Tiger Woods’ willingness and ability to shape approach shots has been unparalleled throughout his 20-plus-year career. Hardly any two iron shots look the same—Woods is always trying to achieve a specific ball flight that best fits the shot at hand. And it’s not just draws and fades; Woods constantly varies trajectory, too, which he says is his key to controlling distance.
How, then, does Woods go about dialing in the height of his iron shots? It’s a simple, old-school method that he learned from his first teacher: his father.
“My dad had a very easy way of explaining it,” Woods says in Episode 5 of My Game: Tiger Woods—Shotmaking Secrets, Presented by Geico. “You want to hit it low, stop your hands short of your shoulders. You want to hit it normal, stop it at your head. If you want to hit it high, have your hands finish above your head.”
“When you’re trying to explain how to hit different shots to a five-year-old, trying to make it really simple, those are all feel things that connect me with the clubhead and the shot. I don’t really worry about mechanics that much.”
For more insight into how Woods seems to always hit his approach shots the perfect distance, check out the full episode.