From the hearth - While not an author (though he had an article in December's Golf Digest), Bryan Gathright is fast making a name for himself as one of the game's top instructors. Notah Begay's coach, he is this year, for the second time, teacher of the year in the South Texas section of the PGA. An exceptionally nice guy, well spoken, one of a coterie of Harvey Penick acolytes, Bryan, through his association with Notah, has spent a fair amount of time around Tiger. We talked recently first about the fallout from the comments about Tim Finchem, and the way of the world at the end of the 2000 PGA Tour season. But we also talked about Tiger, and a comment Byron Nelson made, about winners being, excuse the pun, a different breed of cat.

THR: Bryan, you've had numerous opportunities to visit with Tiger informally, what are some of your impressions? What do you think? How is he dealing with all this?

BRYAN GATHRIGHT: Well, I think he's a very misunderstood person, and sometimes I think a comment here or a comment there really gets blown out of proportion. I truthfully don't feel like all the controversy right now has anything to do with the TV revenues or him wanting the revenues. Tiger has an enormous respect for the game of golf and even more importantly has an enormous respect for what Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus brought to the game and he really tries to conduct himself as best he can.

We were talking about fines at lunch the other day. He made the comment that he's very disappointed in himself a couple of times where he's had some outbursts on television, but the comment he made afterwards: He said the unfortunate thing is that with the technology, with the super mikes and dishes where they can pick up the sound bites from many yards away, well, every shot he hits in a round of golf is miked.

He's such a competitor, and I'm not making excuses for him in any way, shape or form, because he feels bad about things that have slipped and he's made comments over the air that he wasn't proud of. But at the same point in time, he's under a different scrutiny than the rest of the PGA Tour.

At the same time, [Tiger's] under a different scrutiny than the rest of the PGA Tour. . . .Every shot he hits is miked.

I think this is all about two things, and this is not directly from him but this is just my read and feel from being at some events recently. I really don't think it's about the revenues, as I said earlier. I think it's more about his concern to protect Buick and protect the various sponsors that he has, obviously Nike and others.

And when that starts to get to a point where Buick is concerned because every week that he wins, they open up Golf World, there's Tiger and a Mercedes logo together. It's one of those things. It's part of the game. It's a difficult part of the game in dealing with the amounts of money that Tiger brings to the table. He's got a loyalty to the people who have enabled him to live the lifestyle that he's living and he really wants to protect that.

THR: You think of Bobby Jones and Byron Nelson retiring early and, of course, with the bigger players there's privacy issues. When he's between the ropes, he knows everything he says and does is going to be scrutinized. Do you get a sense that these things are slowly going to eat away at him?

BG: Well, I know they do. The one thing I can say, I think the timing of this is something that Tiger is trying to deal with at this particular time because the one thing he said at lunch, and we were talking just about the golf issue of it. The thing he wants more than anything in the world is to win golf tournaments. He's all about competing and winning.

The thing he wants more than anything in the world is to win golf tournaments. He's all about competing and winning.

That's what he wants to focus on and this is unfortunately part of the Tiger Woods corporation business and he's chosen this particular time of the year because yes, he's still playing in some off-season events, but he's not going to be judged ultimately in his career by how he plays the end of November and December.

And I think he wants to put this behind him. Because the one thing he said, and has been very comfortable in saying publicly, he wants desperately to win, probably more so than any event he's ever played in or won, at Augusta National in 2001. Because that would enable him, although he would not win the Grand Slam with that event, it would enable him to hold all four major championship titles at the same time. I think it's extremely important to him and he wants to get all these issues behind him. I do think there is a little bit of a personality conflict between he and Tim Finchem. I think he's probably not the only player who has had some disagreements in how the tour's handled. I know Danny Edwards tried to get some things brought public [the ill-fated TPA] a couple of years ago. It's one of those things. Any time you're dealing with a multi-million dollar corporation like the PGA Tour there's going to be some differences in opinion in how they handle the funding.

THR: Byron Nelson said winners were a different breed of cat.

BG: I think that's. . .without hesitation . . . I know a personal story just with he [Tiger] and Notah. Tiger picked up Notah and they flew down to Orlando for four days prior to the Presidents Cup. Notah made the comment, we were just talking between he and I about what makes Tiger tick, what really makes him the great player that he is. Obviously, he's got great skills but Notah said Tiger hates to lose worse than anyone on the PGA Tour.

What really makes Tiger Great? He hates to lose worse than anyone on the PGA Tour.


He said, for instance, they were playing cards the other night and Butch Harmon was there when we were talking about this. And Butch said, "Oh, let me guess, you started hammering him in cards, then he's not going to quit. You're going to stay up all night until he either gets even or he beats you." Butch calls Tiger the king of the press to get even.

Butch Harmon calls Tiger the king of the press to get even.


He wants to play you for whatever it is and playing ping pong for a Coke or whatever, if he loses he's going to play you again until he gets back even. It's just that different breed of cat like you were speaking of. They've got an extreme passion for the game, a sincere desire to win - I won't say at all costs - obviously they're going to try and conduct themselves with dignity, if they don't win - but it's all about winning. And Tiger's not about winning the prize money. One thing I can assure you from getting to know him as a friend and person is that it's not about the money. It's about the titles. It's about the history and being the greatest player in the history of the game.

THR: Is it as simple as that? He just wants it more. You've got a lot of good golfers out there. The ones who win, there's obviously something that separates them from the pack.

BG: Well, I think the one thing that separates Tiger, and I'll use Michael Jordan as a comparison, and I've heard Doc Rivers in particular tell me this: He said that Michael Jordan was the hardest working basketball player, in practice, in the history of the NBA. And Tiger Woods is one of the hardest working golfers in the history of the game of golf. It takes a tremendous amount of time to put into the game, into the sport, to achieve the level that both these guys have achieved. You see how hard they work, their work ethic, what they're willing to do physically. I know, nobody works out harder than Tiger Woods. He's probably the strongest player on the PGA Tour as well, pound for pound, in terms of pure strength. That didn't come…he didn't go to bed one night and wake up the next morning and look like he does physically. He's had to work incredibly hard to get his body…that's something he said at the Presidents Cup, that it took him a couple of years to figure out what he had to do from a physical standpoint to get his body up to a level where it could handle the punishment of not only hitting balls and all the work in the gym and everything else but also the physical work of traveling all over the world playing golf. That's something that he's thought about and worked on and that's something that Notah and I are trying to incorporate into his daily routine. To get stronger, so not only can he hit a golf ball better but he can take the pounding that the human body takes on a day to day basis doing what these professional athletes do.

© THR, 2000

Talking Points - Edition I - Ron Green
Talking Points - Edition II - Dr. Patrick Cohn
Talking Points - Edition III - Bradley S. Klein
Talking Points - Edition IV - Doug Sanders
Talking Points - Edition V - Curt Sampson
Talking Points - Edition VI - Geoff Shackelford