Tiger Woods’s mother had a special focus: raising a beaten boy in the world

Most of us cannot easily name Big Jack’s mother. Helen Nicklaus died on the eve of the PGA 2000 championship in ValhallaA course designed her son. Less can still name the Mother of the New Tom, Agnes Morris, who died in 1876, the year her husband, The old TomThere was a conclusion of Ho-Hum T4 in the open championship in the old course, where he was Greenkeeper. But everyone in Golf knows Tiger’s mother, AGE. The most famous mother in golf.

She was Cultida Punsawad Woods in her legal documents, but wherever she went to this world, during her extraordinary course, spent on the globe 78 years, she was TIDA. TIDA WOODS died Tuesday; Tiger did not reveal a cause. In a statement, Tiger referred to her as My dear mother AND midwife But when he received the Bob Jones Award, USGA’s highest honor, at US Open in Pinehurst last year, Woods called it midwife. She was right there in the front row, along with her two grandchildren, Sam and her child’s brother, Charlie.

Tida was always in the front row. She was short, engaged, straightforward, strong in every way, and if you were on her way, care. It was in the front row when Woods made that painful public apology in a lounge at the TPC saw club in 2010. It was in the front row, right after the 18th Green, when Tiger won its masters seen in 1997. She was in the front row when Tiger was involved in the world golf Hall in 2022. She had a man (Earl), a child (Eldrick) and seemingly a goal to set up a boy prisoners.

Tiger grew up in a regular peripheral home in Cypress, Calif., Drowning with smoke (his father) and Thai cooking scents (his mother). Inside, the house was not like others in their development. Tiger has said it a thousand times: his father, the former colonel, was a software. His mother packaged the heat. In the 1970s and 1980s, she led Tiger to the Plymouth Dushster to Junior Golf’s tours throughout southern California, and she was not there to make friends. She was there to see the trophies of rising her son and he did.

Tiger’s father had the mentality of a black man who knew the first hand the pain of Jim Crow and a divided America. Tiger’s mother, who came to the United States from Thailand, had a mentality of an immigrant-in-house-like. Over the past 25 years or so, as Tiger’s great success has become a simple fact of sports life, that part of the equation has been forgotten. But the mixing of cultures is the true story of Tiger’s origin.

Earl and Tida Never divorced, but they have been living a special life for years. If there was anything that kept them together, it was Tiger’s Golf’s ability and his promise. With words and deeds, his dedication to the two is obvious. Was a stunning view to see TIDA at Augusta National Club On Sunday of the masters in 2019 while her son played nine back, trying to win his fifth green coat. She sat with her friends and grandchildren and watched on a raised TV. While the room murmured and cheers various shots, it was an impassifty study.

With the clear half of the result she walked from the club, she took her five-legged on a safety chain without help, and stayed on a hill next to the 18th Green. within HutIn an interview with Jim Nantz, Tiger recalled traveling to the Dushster.

Tiger has talked in general terms about what he learned from his mother, a practicing Buddhist, but he kept every detail private how he shaped him. Tiger has always given the appearance of being a child of North American experience, playing Little League baseball, rooting for Raiders, going to Vegas. One day we can find out that his eastern side-his Buddhist side, his side of Tida-Steps a window for the mysteries of the game in ways opposing interviews after the round. Be the ball times infinity.

Something has to explain the profit of a master’s 12 and an open US with 15 – beyond skills. Only the ability gets you a two -stroke win.

Let’s not play Kumbaya Still when Tiger defeated Davis Love at an early career event, Tida said, “Tiger steals his heart.” In the presidents’ cups and Ryder cups, TIDA did not try with the Penta Love and Mary Mickelson. Her whole life seemed to be her dedication to forests, and later to Tiger’s children.

When Helen Nicklaus died, shortly before the start of the 2000 PGA championship, Nicklaus decided to play in the tournament, saying this is what his mother would have liked to do. For the first two rounds, he played with Woods, who continued to win that week, in the Nicklaus course. Summer of 2000. Tiger was on fire. Now when Tiger (maybe?) Plays later this month, at the Invitational Genesis, he will again be followed in the footsteps of Nicklaus, trying to play the tournament golf in the face of grief.

Unlike Helen Nicklaus and almost every other mother of the player, Tiger’s mother was often in function of television cameras. Not that she welcomed her. She did not talk much with reporters, and when quoted, she was often not happy about it. She talked to a reporter after her son’s public forgiveness, when his private life was discovered in the world and his life moved. She saw her about what she was, an act of media spying on a person who was not an elected official, was not a clergyman, was not a teacher. She was angry. But she also saw something much bigger.

“Buddhism teaches you to go deep inside your soul and look for yourself and correct the bad thing to be a good thing,” she said. We really don’t know much about Tiger’s private life and private thoughts, but we know a lot about his public life, his golf life. As a golf, he always tried to turn weaknesses into the strengths, and he did them in ways some others have.

Eighty -two wins, 15 degrees, membership in the world golf hall, winner of Bob Jones. Not Tida, none of them.