THE bombshells continue to drop from Tiger Woods’ incredibly candid and honest interview with Lorne Rubenstein for TIME magazine online – including an assertion from Tiger that the golf world has completely misunderstood his career motivation.
According to Woods, what drove him to win 14 Major championships was not Jack Nickaus’ record of 18 Majors – although that has been a common belief in golf since a teenage Tiger was filmed reading a book in his bedroom and the camera picked up a poster containing the Golden Bear’s Major tally.
Woods insists it was not the total Major victories, but rather the age Nicklaus achieved certain milestones.
“OK, here’s the major misconception that people have all gotten wrong,” Woods said.
“It’s what was posted on my wall, about Jack’s records. It was not the majors, OK … There was one on there. It was the first time he broke 40, the first time he broke 80, the first golf tournament he ever won, first time he ever won the state amateur, first time he won the US Amateur, and the first time he won the US Open. That was it. That was the list. It was all age-related. To me, that was important. This guy’s the best out there and the best of all time. If I can beat each age that he did it, then I have a chance at being the best.”
While we’re on that interview published in TIME last week, one Aussie got a huge rap from Tiger – 1991 British Open champion and golf commentator Ian Baker-Finch.
Woods claimed Baker-Finch was the only media representative who leaves the commentary booth to study golf courses and take to the players.
“There’s no accountability in what they say. And what they say, it’s like it’s gospel, there’s no source behind it. Nothing like, yeah, I talked to X number of players, I talked to this player, this player, this player. It’s none of that. It’s just, some of the announcers, they don’t even go on the golf course. And they look at a pin sheet from the booth, but they’ve never surveyed the golf course, even though the television coverage doesn’t come on until the afternoon. You have all that time to go walk the golf course, to see some of the early rounds, see what guys are doing, how they’re hitting it, how’s the course playing, is the wind coming up? All those different things that you could do. The only one who does that is Finchy [golf broadcaster and former US PGA Tour pro Ian Baker-Finch].”
