WINFREY: Please welcome Tiger Woods!
Hello, baby. Hello, baby boy.
Mr. T. WOODS: Oh! Thank you.
WINFREY: It's the Tiger.
Mr. T. WOODS: Wow!
WINFREY: Wow. That'll wake you up.
Mr. T. WOODS: That will. Whoo!
WINFREY: Well, now your life has changed in a week or so,
has it not?
Mr. T. WOODS: Just a little bit.
WINFREY: Just a little bit.
How has it been? How are you--is it settling in with you?
Mr. T. WOODS: I'll kind of put it in perspective for you.
WINFREY: Uh-huh.
Mr. T. WOODS: After the Masters,
my--my best friend, Jerry,
and I went down to Cancun...
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. T. WOODS: ...for a little vacation,
a little R&R and get away from everything.
And little did we know it'd be more like
jail break instead of spring break.
WINFREY: Really? Really?
Mr. T. WOODS: Yeah.
It was pretty tough.
WINFREY: All the paparazzi was there.
Mr. T. WOODS: It wa--it was still tough.
People recognized me everywhere I went and...
WINFREY: Well...
Mr. T. WOODS: What?
WINFREY: Surprise, surprise.
I can imagine, because, you know,
Stedman has played golf for years
and years and years and has tried
to get me interested in golf.
And my friends Bob and Sally Brown
had told me, you know, y--
I needed to get my own clubs.
The first tournament I ever watched was
you in the Masters.
I was watching the tournament,
calling everybody else, making sure they were
watching the tournament.
Apparently, everybody in the world watched,
so I'm not surprised that you were recognized.
Mr. T. WOODS: No.
WINFREY: I want to know what you said the moment th--
that the president of the United States
has called the best shot of the week was that
moment when you were hugging your father.
Mr. T. WOODS: Yeah.
WINFREY: And we were watching,
and I was on the phone and crying,
like most of America was.
What were you saying?
What was he saying?
Mr. T. WOODS: My dad just said,
`Let it out.
Just let it all out.'
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. T. WOODS: He knows how tough a
week that was
leading up in--to the Masters.
You know, a lot of things happened--
tough things happened.
But just winning the tournament took a lot out of me.
When you have a lead like that,
it's probably the toughest way to win.
It take--it takes so much out of you. And...
WINFREY: Toughest way to win with a lead like that?
Mr. T. WOODS: With a lead--with a lead,
because only bad can happen.
If you blow it, i--it just makes it that much worse.
WINFREY: So at one point, when you went nine shots ahead,
were you then thinking, `I want to make 10'?
And then when you made 10, were you thinking,
`I want to beat the next record and the next'?
Mr. T. WOODS: No. When you g--when you get that kind of lead,
I like to try to push the envelope--you know,
keep building, keep building and keep building,
because my dad always said,
`Once you get them down, stomp on them.'
WINFREY: Tell me how it is you are so mentally prepared.
That's what everybody says about you,
that they can't beat you at the mental game,
and even your father says that.
Mr. T. WOODS: Well, my--my dad prepared me
for all this.
Don't forget, he's a Green Beret and, you know,
he's a pretty tough dog.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. T. WOODS: And, you know, he passed on a lot of
his mental tactics that he learned from
either being in the Green Beret or just from,
I think, growing up in the times
he did and being the first black to ever play
in the Big Eight in--in baseball.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mr. T. WOODS: He had to endure a lot and
he had to be a very tough, tough guy.
And he passed on a lot of that toughness to me.
WINFREY: OK. So I remember reading in your
father's book--your father's going to be out here--
"Training a Tiger"...
Mr. T. WOODS: Mm-hmm.
WINFREY: ...he talked about how when you
were like three or four years old and you would be--
throw down your golf col--club and beat the golf club.
And he'd say, `Well, was it the bird that caused you to do that?'
Mr. T. WOODS: Mm-hmm.
WINFREY: `Was it somebody rattling a paper bag that did it?'
And you would say...
Mr. T. WOODS: No, I did it. I screwed up.
WINFREY: Uh-huh.
Mr. T. WOODS: And that's one of the lessons
I think everyone should learn.
I--and I think it's a very important lesson,
because in any kind of sport, especially individual sport,
you know, sometimes we like to blame
it on--on other things.
Team sports, you can understand if your teammate messes up.
But in a sport like golf, I'm the one who is at fault.
If I hear a cameraman click,
it's my fault for hearing that, because I should
be more mentally focused than that.
And, you know, in my sport, I have to take
the blame 100 percent.
If I screw up, it's my fault.
If I win, you know, it's my fault.
You know, I have to take the blame either/or.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm. That's why golf is a wonderful metaphor for life.
Mr. T. WOODS: Right, it is, because you get out what you put into it,
and golf is really a microcosm of life.
WINFREY: So tell me what's been
the most exciting thing that's happened to you since
you won the Masters.
Was the green jacket the moment--
that we saw you getting the green jacket?
What did that mean or was it a surreal moment?
Mr. T. WOODS: I...
WINFREY: I thought Stedman was going to fall out of
his chair when you thanked all the golfers who'd--
all the African-American golfers who'd come before you.
He goes, `That's my boy! That's the man!'
Yes. So he's on the phone with Bob and they're yelling,
`Yes! He thanked the elders!'
That was a good moment.
Mr. T. WOODS: That was a good moment.
WINFREY: Yes. Uh-huh.
Mr. T. WOODS: Well, it--it--well, to be honest with you--
because people don't realize what, you know, PGA tour was.
It was pretty tough to get into it if you're a minority.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Mr. T. WOODS: And guys--
people fail to realize that the first black
to ever play in the Masters was Lee Elder in 1975,
and it just happened to be the same year I was born, ironically.
WINFREY: Wow. Wow.
Mr. T. WOODS: And I remember--it still gives me chills to
this moment--is when I I think back to Sunday,
as I was chipping on the chipping green before I was going
to go pl--play. I just finished chipping.
I was just about to walk up the hill and go.
Lee Elder came down, who was the one who did it.
And--wow! I still get this weird feeling.
And he came down and says,
`Thank you,' you know, and--and--and,
`That meant a lot to me.'
He said, `Go out there and win this thing.'
WINFREY: Really?
Mr. T. WOODS: Yeah, and that--that gave me chills.