They say Earl Woods was a poet laureate of profanity, that he knew so many curse words that he could cuss for 30 minutes straight and not repeat himself once. Earl told Golf Digest that this was “a family thing”, a habit he inherited from his father and passed on to his son. Tiger was 11 when Earl started to swear at him during training. “Fuck off Tiger,” he would say during his backswing, “motherfucker” he’d utter, “you little piece of shit”. Tiger said later he “didn’t mind and even encouraged” his father’s swearing, that “eventually, I started laughing at it”.
His father was not the first nor last man Tiger Woods heard shout those words, or worse. “I heard it at school and during tournaments.” Which is exactly why Earl repeated them to him. He abused his boy because he wanted to teach him how to take it. “He helped,” Tiger wrote, “in ways other people thought were hurtful.”
Written by Andy Bull
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/sep/24/tiger-woods-earl-pga-tour under the title “Comeback king Tiger Woods delivers vindication of father’s tough love | Andy Bull”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
