Tiger Woods told us about viewing habits. It’s a peek into his greatness

Tiger Woods was honest, unfortunately so. 

Toward the end of his press conference Tuesday morning at the Hero World Challenge, which now doubles as an annual state of Tiger Woods address, he said this:

“I know I’m not really saying a whole lot, but I’m trying to say as much as I possibly can.”

That response in particular followed a question on what the PGA Tour could soon look like, though it could have also come after he was asked about a potential return to playing, the other subject that dominated the presser. Given the presumed sensitivity of both topics, some vagueness was to be expected. Still, Woods is often guarded with his comments, knowing well that what a 15-time major winner opines on will likely become a headline. 

But give the man the opportunity to talk shop, and he morphs into a blogger. This has happened occasionally, and when he opens up on the golf swing, we also get a peek under the hood of his golf cart, so to say.

Tuesday, for example, Woods told us about a pair of his viewing habits.  

The part of Scottie Scheffler’s game that Tiger Woods loves watching 

This came after a pair of questions. They are written in italics, and Woods’ answers follow. 

The last couple of years or maybe a little more, we have all marveled at what Scottie has been doing with his consistency, and the one word that keeps coming back is that it’s almost Tiger-like. You have done it, you have been there. What’s your appreciation of what Scottie has been able to do and anything that you really like about his style? 

“Well, there’s nothing you can’t not like about Scottie,” Woods said. “He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. What he’s doing on the golf course is just incredible, the consistency day in and day out, the strategy that he — how he attacks the golf course. It starts from — you can see him analyze it from the green back where the flag is, where he wants to miss a tee shot, what club to hit, where the wind is, what side of the tee box he’s to start off on. It’s truly amazing at how thoughtful he is and strategic he is throughout the entire round. 

“And on top of that, he doesn’t have lapses in a round like most players do. He’s there, present for all 18 holes and all shots played and that’s hard to do. To do that day-in and day-out with the grueling schedule that the Tour has and the players are playing now in more of a condensed season, and the big events that he’s playing in. I mean, he won six times and they’re not small events. He’s beating the best fields. So that’s something that I certainly can appreciate and I think that I hope everyone else appreciates it as well because you just don’t see this happen very often.”

Across the categories, Tiger, he is leading — he was the No. 1 for this year. Is there any part of his game that you really love watching? One part of the game? 

“Of Scottie’s game? Yeah, I truly love watching him hit irons, the shaped shots that he hits, the trajectory, the window changes that he has, the distance control, the miss in the proper spot, the proper spin in certain pin locations,” Woods said. “These are all subtle things that mean a lot over the course of 72 holes. That to me is impressive. If you don’t have trajectory control, you can’t have distance control. To see him move it up and down in different windows, use wind, fight wind and control spin is fun to watch.”

The takeaway: There’s endless curiosity in how players watch other players. Some of that is due to seeing the game differently than an average player; TV banks on this thought when broadcasts employ pros as analysts. There’s also a thought that when a peer appreciates something specific about someone, that’s maybe a look into what they value most, or wish to have for themselves — or both. 

Woods’ quotes may hit on those ideas, especially the “windows” quote. What are the windows? He’s talked about them before — and did so extensively on a video with TaylorMade, which you can watch here — but, in short, it’s a thought about nine zones (or windows) for a ball to exit through. Do amateurs spot Scheffler working the ball up, down, left and right? Maybe, maybe not. Should they? For sure, especially in practice. After all, Woods was appreciative.

Why pros are better at a younger age, according to Tiger Woods 

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It’s YouTube. Woods’ complete answer is below. 

“I think the reason is the fact that one of the big — in my vision, I think it’s a lot has to do with YouTube, seeing swings. 

“Before, I had VHS tapes. I would tape a weekend round of golf and then watch it on — hoping the tracking worked halfway decent and try and get a swing. Sometimes the swings didn’t even look good; I didn’t even know who that was. 

“Seeing so many different swings over and over again and the instruction level has gotten better, the curve it took to understand how to play the game’s gotten faster. You didn’t have to necessarily go out there and dig it out of the dirt; now you can watch it on your mobile phone and learn that way. It’s gotten faster and younger. Just like all kids, they’re sponges for information and they can make changes on the fly.”

The takeaway: The image of Woods plugging a VHS tape into a VCR and recording broadcasts is something, as is the image of him working the remote.

Want to be great at golf? Just put in that level of commitment — and make sure your family doesn’t tape over your recording.