Annika Sörenstam Once Revealed the One Tiger Woods Trait That Stood on Another Level
Annika Sörenstam and Tiger Woods have, at some point, fiercely dominated their respective tours in a way that few have managed to do.
The Swedish legend has now described a specific quality that, in her view, differentiated Woods from others. They would often send each other texts about competitive victories to motivate one another.
She commented, "The ability to focus was to me something I have not seen before."
Commenting on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Sörenstam noted that people assume there is complete satisfaction in winning. However, it's a rarer motivation to win again.
Bildnummer: 01820917 Datum: 27.11.2005 Copyright: imago/Icon SMI Annika Sörenstam (Schweden), Eldrick Tiger Woods (2.v.li.) und Fred Couples (re.) bei ABC Kommentator Andy North (alle USA) - PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxHUNxONLY (Icon4797791); Anika, Sorenstam, Soerenstam, Vdig, quer, Fernsehen, TV, Medien, Journalist, Sportjournalist, Reporter, Sportreporter, Fernsehkommentator, Sportkommentator, Merrill Lynch Skins Game 2005, PGA Tour, Golfen, Frauen, Frauengolf La Quinta Trilogy Golf Club Golf Einzel Gruppenbild optimistisch Randmotiv Personen
Bildnummer: 01820917 Datum: 27.11.2005 Copyright: imago/Icon SMI Annika Sörenstam (Schweden), Eldrick Tiger Woods (2.v.li.) und Fred Couples (re.) bei ABC Kommentator Andy North (alle USA) - PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxHUNxONLY (Icon4797791); Anika, Sorenstam, Soerenstam, Vdig, quer, Fernsehen, TV, Medien, Journalist, Sportjournalist, Reporter, Sportreporter, Fernsehkommentator, Sportkommentator, Merrill Lynch Skins Game 2005, PGA Tour, Golfen, Frauen, Frauengolf La Quinta Trilogy Golf Club Golf Einzel Gruppenbild optimistisch Randmotiv Personen
She admired Woods even more for his curiosity about everything, especially given his high status. He would ask her many questions about how to improve, and Sörenstam said that showed a "very inquisitive" attitude towards his game and his search for perfection.
Woods also went to extremes with the self-disciplined approach of upper-tier military personnel to push his body. Sörenstam described it as having a "super athlete" mindset. She noted that Woods often practiced using one of the Navy SEALs' training philosophies as a part of his everyday golf training.
Tiger Woods' Rare Competitive Curiosity
Tiger Woods had an insatiable need to find an advantage and go with techniques that others might be afraid to try.
Sörenstam remarked that Woods was never afraid to go with something out of the box to try to lower his scores.
His training had been applied to all the "certain fields" of his life, forming an unbreakable wall of concentration in tournaments. This attention enabled him to shun off the giant galleries that trailed him everywhere.
Soerenstam pursued this same attitude towards the game as the best in her own career. When she made a historic appearance in 2003 at the Colonial, she used routine to deal with her nerves, when the "world stopped" to see her compete with the men.
It is this inner motivation to compete with seriousness, rather than to entertain, that Sörenstam observed in Woods' daily routine. This pure scoring purpose and unwillingness to lower himself to less than his best constituted the career.
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Written by
Abhishek Sharma
Edited by
Kalp Thaker