“Camouflage Myself”: Hilarious Young Tiger Woods & His Late Father’s Story of Tricking Course Officials to Play Golf

Tiger Woods had been carved by his father, Earl Woods since he was a child. A retired Navy personnel, Earl used to train his son hard with the fighter planes flying over and teach him the lessons of cutting the outside noises. Until he went to Stanford, Woods’ home course was the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California. The course could be entered by U.S. Military Reservation, Naval Golf Course, Authorized Personnel Only, and that was Earl Woods. So, how did Woods start playing there?

In an old interview from 2018 with Petros and Money, Woods recalled the story of how he sneaked into the Navy Golf Course. The 48-year-old narrated that he was too young to access the course and was just 10 when his mother, Kultida Woods, would drop him off at the gate. Since he couldn’t be seen at the course, the 15-time major winner used to walk north towards the ditch at the back nine after passing the gate. He said, “I’d walk past the clubhouse so they couldn’t see on the south side” and wait until his father would come out with a cart.

Sometimes, he relayed that it would go past one, two, or even three until Earl Woods would come by. But then he would be there, and call him by Sam, the name Woods gave to his daughter. He would hop in the cart and start playing with him. Woods added, “My dad was a former sniper so I guess he taught me how to camouflage myself and dig in, you know, and yeah we’d go out there and play until dark, and then once it got dark we keep playing until you lost the golf ball.” 

Tiger Woods also recalled that one time he played from five onwards to the 18th hole until it got pitch dark at the Navy Golf Course. It was indeed a thrilling moment for young Woods to sneak and trick the officials from him. And a place that made him one of the greatest golfers of all time. Moreover, it was at the Navy Golf Course that made him stronger, so those tactics have been passed from Earl to Tiger; and now Charlie to Woods.

Tiger Woods shares his training sessions with Charlie Woods

It was the Navy Golf Course, Tiger Woods with Earl Woods, and their unending practice sessions, which were different than the usual golf drills. Woods’s’ father taught him golf and also how to ignore the rest. Earl Woods used to call his son different names that he once heard in his life, rattle coins in his pockets to divert his attention, or cough in between his host, just so, that if these things happened during an event, Woods wasn’t thrown off.

And this exact tactic was passed on from Woods to his Charlie Woods practice. During the 2022 Hero World Challenge, Tiger gave an interview to Golf Channels’ Paul Azinger and Dan Hicks. There, he revealed using these tricks and said, “It’s nonstop, it’s trying to get him—if I can get into his head, that means someone else can get in his head.” But he further explained that after many attempts now the 15-year-old junior golfer does not allow his or anyone’s father to get to his head, and that’s all thanks to his Woods family’s unusual practice drills.

Although Charlie Woods didn’t have to sneak into a golf course to learn the game, he still learned it the old way. And he may come out to be a better golfer, just as his father has been. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.