Sean Foley and Tiger Woods on the 2013 Masters.
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Tiger Woods is a human being, Sean Foley says.
“An abnormal man who did extraordinary issues,” he provides.
Foley would know.
He’s speaking on the newest No Laying Up podcast, which you’ll — and will — listen to in full here. And a query from host Chris Solomon was whether or not Woods’ one-time coach had ever seen moments from the 15-time major winner that stunned him. Had been there moments the place he was “weak?” And naturally, there have been.
Woods is human.
And he’s Woods.
And we could be interested by our stars whom we see and listen to usually, however don’t actually know. What’s a phenom like once they’re not being phenomenal? After they have *our* highs and lows? Foley, who labored with Woods from 2010 to 2014, shared a few of it on the podcast.
The back-and-forth was good.
“I’m curious,” Solomon began on the podcast, “you mentioned you bought to see up shut simply type of what his life is like and what that type of fame degree is. Something that stands proud, when it comes to moments the place you had been like, wow, I don’t assume I actually realized that? Or moments you thought he was particularly weak attributable to simply type of response to issues and the way he was taking the whole lot that was happening for the time being in his life?”
“Yeah, I imply, he was all the time very weak along with his children,” Foley mentioned. “Very weak about his basis. He would give yearly at his match, he would give a speech about — a child would come up and they’d spotlight this child and what this child has finished and the place he got here from, and T-dubs couldn’t get by means of a type of speeches with out crying. He’s a human being, man. He’s an abnormal man who did extraordinary issues.
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“I feel that he needed to alter himself just a little bit to place this wall round him. You recognize, lots of people did him flawed. And so love is one thing I give everybody. However belief is one thing that you just actually need to earn from me. And I feel that’s good for everybody to know that. Folks give belief earlier than they offer love. I’m going to offer love since you’re only a human being like me and we’re in all probability doing our greatest from what we perceive to be our greatest and I’m OK with that. However belief is a unique factor.
“So I bear in mind after we first began, like proper round that point, that’s when Hank Haney wrote the guide, The Huge Miss [about Woods]. Now I’m the subsequent man, and I’m simply standing there on the vary, going like, holy s**t, that is f***ing tough proper now. Like, oh my god. You recognize, being on the vary and watching helicopters fly over and movie us and stuff. Justin Rose and Sean O’Hair and Hunter Mahan [former Foley students] are fairly well-known, however we acquired to a Prince-Michael Jackson degree, you understand. I might think about 99 out of 100 folks on this planet who’ve by no means touched a golf membership and even been on a golf course nonetheless know who Tiger Woods is, proper.”
Right here, Solomon questioned about what that was like for Foley himself.
“Properly, there’s no guide,” he mentioned on the podcast. “There’s nothing you may learn on it. Folks’s recommendation doesn’t assist. You simply acquired to seek out your approach to do it. And for me, I used to be by no means going to let it change me. I’ve all the time been very social, very talkative. I’ve time for anyone, no matter whether or not you’re the CEO of a company otherwise you’re a janitor in the identical constructing; that doesn’t matter to me. There have been the followers of what we had been doing and the individuals who hated it, so I might run into each of them within the airport.
“However look, I used to be the one who mentioned sure to doing it. And so mainly as a result of I selected to do it, I’m accountable for no matter occurred after that. All of it comes right down to me.”
Then there’s that technical aspect.
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On the podcast, Foley talked of what they labored on. “Mainly we went to love this little child reduce off the tee and actually targeted on the iron play from 170 to 200 yards.”
Which tied in to a different notable query from Solomon:
How precisely does a coach coach Woods? When the 2 related, he had received 14 of his majors.
Foley’s reply was prolonged.
“Like I mentioned, it was a unique time, for positive, 100%,” he mentioned on the podcast. “In the end, if it was as we speak, I might have went again to an 18-year-old Tiger Woods with some slight upgrades. So the rationale how I used to be capable of not make that mistake once more, was that after I began with Lydia Ko, I went instantly again to her DNA after which simply put upgrades on it.
“So the factor about human motion is the one which we’ve made probably the most, we wrap probably the most protein round that neural pathway. So the issue with technically altering your swing is that previous swing you’ve got is rarely going away. It’s wired. It’s utterly in there. What occurs is you may make a brand new sample that’s acquired its personal wiring. However when push involves shove, the mind goes to select the neural pathway that it might probably switch thought down the quickest. I feel it will have been extra alongside these strains, simply whether or not or not with 4 knee surgical procedures and an Achilles surgical procedure if he may have finished that in any case.
“I’ve been in all probability one in all Tiger’s greatest followers ever and to have the ability to spend time with him like that and to get to know him and to simply see the sheer problem of his life, that sort of fame, that sort of notoriety — you wouldn’t want it on anyone. The sport of golf, particularly the PGA Tour, they owe that man the whole lot as a result of purses will not be right here as we speak due to the enterprise improvement points of the PGA Tour; it’s all attributable to a Black child in a crimson shirt from Orange County, California. And I feel if anybody wouldn’t admit that, they’re clearly flawed.
“So I feel that will be extra of it. It will have been simply type of spending sufficient time with him, possibly asking the correct questions and simply type of guiding him to him discovering what it’s. And that’s one thing I really feel like I do very properly now after that.”
Editor’s word: To hearken to the whole No Laying Up podcast with Foley, please click here.
