Would take my skills up against jack any day and im sure he would feel the same way. Rose do you believe you will get 18 pages . To be honest with you, no. Rose you dont . No. Rose youve accepted that . Ive accepted im going to get more. laughter rose an encore presentation of my conversation with tiger woods for the hour, next. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by the following and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose tiger woods is here. He is considered one of golfs greatest players, if not at his best the best. In 1997, at age 21, he won his first major tournament at the masters by a record 12 strokes. He was previously the only male to win three straight u. S. Amateur titles with a total of 14 major championships under his belt, he trails only Jack Nicholas who has 18. In recent years, he has been side reasoned by injure including three back surgeries. Tiger delayed his return to competitive golf to this month stating my game is vulnerable and not where it needs to be. This year markets the 20t 20th anniversary of the tiger woods foundation, focusing on Youth Education and intends to double the number of students attending college through its scholarship this year. Pleased to have tiger woods at this table for the first time. Thank you, charlie. Rose we have been trying for this for a long time, so i thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Rose this has been an interesting several weeks for you. There was the ryder cup. You were instrumental, according to patrick reed, you were with him on the course and says you were with him in his head. You announced a new company tgr involved in live events, restaurants and golf course management, other things. Right. Rose you celebrated the 20th anniversary of the foundation. You announced you would play in the safeway tournament and then withdrew saying your body was okay, saying that your golf was vulnerable. Mmhmm. Rose what did you mean . Well, charlie, before the ryder cup, i was playing and able to shoot scores and able to play at home, then took time off during the ryder cupp and was focused on that. And i never quite got my scoring around, and i was so excited to play. I wanted to compete. I went out to stanford right before safeway and was practicing out there, we were with the team and hanging out with them, and really working on my game, and its a hard realization knowing that, you know, im not scoring like i should be. My feel for hitting, you know, 150yard 7irons and taking stuff off it or jumping on a 9iron and hitting the correct distance, shaping shots, all that stuff, i kind of lost the feel of that and, trust me, as a competitor, i was ready to go, i wanted to compete, i wanted to compete, but in my heart of hearts, i knew i couldnt shoot 63s and 64s and, trust me, as a competitor, it doesnt feel very good. Rose as the greatest iron player in the history of the game to take a 7iron or to take a wedge and not be able to do what you know you have done before, what you have felt before, what does it feel like . Well, it was more the feel of hitting those shots because i havent done it enough, and i was in a groove playing at home. I took the time off with the ryder cup, and trying to come back after that, i just didnt quite have the same feel. I thought i would pick it up right away. I was ready to compete and go, and, man, its tough knowing that i see a shot and i can kind of feel it but its not quite there yet. If its not quite there yet, youve waid over a year to get back to this point, lets be smart about it and not rush it. Thats from my brain saying that to me, but my heart is saying, tiger, lets play, lets go. Come on, lets get back into it. Rose have you come back before when you think now its too early . Ive done it so many times either through surgeries or injuries, ive played through them, come back early, ive damaged the body to compete at a high level so many times, and this time i took a lot of time off to get it right, and theres no sense in hurrying and injuring myself anymore or shaping the shots and getting the feel for it. I want to do it right at the same time and have it come together. At safeway, i thought i was ready for it, and i wasnt. I thought, take a step back, youve waited this long, theres no sense in the urgency of doing it again, make sure your stuff is ready and when it is, you will know. Rose and you will know. Oh, yeah, ill know. Rose but jasper and others have said, ive played with him and, boy, hes back to being amazing. I mean, have you had those kinds of rounds . As ive said, ive done that at home and knowing that i have to do it in a scoring environment on a pga tour and shooting the same scores once we get home, the mid to low 60s and then doing that again, i wasnt quite ready for it yet. And because this is the longest layoff ive ever had in my career, and ive never had this long a layoff, my plays arent what they should be be. I need more practice, more play time, playing more money games with the guys on tour at home. Rose you live around a lot of golfers. I believe there is 33 pros that play out there. Rose you play with them. I have been playing with them and taking a bit of their money here and there. laughter rose for me, there is a difference between the driving range and the course. Totally, correct. Rose a difference between playing with friends and a tournament. Yes. Being ranger rick is one thing and then playing the tour level is a totally different deal. Beyond the tour level is the major championships, so there is a progression and im not quite at the tour level progression yet. Rose do you believe the talent is there . Oh, yeah. Rose youre sure . Yeah. Rose how do you know . Oh, im hitting the shots, i can feel the shots, i just dont quite have it all yet, and i like having the full repertoire of shots. I really wasnt there yet. Rose let me just analyze your game today. The putting. The putting is what made you great. Right. I can putt. Rose you can putt. I can putt. Rose there is no problem there. Huhuh. Rose the long irons . Not a problem. Rose what is it . Just overall scoring. Rose its not a particular aspect of the game you can fix and then youve got it . No, its just putting it all together. Rose keeping it in the pairway. Keeping it in the fairway, im not quite as long as i used to be. Rose by how much . Ten yards. I can carry the ball over 300 yards but the big boys are now 330. Its a different ball game. The game has gotten a lot bigger. I was out there at the ryder cup watching some of the guys hit golf balls. It was 52 degrees out and theyre using the track band. Im looking at the numbers, 52 degrees out, and im going, i just carried 308. Its 52 degrees and were looking at each other going, can you hit one out that far . Rose do you feed to make any adjustments to your swing . Thats ebbing and flowing. Im making slight tweaks here and there, and that is something that ive always done. Its just making a little bit of tweets. Rose thats the search for perfection . Not perfection but professional excellence. Were not perfect. So ive converted the word into professional excellence. Rose you were thinking perfect . I was trying to get better. Rose but youve always done that . Ive always done that. Rose thats the search to different swing coaches, and what can i do, because im as good as i am, when you were experimenting with your game, winning every tournament you can see. I was doing that when office kid, always trying to get better. Rose mindset, will to win, clearheadedness, thats there, sure. Mmhmm. Rose those who suggest vulnerable means not just the game but vulnerableness somehow about not having the same sense of rightness that you had at the best of your game. Well, when i played my best, that was 16 years ago. Rose yeah. So most guys arent jumping and doing 360 dunks at the age of 40, okay . Most guys arent taking off on the foul line and doing dunks at age 40. So we have to make adjustments as we get older, and ive done that throughout the years. And throughout different injuries, ive played around them, and this is no different. Rose i do get the sense, though, that you dont want any more surgeries. Oh, god, no. Rose well, no, for a different reason. You want to play with your kids and all that stuff. Youve suggested youve had it with surgeries. Seven is enough. Rose seven is enough. Seven is enough. Rose and part of the reason is you want to play with the kids and all these other things and you dont want to be in pain. I love playing soccer with my kids and being able to toss the golf around, playing ball with charlie. I love doing that. For us to do soccer drills and just to have fun. To me, when i was hurt after the last surgery and i couldnt do any of that stuff for months at a time, that was brutal. That was hard to take because daddy, lets go play. Daddy cant move. Rose but do i get the sense, i mean, if terms of what youre doing, announcing the company, that you are prepared, if golf is over, to have another life. Well, charlie, its basically, the tgr branding is bringing all our businesses under one umbrella. They have been existing. Rose right. But im setting up chapter two of my life. Chapter one was the golfer, only the golfer, playing golf, winning tournaments. Here im setting up chapter two without hitting a golf ball and trying to create a Business Empire and different business entities and growing that so i dont have to hit a golf ball is that to be a happy person . To do other things that are of my interest. The golfer can still be there, i can still play, i can still do those things, but its not mandatory for my business to grow and for me to help kids with my foundation or with the restaurant or the tgr design or all that stuff. I dont have to hit a golf ball. I can eventually transition into being strictly an entrepreneur. Rose and involved with the foundation and other things. 100 . Rose okay. Heres whats interesting about you more than any athlete i know. Its not just you, its us. We cant let you go. There is a sense that oh, you care . laughter rose yes. But there is a sense that we never understood how it was to be so brilliant on a golf course. We didnt get how one could be so dominant in a sport. We didnt understand how you could lose that, either, you know, and we desperately, and i think this is everybody, because of the mystique and because of where it was and because of how it was lost is to understand and to want you to come back. They want to see it, that kind of dominance. Its reflected in television ratings. They want to see it one more time. Youve thought about that. Of course, charlie. I miss being out there. I miss competing and mixing it up with the boys and coming down the stretch. Rose you like being tiger woods . I like beating those guys. Thats why i practice all those hours and trained all those hours in the gym, ran all those miles is to be ready to take on those guys down the stretch, and do i miss it . Absolutely, a hundred percent. And to be at my age now at 40 years old and to have gone through the things ive gone through, you know, physically, you know, hey, im the first one to admit i cant do the things i used to be able to do. Most people cant at my age versus when they were younger. I have to find different ways to go about it. Rose you have to find other ways to win . Yes, i do. But because of my mindset, im naturally a tactician. Even when i was hitting the ball long and blowing off the top of bunkers, that was the strategy. So i used my mind, and eventually the method i used allowed me to match my craft. Rose thats why the mind is so important. You used your mind. Youve learned that from your father, i assume. Correct. Rose you learned mental toughness. You learned how to win. You still have that, dont you . That part hasnt left me. I know how to get it done. I just need to get into a position to get it done. Rose but you have to do this yourself. Theres no coach, no psychologist can tell you that. As an individual athlete, youre actually out there by yourself. I know joeys with me on the bag, but no ones pulling the trigger, no ones bailing you out. The manager is not coming in and bringing the righty in when youre struggling. Youre by yourself. Theres no timeouts, no im not feeling good and well play the guy off the bench and fill your role, ire by yourself out there. Rose thats part of what you liked about the game. I liked the grind of it and the ownership of it. What i really loved and still love is getting out there and figuring out a way to get it done, just figuring out a way. Rose you love figuring out a way. Whatever you have, trying to figure out a way, digging down deep in myself to try to find a way to get it done. It may not be pretty, but finding a way to get it done. Because ive won Golf Tournaments, as you know, hitting over fairways left and right, missing greens and chipping in. Rose and when it was almost dark, they didnt know how you could possibly see the hole. Im a tiger. Im a cat. Im a night owl. Rose goes without saying. You said people dont understand when i was growing up i was not the most talented biggest or the fastest and certainly not the strongest, the only thing i had was my work ethic and thats whats gotten me this far. Thats one thing you cant take away. You can take away all my physical attributes but you cant touch my mind, and that part of it is being mentally prepared and having the mindset of preparing and digging in and doing the work. Ive never been afraid of that. Rose some have said, to be tiger woods was both a gift and a burden. How is it a sphwhurd burden . Well, its a burden in the sense that the amount of obligations i have at a tournament, the anonymity that was lost, you know, if you look back, the only regret i have in life is not spending another year at stanford, and i wish i had that year. Rose thats the only regret . The only regret. Rose audit of all the things that happened . All the things. Rose everything . Ive learned all the things i have been through have been tough, but great for me but i wish i had gone one more year at stanford. Rose why do you say that . The amount of brilliant people who were there, the things i was learning at the time was i ready to turn pro . Physically, yes. I won a bunch of tournaments and the college slam, no ones done that, the College Region also and nationals, three amateurs in a row, but i was ready to go. I wish i had spent one more year learning from everyone who was there people designing their own computers, working on the accelerator. Rose there are stories about you reading physics books and being fascinated by things like that. You can always do that. But being around those people at that age, you dont likely get a chance to do that again and have two great years at stanford, it shaped me more than the years as, you know, subsequent. Those two years really did shape me because the amount of people and plus going away from home for the very first time and for me to feel at home and comfortable around some of the greatest athletes on the planet, some of the brightest minds on the planet, and were all so young and doing it together, and this is before the internet, so having the communication and trying to get through study groups, you know, thats one thing i do miss. Rose in the 90s. In the 90s, yeah. Rose i want to talk about, one, how you became tiger, how you lost it and how you can regain it. Well talk a little bit about that. Why golf in the first place . Well thats a great question. I have played it basically all pi life. I played baseball, i was a pitcher, i ran track and cross country. I liked doing those sports but i didnt love it. I kept coming back to golf. I kept finding myself running the miles in track and especially cross country, getting all that mileage in to get ready to play golf. When i was on the mound throwing, im thinking, okay, this is, like, number one, ive got to position my shot on the right side to have the fairway, this ball has to be outside. My mind kept coming back to golf. Whatever i was doing, it kept coming back to golf. Rose you watched your father hit balls in the garage up against a net . I did. It was one of those el nino years, so pops wasnt allowed to go out there and hit the amount of range balls because it was hosen down rain, storm after storm kept coming in southern cal, and i just happened to be born december of the next year, you know, el nino hits and, you know, here i am. Rose talk about him and your relationship with him. Well, being my dad, hes a person i miss dealer. I think about him every day. He was more than just my dad. He was a person i could always turn, to a friend, a mentor, a leader, and then eventually a follower and, you know, he put on so many different hats and was comfortable playing different roles, and thats something that, you know, i thoroughly miss. Rose and what did he give you . My dad . He gave me so much. He gave me his heart, his soul, and the fact that we were able to have the conversations we were able to have through all my childhood and when i turned pro and even when he was sick and he was battling Prostate Cancer three times, he would always find time and somehow find a way to be able to talk to me. Even if he wasnt feeling well, he would sit up and we would have a great conversation. Rose let me ask about a couple of things, number one i guess the time you jumped out of a plane at fort bragg or somewhere, and your dad said, now you know what my life is like, correct . Yeah, jumped with the Golden Knights at fort bragg. Rose and what did he mean . Well, it was i had grown up playing at a military golf course and been around the military and been around active duty and retired servicemen my entire life, but i hadnt experienced what he had to do, you know, for his job. Rose as a green beret . As a green beret, and as transportation to get your job. Taking a car for me to go to the golf course. His was jumping out of an airplane. Rose right. But he said to you, now you know what i do. It was, like, ive watched you as a golfer, and now you can see what made me. Correct, and the amount of physical work it took for those guys to do what they do, the operators operating in the past around currently, it is physically demanding, its brutal on the body and even tougher on the mind. So getting over fear and relying on others not only to basically save your life, thats something i never experienced, never understood. Rose he helped you understand fearlessness . Not necessarily understand it because i was always kind of an adrenaline junky to begin with, but i understand where he was coming from now. Rose look at this video, sitting at this table tigers pop, earl. Imax mize his opportunity with his own assets and his own skills. I brought this out in him. He already had toughness, i might add. Then i brought more to the table, taught him how to refine it and develop additional toughness in him through experiential things. Since that time, since he graduated from what i call woods finishing school, he has exponentially gone even higher on the toughness scale, past even what i thought, and its surprising him. He has called me and he says, pop, i am getting to tough, and every time i see him and i have been away from him a little while, im amazed at how much tougher he is. Thats cool. Rose to see him. Thats cool to see him. Rose and what he said. I mean, toughness people believe what you have had on the course, certainly at the best of those years when you had such a remarkable run, that it was toughness, that you were mentally tougher than everybody else. I just knew i was going to beat you. Rose you did. I did. Rose but it was part of what happened to you. You were expected to win. Thats fine. But i expected to win as well. The toughness, i think, came in through practice and, as you were alluding to, hard work. And me working hard and really feeling comfortable and hitting all the shots and pulling it off, all the shots you see me pull off, ive already pulled off. I didnt practice. If i can do it there, i can do it anywhere. Rose youre convinced you worked harder than everybody else . Thats something i may not have. Rose hogan felt that, too. I just know that, as i alluded to, i wasnt always the biggest, the fastest, the most gifted, but you cant take away my work ethic. Rose but you wanted it more . I wanted to beat you more. Rose is this the same competitiveness that Michael Jordan has . I dont know. Rose you know michael. I do know michael, and michael is tough and he loves winning and he loves beating people, and i think there is a certain commonality between all levels, forget athletes, but all professions. I think you just enjoy Getting Better and being the best. Rose and so what happens when they beat you . You go back to the drawing board and do it again. Rose is that right . Absolutely. Rose to have always said, theres another day and i will be back and beat you . My winning percentage is not very high. You know, we lose more Golf Tournaments than we win. Rose yeah. Its like a baseball player. If you hit. 300, youre in the paul o hall of fame, so you lose 70 of the time, but youre one of the best thats played. My sport is the same, the winning percentage is not very high but its fun to come back and get it done. Rose how do we measure the best to ever play golf . Jack because he has 18 majors, or is it some general appraisal, simply that that person had more talent and applied it better than anybody . Thats a great question. It is so hard because we never got a chance to play against one another except that one time where we played with each other in 2000. But when you cross generations, you know, its very difficult to see whos better than the other. In all sports. But i just think that, for me, i would take my skills up against jack any day, and im sure hed feel the same way. Rose do you believe you will get 18 majors . To be honest with you, no. Rose you dont . No. Rose youve accepted that . Ive accepted im going to get more. laughter rose youre 40. Yes. Rose jack won the masters when i was 46. Correct. Rose tom almost won the british open when he was 59. I know. Rose but youve got to get started soon. Whether soon or not, i need to get started and be ready to go. Rose when your dad died and you took his body back to kansas, did that take something out of you . Having to bury my father, that was very difficult. Ive never lost a parent. My mom is still alive. That was the first person that has ever been close to me that ive had to go to a funeral and bury, and it happened to be the person i was closest to. Rose the most influential person in your life, bar none. Yeah, absolutely, correct. But also the person i was closest to, so i dont know if im in it if im the only one whos ever felt that way rose of corrse not. But it hurt a lot. I didnt grieve right away. I put it away for a while, and i missed the cut at the u. S. Open. I played horribly, and i still hadnt really grieved yet. I came back at hoy lake and played well and for some reason it was the most interesting thing, playing the final round, i had an overwhelming sense of calm, like what is this feeling. Normally youre pretty jacked up to play in a major if you get a chance to win, and i did, i had the lead, but all of a sudden i felt this overwhelming calmness, and it was like my pop was there. And then i finished the 18, and i never cry, but this started coming out, it couldnt control it. I just missed my dad. And i knew right then that he would never witness this again, and that was really hard to take. Rose he treated you like an adult. He did. One of the things i do with my kids that he did with me is, anytime we talked, he would always make sure that he was always at eye level. So when he was up above me, he would always sit down. If he was laying down, when he was toward the end of his life and wasnt feeling very good, he would sit up. So we would be at eye level now, he would come up, and we would always work at eye level. That is something that is so important. He never talked down to his child. We were communicating. Rose there were times in which you were estranged from him, yes . I dont know about estranged. What do you mean i . Rose meaning you two were not getting along because you had questions and your mother knew he was sick. This is what is said and im asking if its true. Its a perfectly natural thing to do. Your mother said youve got to make up with your father, you dont know how long hes going to live and if you dont you will regret it the rest of your life. I wouldnt say we were that far apart, not like that. We were still in communication, we were still talking, but i needed to get my relationship back to where it used to be. Rose but what was wrong with it . When dad was sick, he really sad some pretty outlandish things, and i think it was just him being sick, but i took it personal. So i said, hey, you know what . Hey, you have been really sick and the meds you have been on, he was all over the shop, his diabetes was really bad, and i didnt understand it at the time because i was still playing golf and still focusing on the things i needed to do, and a couple of times when he was really sick, he would say, you know, hey, Kentucky House of kentucky last week . I said, dad, i was here with you yesterday. He said pretty outlandish things at the time and chocked it up to being sick. He gave me one last hurray about two weeks before he died. We talked for about an hour and a half, but it was my dad of old, and he gave me one last bit of himself, and then from then on, he quickly eroded and then finally passed away. Rose would you be the golfer you are without your dad . No. Rose you would not be the champion you became . Without my dad or mother, no way. Rose both of them . No way. Rose because your mother stood by you and him. My mother was so supportive and so loyal and so great as a mother that theres no way. Rose she was also supportive after thanksgivingo fine when you had a public humeation thanksgiving of 2009 when you had a public humeiation. Tell me about dealing that. My mom was a mom. She said, im always here, i love you no matter what. She gave me a bunch of big hugs and that was really cool. Yeah, did i mess up . Absolutely. But my mom was still there for me. Rose that was important. Absolutely, because i didnt have my dad anymore. It was just her and i. Rose some would suggest that that humiliation you went through publicly, your private life exposed, has a lingering effect on your mind and your have better communication than weve ever had, and i have talked to her about my life almost on a daily basis, and she does the same. So it was rough to go through but, in the end, you know, here we are better than weve ever been. Rose how do you tell your kids why mommy and daddy are not together is this. Its because daddy made some mistakes. Daddy made some mistakes. I would much rather them hear it from me. Rose you said, i regret what i did . No, i havent said that. I said everybody makes mistakes, and the reason mommy is living in her house and daddy in his is because daddy made some mistakes and its okay. But you know what . You guys are so lucky to have two parents who love you so much, not everyone has that. I was lucky enough to have two loving parents. My father did not. His parents died by the time he was 11 and 13, so he grew up without having parents. My moms parents died early. So, you know, that, to me, i think is important in the end is my kids know that, no matter what whawhat happens that they d and mom will always be there, its just that we dont live together physically, but emotionally and spiritually we are always there with them. Rose you feel you have apologized to everybody you need to apologize to in terms of family and people you care about . Yes. Rose did it make you more vulnerable . I wont say more vulnerable is the word. Rose what would you say . I had to be honest with myself. Thats part of, you know, going through what i went through is i messed up. I shunned a lot of things. I didnt communicate with, for insans, elin instance, elin very well. But i learned from it. Fast forward, im a better communicator now. I talk to people more on a deeper level, and i learned a lot. Rose and if shes forgiven you, then thats a starting point for you. Shes forgiven me a long time ago, but weve worked so hard on creating an environment for our kids, and as i said, shes one of my best friends, and to go not too many people can say that about their exes, that theyre best friends. Rose so theres your dad gone, the humiliation youve dealt with, and then the injuries. When you look at losing it, are those three things responsible, or is it something we dont know or understand . Why has tiger woods not won a major since 2009 . 2008. Rose 2008. But at the same time, tiger woods has had good seasons, like 2013, after player of the year, after all those things. Yeah. Rose so im struggling to understand why you are not playing like you used to play, as i assume you are. Yeah. Rose and if you dont know, how can anybody else know . Ggestions by all kinds ofds of people. Oh, yeah, there is a lot of arm chair q. B. Ing. Rose yes, indeed. Ive had three back operations and thats taken its toll on me. Ive had a torn achilles, torn menace cues and blown knee. Ive changed my swing three times. Rose because of the pain and surgery . Trying to get around certain injuries and not duplicate them. Rose whats the best advice youve gotten for getting back to where you want to be . Go back to my dad. His famous line. Always said it to me, you get out what you put into it. Rose you get out what you put . You get out of it what you put into it. Rose you get out of it what you put into it. If you work hard, you get the results, if you dont work hard, more importantly, you dont deserve it because you didnt go out there and earn it. Rose how much is physical and how much is mental . For me, the mental comes from the physicality, from having umpteen great practicing and training sessions and home and then, as i said, going on the golf course with the guys and eventually into a tournament setting and eventually down the stretch into a tournament, major championships and a major, all those progressions that starts with hitting putts and working from the green back. How i learned to begin with. Chipping, drivers, you know. But it is the progression, and it doesnt happen overnight and takes a lot of effort. Rose and thats what will get you back . Absolutely. Rose but the mental part was i mean, everybody knew you had early, when you went in the u. S. Amateur, you had all the tools. But the mental stuff was so important. I mean, you wanted to win, and you also didnt just want to win that tournament, you wanted to beat the hell out of everybody who was there. That was mindset that you had. You were a killer. A killer winning was fun. Beating someone is even better. Rose why is that . I dont know. Ive always had that. You know, if you win a race, you know, you win a meet by a second or two, it sure feels a lot better if you win it by five or six, you know. Striking four or five guys out, but, you know what, throwing a nohitter is even better. Rose you just want to throw it right by them. Absolutely. Winning a Golf Tournament by one or two is great, but five or six is even better. Rose so it must be terribly hard for you to accept this. Its been terribly hard not to be able to do the things it would take for me to get to that level, and that is simply just practicing. Rose you have a strong confidence as your dad did in hard work. Thats where it came from. Rose ben hogan believed the same thing. Thats how ben hogan came back from a car accident. Correct. Rose he always said its in the dirt. Youve got to go earn it. Rose yeah. But you seem to be looking for all these swing coaches and stuff that, somehow, they will have a swing that will work best for you. And im wondering whether you need a swing coach because you had a pretty good swing, but youre saying you have to adjust a new swing because of the injuries which changed your body . Correct, and having the mindset, you know, having the correct mindset to go into a change and applying it to creating a whole new mede that i think whole new method i think would be better and more efficient, and thats what i was always striving to do, and thats why ive gone through swing coaches, and ive hurt my body. Lets not repeat that. Lets go somewhere else and try a different way. Rose yes. And i believe in that mindset, lets create this method, go down that road and master that. Next thing you know, that didnt work, lte come back around and do it again. Rose you were so selffocused in thinking about the game, you didnt seem to pay a lot of attention to other people. Yes . People who are closest to me, yes. Also ten, again, i was have also then, again, i was very uncomfortable being in public. Rose so more shyness than arrogance and being a jerk . No, ive always been very shievment when i was little, i had a speech impediment and i used to stutter pretty badly where i had to go to a special Afterschool Program two years to learn how to speak correctly. I was in the back to have the classroom. If you called on me, i couldnt speak. I would stutter so bad the teacher would pass me and go on to the next one. I had to learn how to speak. That was hard. I could read, i could write, but i couldnt speak. So i didnt want to speak to anybody. I didnt want to talk to anybody. Having to go through that difficult time early on in my childhood probably would shape me to what i am now. Rose people have said to me who know golf and you say they believe you can come back because they believe that the elite can come back. But its the belief and its also making sure that you face the new reality, which is what youre talking about. The new reality is i hit it differently today, i have to compensate to figure out a new way to win. As i said, most 40yearolds cant dunk from the foul line, so i have to go a different way. Thats part of the evolution of my game and part of the evolution of the sport, youve got to find a different way to do it, and there is nothing wrong with that. As you alluded to, jack won the masters at 46, almost 59. But those guys werent overpowering golf courses. They did it with their mind, strategically and through patience. Rose thats what you can do now . Thats what ive done in the past but also have the physicality to go with it. Rose youve lost a little physicality . You cant drive it over the bunker . The bunker is now 320. Rose the idea, when you were at your best, the idea of laying up was not something, that was not an idea that went into your head. Because of the fact that i could not only pull off the shots but i was far enough down there. Relative to the field, i was one of the players. Rose yes but that was at 296. Rose now its 320. Now its 320. The carry number back when i first came on tour, probably 20 or 30 guys still using persimmon. My carry number where i felt hitting a driver was 280. Now i can hit a 3wood 280 coming out of my chair. So its a completely different game than then. The game is much bigger and longer. So relative to the field, im not quite what i used to be. But numberswise, im longer than i used to be. Rose right. Timidate like you used to, and that was part of what you had. You intimidated everybody. You came expecting to win, and when they saw you, they expected to lose. Well, i dont know what they were thinking but i expected to beat them, yes. Rose you expected to win. You said to one person you expected to win, thats the demand on you because of what you achieved. Forget what i achieved. I expected to beat you because to have the work i put in. Rose a lot of people work hard. I dont know how they work and i dont know how they derive their own confidence and selfbelief. Some players derive it from practice. Some guys like to play a bunch of tournament and develop their momentum and feel and competitiveness that way. I have, for the most part of my career since probably 99, i really havent played that much. Some guys will play close to 30 events. Ive never done that is that you tailored it for the majors . I tried to peak for four times a year. When i was younger, it was harder because i only had the u. S. Junior one time a year. Rose you won three years in a row. And then the amateur and twoaways. But as a pro four times. Rose when do you think you will come back . Im moping to come back in december. Rose you are . Mmhmm h. Rose youre not going to play in the turkey thing . No. Rose but in december. December, yeah. At the challenge. Rose you believe you can do that, you will be ready . Something happened between withdrawing from safeway and competing there. More hard work. Rose i want to talk about the game, too. Of all the tournaments, which one meant the most to you, the first masters when you were 21 . Meant the most or the hardest to win . Rose both. Meant the most, the 97 masters. The hardest to win rose that was the first one. Yeah. Meant the most was 97 masters, and the hardest win was the last one in 2008. My life was broken. Rose and you played through that. No acl, my leg was broken. Rose how did you do that . Hell if i know. I look back on those days and i dont know how i pulled that off. Rose you said to me today, which i believe, what you love about the game is win is win, but more specifically beating somebody, thats what you love. Thats fun. Rose what is it about the military . Als that had you so engaged, obsessed, admiring. Well, i grew up my dad was in special forces, green beret. Being around special forces operators all my life, ive seen that world, and that world is, is it difficult . Yes, absolutely, but also comfortable to me because i was raised in it. Some of my dads best friend were operators. Either currently at the time and then or formerly retired, then the guys who were operators were retired and so we still played golf. So to me that was a world i had grown up in. Was it a big jump for me to participate and see it in a different light . Not really because ive seen it all my life. You know, being a military brat, thats kind of what i was used to. Rose but one of your caddies said you talked about giving up golf to become a navy seal. Did you . I told my dad at an early age i wanted to become a person in the military, a golfer or businessman. Well, i got a chance to become a golfer and businessman, i just didnt go in the military. Rose Arnold Palmer died within the last couple of weeks. What did he mean to you . He was a friend and a person that i pick up the phone and call and we would rap about so many Different Things and have a conversation and the dinners ive had with him were some of the great memories. Probably one to have the fondest probably one of the fondest memories i have is at napa, i was in college. Arnold would invite me to dinner and arnold picks up the tab. Im not going to say im a college student, im going to pick up my tab. Its Arnold Palmer. My coach found out. Did you i can up the tab . No, arnold did. I reported, declared ineligible. I go to the allamerican el paso, and i have to write Arnold Palmer a 25 check for my steak dinner. He has to cash the check, fax the copy back and i was declared eligible to play in the allamerican. Rose how about Jack Nicholas . How about him . Rose whats your relationship with him . Do you believe he is the greatest golfer to ever live . I think im pretty good, too. Rose do you think youre better than nicholas . I think we would have a hell of a duel. Rose do you think youre better than him . I think i could kick his ass. Rose right now . Hes 70. Rose so 40 can beat 70. laughter no, jack has always been one of my heros. Rose you lusted for his record . I wouldnt say lusted for his record. I would say that was a Gold Standard because he had won the most majors and the second most tour events, and, so, he was the most efficient, i think, at the highest level for the longest period of time, and, you know, how did it . One, eedidnt play that much either. He played a very limited schedule and paced himself and basically tried to get ready four times a year, and he was better than anybody else who had come along. Walter hagers record was 11, he is 18. Rose and youre 14. Correct. Rose and you believe you will have more than 18. Correct. Rose and if you dont, you will say i didnt get there. Rose but you said in another interview in Time Magazine that anything i win from now on the gravy because you know youre in the hall of fame and the record books and people regardless of how many you win say youre the greatest because they saw that run and the level of that game and say ive never seen anything like it. Famously, the comment that bobby jones made about jack, thats not a game im familiar with. And jack said about you, thats not a game im familiar with. Al thing. According to bobby jones, jack was, oh, my god. Where i was hitting it, jack couldnt hit it that farm. Technology has changed greatly, so i was able to do things jack wasnt able to do because to have the equipment, jack was able to do things bobby jones couldnt do because to have the equipment, but one commonality is we were all efficient at what we did, and we did it better than most people did. Rose someone else said to me the great ones never lose their fire, they only lose their ability. Thats true, isnt it . There will come a point in time where, yeah, physically, i wont be able to do it. Rose how will you know . And how do you know thats not now . I wont be able to prepare to be ready to go out and win. For me, if im not able to prepare to win, then i cant do it anymore. Rose what do you want to be known for other than a great golfer and a great businessman . What im doing with my foundation. What weve done for all the kids. All the kids have come through our learning labs, what were doing with digital expansion, what were doing for kids not just here domestically but internationally as well. I think what i do in chapter two of my life with this new branding of tgr, i think the whole second part of my life will be better and more impactful than what i did as a golfer, hitting a high drive and making a couple of putts. I think what were doing to impact lives will far exceed what weve done on the golf course. Rose bill gates is known more for philanthropy than he is starting one of the most Successful Companies in the history of business. I hundred percent agree. Rose thats possible for you . I think thats a great example of what can happen. Rose and right now youre going to try to be the greatest golfer in the world and educate through the tiger woods fowrntion celebrating its 20year anniversary, by the way. I know, 20 years, doing this for half my life. Rose if it ends today, what is the legacy you want it . I was a pretty good player. I had some good years in there and won events. I really loved competing, i loved being out there and i loved being in that moment, trying to pull off something. Whether i did or didnt, testify that opportunity to have that moment, fail or succeed, it was on me and it was at that moment, that is fun. Rose thank you for coming. Thank you, charlie. Thanks for having me. Rose thank you. Tiger woods for the hour. Thank you for joining us. A remarkable conversation about not only performance but the will to win. Rose for more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Youre watching pbs. Man its like holy mother of comfort food. Ion. Woman throw it down. Its noodle crack. Patel you have to be ready for the heart attack on a platter. Crowell okay, im the bacon guy. Man oh, i just did a jig every time i dipped into it. Man 2 it just completely blew my mind. Woman it felt like i had a mouthful of raw vegetables and dry dough. Sbrocco oh, please. I want the Dessert First [ laughs ] i told him he had to wait