Tiger vs Phil Part Two: Work ethic.

Let’s forget talent. Tiger and Phil are evenly matched in my opinion.

Let’s focus on the work ethic. I’ve preached about this many times before but the real eye-opener for me was seeing Tiger practicing at the Ryder Cup. The American team had all played their morning rounds and the range was empty. But not for long…

Within a very short period of time there was a single solitary figure standing there beating balls.

Yep – it wasn’t any of the young guys, it wasn’t any of the guys who had scraped in and it certainly wasn’t Phil. It was the best golfer in the world – Tiger Woods.

Gradually a few of the other guys came but not Phil. He was content to stay inside and chomp on a bit of cake. It was an eye opening moment for me but certainly not the first time I’d heard about his legendary dedication. During the year of my From Scratch to Scratch challenge Tiger was having his “off year” where VJ Singh was number one. To a very large extent that was a great thing for me. VJ was this older guy who seemed to have taken his golf to a new level through enormous levels of hard work and dedication. He provided great motivation for me due to the fact that he is four years older than me.  But during this time Tiger was regularly being riled by the press for slipping down the rankings and I remember one occasion very clearly where his work ethic was questioned negatively compared to VJ.

The steely eyed look he gave the interviewer as he explained how VJ couldn’t practice more than he did, simply because VJ wasn’t capable of manufacturing extra hours in the day, really struck home to me just how enormously dedicated he is. And how fiercely competitive. You can be pretty sure that if one area of Tiger’s game is a little off then by the next week he will have worked relentlessly to get it right. So many folk seem to forget this and assume that Tiger is pure talent – some sort of otherworldly being that mere mortals like Phil Mickelson could never beat.

“Let’s just hit another couple before the light fades”

To believe otherwise just highlights our own inadequacies. If the rest of the tour were allowed to believe that Tiger was an alien then it might be easier. But if they look really honestly and accept that in every area of his game (and that includes fitness) he simply works harder then it’s a little harder to accept. When I finished my challenge the standard response from many golfers who had been playing for years but never shot a par round was.

“You must be naturally talented. You have to have to be a ‘natural’ to do that. Nobody else could do it“

Of course when I explained that I hit 35,000 balls on the range, read 60 books and sometimes practiced my chipping until midnight using only the moon as light they tend to become a fraction confused as the truth starts to seep in.

Hard work.  Sometimes it isn’t any fun but ultimately it’s one of the big differences between Tiger and Phil and it doesn’t look like one that’s going to change any time soon.

Ben Hogan was the same. His big secret ultimately was that you need to keep “digging the dirt” to find the answers. And all winter long as a teenager Jack Nicklaus would practice in the snow with Jack Grout until they had borrowed and lost every ball they could find and only recover them again in the spring when the snow melted.

It’s best to leave the last words to Tiger though. From his own site:

“I refuse to let anyone outwork me. That’s the reason I log so much time on the practice range. Besides, hard work is the only way to maintain a competitive edge, and I enjoy the process. The key, though, is to practice with a purpose.

My philosophy has always been to identify the weakest part of my game and to focus on turning it into a strength. That approach will work for you, too. Make an honest assessment of your game, and determine where you’re losing most of your strokes. Whether it’s the driver, irons, wedges or putter, simplify your instruction to get better. Find a professional to help you identify your flaw and provide the correct instruction to fix it. Then tailor your practice sessions so that most of your time is spent on improving that part of your game. That’s the fastest way to get results.”