Tiger Woods reveals his dad’s “genius” putting trick that helped him win many tournaments

Tiger Woods, widely considered one of the best putters in golf history, has credited his late father, Earl, for many things in his golf career. Now, recently he explained a a trick his father shared with him long ago helped him dominate golf like so few ever have.

During his prime of the 2000s, Woods was hailed by the golf world as the top putter, and he routinely put that skill on display in all manner of tournaments, including some of his 15 Major wins.

The golfer said via Golf Digest on X:

"My dad always taught me to putt to the picture, and what he meant by that is, every time you look, you're taking a picture... Every time you look up [from the ball], you're taking a picture. I look back on how genius that was, because how do you explain a 10-foot putt to a 10-mile putt to a two-year-old?"

Woods said the only thing that makes sense to a young golfer is to putt to what they see. Any time a player looks at the hole, if it's walking around the green or lining up a putt, Woods' father said they were painting a picture in their mind.

"At the end of the day, when I look back to the ball and I putt, I'm just putting to what I just saw. And when that's all my looks, whether it's reading it, or looking up, and the two looks that I normally give, is I'm just putting to that picture that I painted."

Woods said it freed up his stroke, but he still had to do countless putting drills to get to his skill level. He said it "won a lot of tournaments" to putt with this tactic.

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Tiger Woods congratulates TGL co-founder

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are linked for a lot of reasons, largely due to their skill on the golf course. They also co-founded TGL. Now, they're the most recent players to complete the career Grand Slam.

Tiger Woods shouted out Rory McIlroy (Image via Getty)

Woods did it early on in his golf career, as he's been a member of this club since 2000, not too many years after he first became a pro on the PGA Tour. Now, McIlroy has done it as well.

The Irishman's latest feat got praise from Tiger Woods on social media as he welcomed the now five-time major winner to the Grand Slam club. He wrote in his post on X last week,

"Welcome to the club Rory McIlroy. Completing the grand slam at Augusta is something special. Your determination during this round, and this entire journey has shown through, and now you’re a part of history. Proud of you!"

McIlroy won his last major in 2014 at the PGA Championship, giving him three of the four. He'd been shut out at majors since, but his thrilling playoff win over Justin Rose at Augusta National finally gave him all four major titles.