Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
Woods has been a competitor on the PGA Tour for decades and his fellow players know how easily he can get into their heads.
Tiger Woods is an absolute legend on the PGA Tour and one of the most competitive athletes you will ever come across. He loves to trash-talk, and the PGA Tour sat down with a few of his competitors ahead of this week’s Genesis Invitational to talk about it.
What started as a ‘what’s it like to receive a text from Tiger’ turned into them explaining just how competitive and unique the Big Cat is.
The Tour got guys like Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and Davis Love III to shed some light.
“I still think it’s the competitor — He likes jabbing at you and always, you know, say something that makes you feel bad,” Homa said.
He doesn’t try to soften his blow at all. It’s going to come out like he wants it, too. Woods loves to entice players, especially guys like Thomas.
“At the end of 2017, you know my best season on Tour, won five times,” Thomas said. “I finished winning the FedEx Cup, won a major — one of the first texts I had when I got done was Tiger, and it was, ‘Congrats, now do that nine more times, and that’s what I’ve done in my career.’”
For Day, Woods is blunt and loves to point out his mishaps.
“Sometimes it could be like, “Hey man, like great f***ing job,” or it would be like “What the f*** did you do on that hole,” Day said. “I’m sitting there and I’m like, ‘Dude I’m trying to play my best. I didn’t mean to hit in the trees.’ After that, I sit and ask him questions because I feel like it’s an open invitation to go, ‘Hey, what would you do in that situation?’”
The bottom line is Woods is insanely competitive. He has a similar killer instinct to Kobe Bryant, you know, the ‘Mamba mentality’ of win at all costs.
Woods loves to rile up his fellow PGA Tour players and has done it throughout his entire career.
However, some has seen a small change in recent years.
“Tiger doesn’t really sugarcoat anything. He’s going to tell you how it is, whether you play poorly or you play well,” Fowler said. “Going from the 100% competitor and wanted to kill you on the golf course to see that transition over the last eight, ten years, giving some of his knowledge and sharing that with other players.”
With him approaching 50 years old, the 15-time major champion has begun to share his wisdom, but only to a select few.
Regardless of age, no one will ever be able to take the competitor out of Woods. He will always be trash talking and intimidating his competitors. It’s all about that “W” that Woods has captured a record 82 times on the PGA Tour.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
