course was only open and available

to active duty and retired military.

When I first started there,

I was the new, young assistant pro. I was the new guy.

No one was giving me the time of day.

Along comes Earl Woods, introduces himself, shakes my hand.

Nicest guy in the world.

I'm like finally somebody's being friendly to me in this joint.

Well, we hit it off.

Earl invited me to play with him and Tiger.

Mind you, I still don't know who Tiger is,

I think he's Earl's kid, so I'm kind of checking him out while we play.

Whenever Tiger would go to hit, Earl would start jiggling his change

and talking to me like I'm talking right now, loud,

just being completely rude.

That didn't work.

Finally, like on the sixth hole, I shush Earl. I shush him.

And Earl's like, "Joe, don't you know what I'm doing?"

He goes, "I'm preparing Tiger

to play through distraction when he gets to the Tour."

Where's my fade?

Sit down. Sit. Stop. Stop.

I brought this out in him. His toughness.

I would do all kinds of things to mess him up,

usually on the golf course.

Man, did he get angry with me.

Step over, that's it.

He could say one word, and that one word was the release word,

that the whole training was over.

I said, "Tiger, if you never utter that word,

I promise you that you will never meet

another person as mentally tough as you."

He played mind games on me almost every shot I hit

until I grew up and accepted it and then it was nothing.

Earl did everything he could to toughen his boy up.

One of the things that really made Tiger incredibly strong

was this ability that he had, taught to him by his father's friend

who was a naval psychological ops operative basically, a psychologist,

to hypnotize himself.

People say, "Oh, Tiger's in the zone."

But he literally was in some sort of a trance,

which is an amazing thing that you would do for a kid that was 13 or 14.

Good try, Dad.

That military training that Earl passed along to Tiger,

it was something else.

But his mother, she's the one who made him a complete competitor

because her philosophy was,

"Put your foot on their throat, son.

You kill them."

I am very tough with him and he knows it.

Not with dad. Dad only use the voice and tone.

But I say to Tiger, "No matter how big you are,

I can beat you, I can spank you."

And he knows what I mean.

She was very strict.

She said if I ever crossed the boundaries that she set,

there were always consequences.

Earl and Tida, they had this image of who he was supposed to be.

And I think that they were worried about me.

'Cause I certainly didn't fit into that.

I felt like their plans were creating this robot.

There was all this preparation for golf, which is great.

You're gonna be a great golfer. But he had no life skills.

He had not been prepared for life.

And I was probably the only person around him

that really kept him in check.

Merry Christmas, Tiger.

Merry Christmas!

I would tell him, "You are gonna want to get married and have kids

and golf is not gonna be the most important thing.

I mean, you're gonna have to find that balance."

He would say, "I'm in love with you. I want that.

I just want to have a life with you."

Earl and Tida, they were very nervous about that.

One time, Tiger lied to them

in saying that he was coming home from college the next day

when he had actually arrived the day before

and stayed at his girlfriend's house.

Tida and Earl, they were furious.

Tiger called me, he was so upset.

He called me, like "Joe, I am in a lot of trouble, you know."

And he told me what had happened.

I said, "Well I'll go over there, you know, I'll help you out, Champ.

I got your back on this."

'Cause I was very close to Earl and Tida at the time.

I go over there and I was shocked.

Tida was goddamning a lot. Very loud tone of voice. "Goddamn it."

And Earl was just incensed and you could just hear it in his voice.

"We don't need this. She's gonna get pregnant.

You're gonna blow... He's gonna blow the whole goddamn thing."

And they're ready to just kick him out of the house.

They were so mad.

And Tiger, you know, he was spooked. He was spooked.

"Dina, the reason for writing this letter is to inform you

my parents and myself never want to talk or hear from you again.

"Reflecting back over this relationship,

I feel used and manipulated by you and your family.

I hope the rest of your life runs well for you.

I know this is sudden and a surprise,

but it is, in my opinion, much warranted.

Sincerely, Tiger."

Yeah, it was awful.

I mean, we'd been in this three year relationship.

And, you know, I thought about, "Should I drive over there?"

I just wanted to confront him.

I just wanted him to look me in the face and tell me this.

If it's the truth, then we're good.

Then our relationship was a whole lie. That's fine.

But I wanna hear it from you.

I replay that day in my head over and over again.

What happened? What really triggered all this?

But, you know, I have to... It has to be that it was just the plan.

It was like a death and I had to treat it like a death

because I had to just let it go and pretend like he was gone.

Because honestly, the person that I fell in love with,

the Tiger that I had known, had died.

That part of him, the part of his soul

that I knew would never treat me that way.

His sweetness was stolen from him.

The new Tiger was here.

And he was all about golf.

In almost complete darkness.

It is very hard to even see the flight of any ball into the 18th green.

Now Tiger.

This one appears to be on the line, I think.

Oh no. You can't... You can't do that!

- I don't believe it. - Believe it.

What Tiger does with a golf club is stunning.

It's frightening how good he is.

Johnny, I have seen a number of players putt

from the back part of this green, and the results have not been good.

That's better than most.

How about in?

That is better than most. Better than most.

I don't think that people had ever seen anybody like Tiger before.

Tiger's about to give this quite a big lash.

His swing was so violent and he had such a torque in his back,

I thought it was just gonna snap like a twig.

Heaves it on.

That was not just technique. That's all about strength.

I've never seen anybody have so much fun

crushing a golf ball, and just obliterating his opponents.

Tiger in trouble at the 17th.

When Tiger played golf,

there was a hunger to see him do something

that you've never seen before.

Would you believe it?

People invested themselves in him as a figure.

as something representing

what they wanted to believe was good in themselves.

It became this hold he had on people's sacred imagination.

Earl Woods was the original evangelist

of the Gospel of Tiger Woods.

He put it out into the world

and found all these other evangelists who were willing to spread it.

You're the man, Tiger.

Among the fans,

there was just an overwhelming urge to come see this guy.

People's enthusiasm grew until it became this monster.

And Tiger knew he couldn't stop it.

- Tiger, please! - Step back! Stay back!

I think there's fame and then there's mania.

Help, Tiger, I'm squished.

Being out in public with Tiger was absolutely insane.

It was just the most intense, screaming, crying,

jumping up and down, almost hyperventilating reaction to him.

Take it easy. Take it easy.

My uncle was also a professional golfer, so I knew that world.

But this was different. This was next-level.

As a friend, I know that he wanted to be a normal kid in many ways,

and that inside, there's a person who is a little confused

by this crazy world he's been thrust into.

I guess there's one thing that I really do miss,

is a sense of privacy.

People are usually trying to invade my privacy

and sometimes that's tough.

The machine of fame starts to just wallop Tiger.

Earl sees this piling up on his son and tries to break the tension.

And Tiger says, "You don't know what this is like."

And Earl tries to sympathize with him,

like saying, "You're right. It must be terrible."

And Tiger just bites his head off.

You're getting a sense of the pressures

that were gonna start coming on Tiger and Earl.

The father son relationship that had been so tight.

Okay. We're rolling, fellas.

Even though Earl taught him the mental toughness to tackle the game of golf,

I'm not sure that Tiger was mentally tough enough

to handle the pressures of fame.

And he started looking for ways to sort of escape.

I remember when he started taking an intense liking to scuba diving.

That to me just kind of was odd.

But then when I started asking him more about scuba diving,

I think he said to me, "The fishies don't know who I am down there."

I thought that there was so much truth in that statement,

so much sadness in that statement.

He loved the silence and the peace

that he could find at the bottom of the ocean.

He could just be.

JULY 2000

THE BRITISH OPEN ST. ANDREWS LINKS, U.K.

Quite extraordinary, the atmosphere,

knowing that he's going to win.

It's as if they're just waiting for the king to be crowned.

For Tiger Woods, surely, nothing can go wrong now.

Now please go in. We don't want any anticlimax.

Oh, well done.

Tiger's form was unmatched to me at that time.

His win at the U.S. Open was still just in the mirror behind us

and then he went on and backed it up at the British Open.

A remarkable back to back wins in major championships.

The champion golfer for the year, Tiger Woods.

One of the most unusual things about working for Tiger,

there was never really any big celebrations.

As soon as that tournament was over,

the thought was to the next major championship.

AUGUST 2000

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP VALHALLA GOLF CLUB, KY

This to win now for Tiger.

Get in the hole.

When Tiger wins the PGA Championship, that's three in a row.

Everybody starts asking,

"Can Tiger Woods win the Masters next year, and hold all four trophies?"

Will he be the first ever to win

four consecutive major championships?

Tiger's going for his fourth straight major.

Even the unbreakable records seem to be within Tiger's reach.

I got to the point where I got sick of hearing it.

Sick of reading about it. It just dominated golf for that period of time.

And... Yeah.

If Tiger Woods wins this tournament,

it'll be the greatest achievement in modern day golf.

2001 MASTERS TOURNAMENT AUGUSTA NATIONAL GOLF CLUB, GA

The first couple of rounds, Tiger played remarkable.

And when he arrived for the final round,

it all came down to him and one other player.

The guy that he wants to beat the most.

And the guy that he would least like to see win the tournament.

His good mate, Phil.

Tiger had grown up in Phil's shadow in southern California.

Mickelson was about six-and-a half years older.

And he had all the southern California records.

Good afternoon to you.

Fill this card and same rule. Good luck to you.

- Good luck, man. - Thanks.

Tiger knew that Phil was the most naturally gifted player

ever to hold a golf club.

Get him, Phil.

But Tiger looked at him with disdain

because he couldn't fathom having that much ability

and not putting in the time to be great.

Phil had about twenty extra pounds

and Tiger was looking more and more like Mr. Universe.

And with Tida Woods, it was personal.

Tida loved to make fun of Mickelson's body.

Phil's nickname is Lefty, but Tida called him Hefty.

So Tiger's in this situation where to prove his alpha dog superiority,

he's gotta beat this guy.

But it's not just enough to beat Phil.

Beautiful.

You gotta try to humiliate him at the same time.

Now, on the tee, Phil Mickelson.

Did he cut it enough? Oh yes he did.

He has been very good with his tee shots here at thirteen all week.

On the thirteenth hole, Tiger and Phil are dueling.

And Phil got up and hit this great drive right down the middle.

Now, Tiger Woods.

Tiger decided that was gonna be the perfect time

to play a little bit of a mind game on Phil.

He gets his 3-wood, which is a smaller club.

That's huge. That's really big.

You thought Mickelson was big? Put it right by it.

I could sort of sense that Mickelson was feeling a bit dejected.

He's just hit the best drive he could.

And then Tiger's hit a 3-wood and whipped it by him.

And Phil says to Tiger,

"Do you always hit your 3-wood that long?"

And Tiger said, "No, further, normally further than that."

It's amazing the little games within a game Tiger would play.

That shot just deflated Phil's ego. And he couldn't bounce back.

He's looking dangerously down the left side.

That catches the trees.

If there ever was a must putt, you're looking at it right now.

Wow.

And now, Tiger Woods can make his move now on this closing stretch.

And he's pulled it right at the hole. Look out!

- Was that any good? - Unbelievable.

Well that should be enough to do it.

Here comes the salute to an achievement

that's about to be completed unlike anything this sport has ever seen.

The streak that started at Pebble Beach. St. Andrews.

- Valhalla. - Augusta.

And here it is. This putt for the Tiger Slam.

Get in the hole.

There it is, as grand as it gets.

And Tiger has his Slam.

He's won all of golf's majors

faster than any other player in history.

And he just made history again, signing a new five-year,

one hundred-million-dollar endorsement deal with Nike.

And he's locked in with American Express, with Titleist,

for millions and millions of dollars.

Buick, he just signed a huge contract with them.

He's making a lot of jack as they say.

Much more than Michael Jordan, and he was the king.

He can sell just about anything: cereal, cars, golf clubs.

Now, Tiger's conquering another kind of golf game, video golf.

- Pick up your controller, Mr. Woods. - Yes, sir.

When you see the swing here,

versus when you look at video of your swing, how realistic is this?

- It's almost identical. - Really?

I just wish I was that big.

As Tiger's bank account swelled,

as he collected jets and yachts

and all the trappings that this world has to offer,

I think he pushed back from Earl quite a bit.

What is the relationship with your father these days?

We're still great friends, still father son,

but we don't get a chance to spend much time with each other

'cause I'm so busy.

Tiger became a corporation trying to make money.

And it needs a steady, consistent rock at its head.

And that wasn't Earl anymore.

So there became some issues that arose

that necessitated Tiger kind of moving away from Earl.

Tiger and I had a very big fight

and he said, "Well, I have this problem,

and the problem is, I don't know whether you can handle

being a businessman and a father at the same time."

Tiger was growing up and I think that caused disagreements.

Heated.

Obviously there's far more that I could tell you about their disagreements,

but I can't. I can't talk about that.

That's one place I know not to go to.

How would you describe your relationship with your father?

He is my best friend.

No ifs, ands, or buts about it. He is my best friend.

But he's much older than you.

That's alright. You can still have a best friend who's 61.

Tiger absolutely idolized his dad. He loved his dad.

Golf was their connection,

and they had spent a lot of time doing that together.

There it is. There it is.

Perfect. Good boy.

He's my best friend.

- But he's your son. - But he's my best friend.

They were buddies.

But he needed his dad. He didn't need another friend.

That was forgotten in that relationship.

And Earl crossed boundaries that he shouldn't have crossed.

Gosh.

You know, I love this guy. Earl was a great, great dad,

but...

I don't know how to smooth this one over.

I assure you that we were not the best role models

when it came to honoring your marriage. I assure you.

This is a tough one. Yeah.

Hang on, give me two seconds. I gotta collect my thoughts.

Shit. He's not gonna like this shit at all.

Earl had this little Winnebago.

And we'd let him teach on the range.

And he somehow would teach very attractive blonde women.

And I never figured out where he met these women.

And often, you know, after the lesson,

they'd go into the Winnebago for cocktails.

And, you know, Tiger was at the course.

You know, and I was just every bit as bad.

For a long time,

me and Earl were the two biggest male figures in his life.

The two closest to him.

And here I am, chasing skirts and bringing them to the course.

And he's seeing this. Yeah. Yeah.

And I was married, too, at the time, and he's seeing this.

You know, to have that kind of access to this child's development

and expose him to that, it's just...

Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Yeah. Sorry, Champ. Sorry.

I mean, any child having to witness that

and know what's happening, it's not right.

It's just not right.

And that made a huge impact on his life.

When Tiger and I were still together,

he would travel in the summer for tournaments with his dad.

And he called me one time, and I will never forget.

He was sobbing on the phone, uncontrollably.

I couldn't even understand what he was saying, he was so upset.

He finally caught his breath and, you know, said,

"My dad's out again. He met this girl and they're going out."

The sound of Tiger's voice was so upsetting.

I wanted to crawl through the phone and just take care of him.

I've never heard somebody in my life so upset.

And his dad, I don't think, really cared that he knew it.

I think that also bothered him.

Like, "Why would you not try to hide this from me?

Why would you just let me see this?"

Tiger's mom was a loyal, good mother,

and he absolutely loved her.

So there was an anger there with his dad,

but he could never show it. He could never express it.

He had to keep that in.

And it changed the relationship with him and his dad.

Did he still idolize him and love him? Absolutely.

But it changed. It changed.

Now you used to appear more at tournaments than you used to.

Is it strictly a health thing?

You've had eight bypasses. You've battled prostate cancer.

No, it isn't health.

If you noticed, Tiger's grown up.

Tiger is handling his life by himself.

And that was the original game plan.

Earl was a human being with all the foibles and faults.

He had girlfriends,

and they became messy.

It was gonna become public and Tiger went out of his way

to make sure that nobody knew what was going on with Earl,

the womanizing, the drinking.

Tiger did not want any shadows on his brand.

He did not want any shadows on his foundation.

It drove Earl and Tiger apart

at the very time that they probably should have been together,

because Earl was finally starting to show his age and fragility.

What's the most important thing that he taught you?

Patience and understanding.

What's the most important thing in raising children?

What's the one bit of advice that you can give

the fathers and the mothers out there?

You have to earn their trust and their respect.

I have a phrase, that love is a given,

trust and respect are earned.

You have to earn it.

During that period,

I don't think they were able to spend as much time as they had before.

Tiger had his own life to try to live, and he moved on.

He is one of my all-time favorite guys in the world. I just adore him.

He has a god-given talent that makes grown men weep.

Please welcome Tiger Woods!

Here we go again.

So how are you handling all the adulation?

As you came in, the guys were bowing and...

I haven't gotten used to it. I honestly don't feel comfortable with it.

- You don't? - No.

Tiger has a really close-knit group of superstar athlete friends.

One of them, Charles Barkley,

he has advised you not to get married until you're 30?

Everybody wants to know, who you dating?

- Who? - Anybody you want to tell me?

- I am, yes. - Okay.

When you find the right person, you know it's the right person.

Elin, she was a nanny for one of the other players.

I remember straight away, he was very, very fond of this girl

to the point where I had to learn how to pronounce her name properly.

'Cause how you say it in Swedish.

he was adamant that when I say her name,

"No, Steve. This is how you say it."

So I knew straight away

that, Hey, this girl was a little bit different

to probably some of the other girls that he had been with.

Elin told me that he didn't make a great impression on her at first.

She had her opinions about celebrities and they were not high.

And she's very shy,

so the idea of kind of joining that world

was not appealing to her.

And when he asked her out, I think she turned him down at first.

And then she gradually was convinced that she should give him a chance.

And so they did go out.

Do you love Tiger, Elin?

She said the hardest part about that was adjusting to the spotlight

that followed him.

But Tiger was very sweetly protective of Elin.

She said it felt special.

Ironically, the spotlight that first repelled her suddenly bonded them.

Sort of, us against the world.

It was just the two of them,

and she believed it was everything.

I have found a life partner,

a best friend,

and Elin's been incredible for me.

She's brought joy and balance in my life

and I'm very lucky.

Tiger and Elin were married October 5th,

on the island of Barbados.

A lavish yet intimate affair they tried desperately to keep private.

That's Jordan behind.

This is supposed to be an intimate moment between our family and friends.

Not with the whole world. So,

that part of it I don't quite understand why.

But, the world has changed so much.

Gossip sells now.

Elin was fantastic.

Beautiful model, squeaky clean image.

She made Tiger bulletproof.

You could have sent somebody from Central Casting and that's her.

She's the wife.

Action.

Tiger certainly has a good understanding of what sells these days.

Tiger earns an estimated 80 million a year.

Her image, it promotes his brand.

It's exactly the side of him that he wants you to see.

But there was a lot of speculation

that she was going to affect his golf.

People were always trying to create a way

that's gonna somehow knock him down off the tree.

He gets married. Is that going to show a slump in form?

You get the feeling that Tiger's trying to make a statement here.

This is his opportunity to end all the criticism on his marriage.

I mean, this guy, he's wired different than anybody else. Come on.

This is the ball of Tiger Woods. Lenny, what about this?

Bern, this is extremely difficult.

This is one of the toughest pitches on the entire place here.

There's a good chance he doesn't get this inside DiMarco's ball.

Oh, here it comes.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, wow. In your life have you seen anything like that?

Thank you.

I want to thank my mom, my wife Elin

for always being there with me and for me and just helping me out.

You guys are the best. Thank you so much.

But also I gotta say one last thing before I go.

My dad hasn't been feeling very well this year.

He's just hanging in there. So, I...

Every year that I've been lucky enough to have won this tournament,

my dad's been there to give me a hug and he wasn't there today.

I can't wait to get home and see him, to give him a big bear hug.

Thank you.

Earl Woods lost his battle with cancer today at the age of 74.

There was no understating the impact this one man had

on his very famous son.

When I heard that Earl had passed,

I worried about Tiger more than anybody.

In Earl's latter years,

I don't know how much they saw each other

When you don't see a parent as often as you would like,

there's a sense of guilt when something happens to them.

And so Tiger had a very, very heavy burden on him.

You could see it in his face.

Daddy! Daddy!

Woo! Good shot!

Hey, Dad. I thought that was real good.

Yeah. You're doing very good.

Tiger kept Earl at a distance at the end.

But that's looking at the story only this part of it.

You gotta look at the whole thing.

I mean, he was Pops.

Look at what Earl accomplished with Tiger.

A little kid with buck teeth, banging on a club in a garage?

I mean, when you start with something like that

and then you become the biggest name in golf,

and your dad is the one that invented you?

That's pretty heavy stuff.

I mean, his Pops meant everything to Tiger.

In the days following Earl's death,

there were a lot of later night calls

hearing Tiger cry and he just was having a very hard time processing.

There was no replacing Earl.

This person who had always been by his side was gone

and he couldn't compartmentalize that.

That was sadness on a level that he had never felt before.

That was grief. And I'm not sure that he knew how to grieve.

2006 THE BRITISH OPEN ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB, UK

After the death of his father,

it's been an emotional rollercoaster.

But Tiger is very good at shutting everything out.

On the tee from USA, Tiger Woods!

Good cheer for Tiger Woods.

He is in the same group as Nick Faldo.

When you go through a loss like Tiger's,

I think any athlete would say that,

"Well, just get me on my field, my course."

Because all that thinking, all that emotion,

it's just not what we're used to.

The golf course is a sanctum.

- Good luck, guys. - Thanks.

I played with him for those first two days.

And I remember describing him in being in golfing zen.

Having to bury my father, it hurt a lot.

But I still hadn't really grieved yet.

And for some reason, it was the most interesting thing,

going out there and playing.

I had this overwhelming sense of calm.

You know, it was like my Pop was there.

Soaring into the blue sky.

Oh it's in. It's in.

He doesn't know yet. Yeah, he knows now.

That is just extraordinary. It was just a fantastic shot.

Earl provied a lot of self-confidence for Tiger.

But with Earl passing,

you know, now he had to rely on himself.

The whole thing was just a great way

to actually get it out, get it in the open

and move forward.

He seemed to be the same Tiger Woods as old.

The crowd loves him.

The crowd appreciates the skill of this man.

There's his wife.

The man is going to win his eleventh major here at Hoylake.

Tiger Woods is the 135th Open Champion.

He is the champion golfer of the year.

And there's emotion there because, I'm sure,

he's thinking of his father

and how much his father would have loved to have been here.

He released all the emotions that he had,

but still wasn't over.

He suffered from a lot of scars,

and Tiger had that ability to bury something very deep

and never think about it again.

The human side of Tiger Woods.

You admire him even more.

But I believe there's a reckoning

and we all will face it someday.

That's the way it always happens.

Okay, so what do you want me to talk about?

This has been a presentation of HBO SPORTS.