Tiger Woods Cried at World Golf Hall of Fame Induction

Tiger Woods cried at his World Golf Hall of Fame induction.  He wasn’t the only one. Susie Maxwell Berning was emotional. And the son of the late Dick Ferris, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award on his father’s behalf, struggled to find his words a time or two.  It was appropriate, perhaps, that it was raining outside the new PGA Tour World Headquarters building with a design so sleek that the water droplets must have slipped right off it without so much as a mark, as though it had been waxed.

While Susie Maxwell Berning, former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, and Marion Hollins ( posthumously) were also inducted, Tiger Woods, as in everything he has ever done, was the star of the evening.

“I just lost a bet to (Steve) Stricker that I wouldn’t cry,” Woods said as he took the microphone. Stricker is a notorious crier and probably should have had Kleenex as a sponsor.

Many of Woods’ Tour player friends were there, including Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy. Phil Knight of Nike and Wally Uihlein, former CEO of Titleist, were also in attendance.

Woods was introduced by his daughter, Sam, who pointed out that she was born in 2007 right after he lost a chance for a playoff in a U.S. Open. Woods rushed to the hospital still wearing his Sunday red shirt.

“He may have lost that day, but he won the greatest gift of all,” she said, which drew laughs from the audience. Of course, she was right.

Rather than talk about his glorious achievements, Tiger Woods told some stories about his childhood that we hadn’t heard.

When he was 8, his mother took him to Heartwell Park and asked the pro Rudy Duran, if he could give her son lessons. Later on, Golf Channel managed to find Duran, who explained that the first thing he did was to tee up some balls for Tiger to hit.  He wanted to see what the kid had. Tiger whipped them right into the air one after the other, and Duran told him immediately that he had unlimited balls.

Duran said that he didn’t really teach him much, especially early on. But they played.

Tiger Woods was too young to be able to reach any of the par 3 holes in one shot, so they created a par that was reasonable for someone his age and size and called them Tiger Pars.  That allowed him to succeed early.  It’s not unlike a young Fred Couples who started playing on a par 3 course. He said that way, he never played a course that was too big for him, which is a great way to look at it.  When Couples got bigger, he went across the street to the regulation course.

Tiger Woods then skipped ahead to when he was eight.  He would get dropped off at the course with 75 cents, which was enough for a hot dog and a phone call to his mom to get picked up from the course.

One day he came home with a pocket full of quarters, and his dad, concerned, asked how he got them.  He was putting for quarters.   His dad said no, you can’t do that. Then he came home with dollars, and his dad put a stop to that.  The next time he came home with money, it was for playing skins.

In those days, Earl Woods was working at an aircraft manufacturing company and got off work shortly after 4 PM.  Tida Woods, Tiger’s mother would drop him off at a golf course where the back nine is called The Ditch. Woods would sneak up to the third hole and wait under a culvert for his dad to get there.  Then the two of them would play as long as they could.

“The great thing about Navy golf courses, the first nine holes played all the way out, kind of like a links course. So, the further you went out, the further away you were from the clubhouse,” Woods explained.

In the winter, it would get dark early, but that didn’t stop them.  They would play in the dark until they lost a ball.  The most they ever got in was 17 holes. Woods knew, even at that age, where the ball had gone.

Thus began the golf career of one of the two greatest players golf has ever seen, the other being Jack Nicklaus.

When Woods was old enough for AJGA events, the family needed money for him to travel. He needed to be seen at those events to get a college scholarship. Earl and Tida took out a second mortgage on their house to pay for the necessaries. Earl traveled with him.

Most people know the rest.  Junior Amateurs, three, check. Stanford University, check.  U.S. Amateurs, three, check. Nike contract, check.  Titleist contract, check.  And he was on his way.

The first thing he did after winning money as a professional was to pay off the mortgages on his parents’ house.

Tiger Woods said several times during the evening that he did not get where he is by himself.  His parents, school friends, golf professionals, and later, business people along the way reached out to help, but he had to do the work. He earned every accolade.

“I just want to say thank you to my mom, Sam, Erica, Charlie, everyone here, all my friends that have come to be here. This is an individual award, but it’s actually a team award. All of you allowed me to get here. I just want to say thank you very much from the bottom of my heart,” Woods concluded.

It was a standing ovation. The rain let up enough for people to get to their cars and escape into the night, a night that was truly memorable because of Tiger Woods induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.