Browsing: client

Chris Como, in talking about the practice method of “a lot of people,” describes it as divided. Ninety minutes, for example, might be broken up into 30 minutes for chipping, 30 minutes for putting and 30 minutes for hitting balls.

Then there’s one of his former clients.

And what are Como’s thoughts on Tiger Woods’ practice approach?

“Really interesting.”

Talking on the latest episode of the “On the Mark Podcast,” the GOLF Top 100 teacher had been asked by host Mark Immelman whether he had a story on Woods’ work ethic, and the question was understandable, as Como worked as Woods’ coach from 2014 to 2017. The exchange can be found by clicking on the video below, and below that will be some additional thoughts.

What was Tiger Woods’ work ethic like?

To that question, Como talked glowingly.

“Even in a window where he was hurt, he would just do everything he could to fight through it,” he said on the podcast. “It was one of the more remarkable things I’ve ever seen just from a human level where I know the type of pain he was in and how injured he was and how kind of difficult the whole back situation was for him. And he just kept fighting. Like 99.9 percent of all the people in the world would probably just be like, ‘Look, I’m good. I’ve won 14 majors, made X amount of dollars. I’m good.’ And he just kind of kept at it.

“And then to win the Masters in 2019, that was just one of the more special moments in sports, I think. So, yeah, it was remarkable to be around him and just that no-quit kind of mindset. His work ethic was incredible. He fought through a lot of pain and kept at it.”

The takeaway: If you’re a Woods fan, this is part of what drew you to him.

But how did Tiger Woods work?

Not like “a lot of people,” Como said on the podcast. As you might expect from a 15-time major winner.

Away from tournaments, Woods would focus on one part of his game during practice, Como said. And only one part.

“One of the things I thought was really interesting,” he said, “the way he would practice, especially when it was away from a tournament, would be he would take a whole afternoon and just do short game or take a whole afternoon and just putt.

“So a lot of people subscribe to, ‘I’m going to do 30 minutes chipping, 30 minutes putting, 30 minutes hitting balls’ — whatever it is — and they break an X-amount-of-hour window with all the different facets of the game. He would do that when it came to tournament prep, but if he had a window off, he would spend a huge chunk with one part of the game.

“And it was almost like he was experimenting and learning, and having that big window gave him that ability to go deep into a subject, right, like hitting short game shots or whatever. And I thought that was really interesting that he was, at that time in his career, still, in a sense, learning things. That was an interesting sort of observation.”