Tiger Woods Trains Son Charlie With Ruthless Mental-Game Lessons Inspired by His Father

Tiger Woods is known for a lot of things, but unbeatable mental strength is perhaps his most recognized attribute. Growing up, Woods's father, Earl, would do absolutely anything—jingle change, pump the brakes of his golf cart, throw objects—to distract his son during practice. Earl's training tactics may have been ruthless, but they paid off. It appears Tiger is well aware of their benefits, and he recently said he's using similar strategies with his own 13-year-old son, Charlie. 

Yesterday, Tiger joined the Golf Channel broadcast of the Hero World Challenge (from which he withdrew due to a foot injury) and chatted about his son with analysts Paul Azinger and Dan Hicks.

"Do you mess with Charlie on some of those distraction-like little tricks?" asked Azinger.

Tiger's response was golden. 

"It's nonstop."

"It's trying to get him—if I can get into his head, that means someone else can get in his head," Tiger continued. "It's getting to a point where I can't get in his head and then no one else can get in there, either. That's what my dad believed in. You've got to be willing to take it."

Tiger wants his son to be prepared for whatever comes flying his way—both literally and figuratively—and he even mentioned particular tricks tour players would pull on each other back in the day.

"Zing [Azinger] can attest to this, he played in an era where certain players, and we're not going to mention anybody by name, but certain players would do certain things with clubs and shoes and timing and trying to get in your head—the early walk—that was still prevalent when I came out here. And a lot of these guys don't know about any of that stuff, but people did it," Woods said. 

Golf fans will get a chance to see Tiger and Charlie's training put to the test Dec. 17-18, when they play side-by-side at the PNC Championship, the PGA Tour's family team event.

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