Inside The Meticulous Mind Of Tiger Woods During Equipment Testing

One of the many talents of Tiger Woods is his meticulous ability to sense even microscopic changes in his golf equipment. This was once again proven at a recent equipment testing day where Woods’ team decided to invite several golf equipment editors to watch and report what goes thru Tiger’s mind.

Here’s an account from GolfDigest.com’s E. Michael Johnson. One notion gleaned from the piece was how Woods’ evaluation procedures haven’t changed much since he was a mere lad. It’s a good article worthy of your time.

For Woods, ball flight is everything. In 2003, he said, “I’m all about how the ball flies, how it looks shortly after it leaves the club,” Woods said. “If I look up and don’t see the ball right there—I mean, right where I expect it to be—then we have a serious, serious problem.”

Woods is well-equipped to notice anything amiss with his irons. He has used the same iron specs since he was a kid, saying he only changed the lie angle at times when a swing change called for it. He’s also aware that alterations are easier to make today, recalling that during his early years as a pro he would need to go through eight or nine sets of irons and cherrypick clubs from each set to get the CGs to match.

As with his irons, look with the driver is vitally important to the 14-time major champion. “I know when I’m waggling it,” he said. “If I feel it matches up to me, then it frees up my swing.”

Sbarbaro then suggested the M3 440 at 9 degrees—a club with a slightly smaller head that he said earlier in the day he thought Woods would like.

After a couple of waggles, Woods flashed a smile and said, “I like it a lot.”

After a few swings Sbarbaro made a tweak, shifting the two movable weights all the way forward. On the next swing Woods tattooed one: 322 yards of carry, 15 degrees launch, 2,100 spin—nearly ideal.

“It’s nice that we can cheat out here and use Trackman, but ultimately I need to see how it fits on the course,” said Woods. “Can it hit a low cut, can it hit a low draw? I want to ride the wind. I want to challenge this corner. I want to take it over that bunker. Things of that nature. For instance, right before the Hero, I had a 3-wood I was using last year before I stopped playing. On the range I hit it fantastic. On the course, I couldn’t hit it. It had too much toe droop right before impact. When I tried to turn it over, I’d hit this toe-pop-up. The golf course showed that. I had to hit golf shots. It’s not just about making it look good [on the range].”