Tiger Woods' achievements in golf imply that he did a few things differently from the others, and his long-time caddie, Steve Williams, knows about one of them.

Williams, who was Woods' caddie for over a decade, often comes up with interesting background stories about Woods. In an April 2025 episode of the High Performance podcast, the 62-year-old disclosed how Woods practiced differently from the others.

Williams compared Woods' practice session with Charles Howell III's and highlighted that Howell would hit three shots by the time Woods hit just one. He also disclosed the reason behind it, saying, "Every single shot Tiger would hit, after he'd loosened up. It had a purpose. There was never just this case of just standing there swinging and hitting a shot."

Williams also mentioned that others would "hit 200 balls" in about "two hours" or practice for hours on autopilot. However, Woods would hit fewer shots, each with its own "purpose". Woods' former caddie said, "It was either a shape to a shot or a shot that he was picturing for an upcoming tournament."

That’s how Woods trained on the range with purpose, but when major week arrived, he took it a step further by turning practice into a full mental run-through of the course.

Steve Williams Reveals How Tiger Woods Visualized Shots During Major Weeks

In the lead-up to majors, Tiger Woods raised the intensity and kept his schedule tight.

Williams said Woods usually avoided playing the week before a major unless it was necessary, choosing instead to spend that time preparing with purpose.

Williams explained that Tiger would "play the course on the range,” rehearsing specific shots from specific holes, like the 13th at Augusta, so nothing felt new once the tournament began.

"He’d [TigerWoods] just stand there and I’d say okay, this is the 13th hole, Augusta… you know, almost play around the golf on the range." Steve Williams said during the podcast.

That routine, Williams said, is why Tiger could pull off shots under pressure, because he had already put himself in that pressure mentally during practice.

But this is far from being the only interesting background story that Williams has revealed about Woods. Do you know of any other?

Written by

Aditi Singh

Edited by

Souvik Roy