In August 1996, Golf Digest reporter Tom Callahan, also a former Marine, had the opportunity to meet Earl Woods at the Greater Milwaukee Open.

The first tournament Tiger Woods played in after deciding to transfer. to professional. 

This conversation brought many interesting moments, especially the answer to the reason why the name “Tiger” appeared.

Earl Woods , a war hero who fought in Vietnam but at that time could not remember the time he served in the army. 

He said his best friend was a soldier in southern Vietnam named Tiger Phong, but this person had been missing since the war. 

To cherish his friendship, he decided to give his newborn son a “nickname” that is a legendary name that everyone will know later.

After that conversation, Callahan decided to go on a strange journey to find the person named Tiger Phong mentioned above and this was the long-running story he published in Golf Digest in 1997.

Memoirs of Earl Woods

On the last day of 1975, just one day after Eldrick Woods (or Tiger Woods later) was born, this boy’s father was still sitting thoughtfully thinking about the past and future when suddenly a voice spoke. go up.

“ Don’t worry, Woody ,” Lieutenant Colonel Phong told Earl in a gentle voice. “ I have never lost a mentor .”

“ Glad to hear that, Tiger ,” Woods whispered. “ But I certainly don’t want to be the first .”

Tiger Phong and Earl Woods are deep inside the Vietnam War, specifically Phan Thiet, but only Phong knows the exact location. At that time, Phong was holding the position of Deputy Governor of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), while Woods was simply an American advisor, but their relationship was more than friends.

After many life-and-death battles, the two came to regard each other as brothers. It was Woods who nicknamed Phong “Tiger”, expressing some admiration. Not many soldiers at that time were worthy of the name “Tiger”.

When not fighting, they often spend their time playing tennis or many other things. Woods was the one who instructed Phong to play basic jazz measures, while Phong often taught Woods philosophical lessons. Together, they experienced a life full of smiles but also not without tears.

On a quiet night, as the room filled with the sound of Aretha Franklin singing from a tape recorder, Phong once again shared his dream of becoming a teacher – even though he looked like one at the time. The dream that this man wanted for his children was simply that helicopters no longer existed in the world.

Woods only remembered a battle he experienced and asked himself, ” Why haven’t the Americans left yet when the Communists are winning?” Why so? ”. He should have fallen to death many times, but in the end he still did not. So he always told himself: ” There must be a reason .”

Callahan’s decision

Due to the influence of time, Earl Woods cannot remember the exact time of the above memories except the year. Therefore, I (Callahan) researched and determined that the period of friendship between the two people was between August 15, 1970 and August 13, 1971. In fact, I didn’t know if I could trust the words of someone who didn’t know he had been in Vietnam. I found everything he said even more unbelievable when I heard the following statement.

“ Give Tiger (Woods) seven chances to win a tournament, he will definitely win one of them .”

The above statement brings a strange feeling because when Tiger Woods turned professional in 1996, many people wondered whether he could earn enough prize money in the last seven weeks of the PGA Tour season at that time to avoid whether to fall into the member selection qualifying stages or not.

So Earl’s explanation of why he chose the name Tiger from a Lieutenant Colonel named Phong, surnamed Nguyen for his child made me even more skeptical. “ Instinctively, I knew my son would be famous. One day, my old friend will see him on television, read things about him in newspapers or magazines and realize ‘That must be Woody’s son’ and then we will be able to find each other. ”.

Wait a minute, the story of Tiger Woods may bring freshness but the plot of a missing soldier may not. Actually, I also wonder if there ever was a Lieutenant Colonel Phong. Everything that is told seems quite vague and unclear.

However, Earl Woods is not simply an ordinary Lieutenant Colonel, he is a Green Beret. According to information received, Tiger Woods’ father once participated in the training course of this elite force in the Arctic, where temperatures are as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius and wind speeds are up to 40 or 50 knots/hour. In addition, he is not only a Vietnam veteran, he is also a recipient of the Silver Star medal from this battlefield. Yet now he doesn’t know what stage he was in Vietnam.

That’s why I then went to Cypress, California to learn more about it.

“ The second time you went there, was it before the Tet Offensive? “, I ask.

“ No, it happened after Tet ,” Earls replied. “ Late 60s or early 70s, I guess .”

I myself am an unremarkable Marine, although I participated in the great battle of Quantico. I’ve never been near the Mekong Delta, where if you touch anything red, you “die”. Yet I still remember the exact moment of my oath of office in 1967 or those precious moments of leaving Quantico with a broken knee. So how could that man forget when he was in Vietnam?

“ So do you know when you were in Thailand? ” I asked Woods. The reason for this question is because it was in Thailand that Earl Woods met his second wife Kultida and Tiger Woods was the result of this love affair.

“ I was in Bangkok between business trips ,” Earls recalls. ” Wait a minute “.

And from the pile of boxes piled up in another room, he took out a mahogany stick, a gift from his comrades. On that object was a piece of tarnished metal.

“ Bangkok, 1968. I was in Bangkok in 1968 ,” he said.

In the house we talked about that day, most of the family’s belongings were being moved. It was a small house, which was like a museum but is now about to be demolished to make room for villas. We sat on the bed in Tiger’s room as a child, the walls covered with posters, decals, badges or cards related to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars or Charlie Joiner in the San Diego Chargers. On the wall at the head of the bed is a newspaper page recording the statistics that Jack Nicklaus achieved such as ” Hit under 70 strokes at the age of 13… “. It was Tiger who posted them all on the wall.

We then moved into Earl’s room and watched Tiger shoot 73 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

“ I played in that tournament a few years ago ,” I told Earls. “ For a professional golfer you probably don’t know, a wonderful man named Tommy Moore .”

“ The guy from New Orleans? ”, Earls asked immediately.

“ How do you know that? ”

“ Tiger played with him once. ”

Surprisingly, he knew everything about Tiger but didn’t remember anything about himself.

That day I returned home and received a text message from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. My Freedom of Information request has been honored and I have information about Tiger Woods’ father.

Specifically, Earl Dennison Woods served in the Republic of Vietnam in two periods, from February 12, 1962 to February 24, 1963 and from August 15, 1970 to August 13, 1971. Every other information you shared with me was correct. Even Tiger won two (at the Las Vegas Invitational and the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic, both in October 1996) out of seven possible championship opportunities.

That was the motivation that started my journey to find Tiger Phong.

Preparing to go to Vietnam

In any office, there is always someone who can find you the information you need if you are patient enough. At the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington DC at that time, the first person who did not understand what I meant was the Third Secretary of the Economic Department, Nguyen Van Quyen. He knew that up to 63% of Vietnamese people have the last name Nguyen but announced ” Nguyen Phong is Joe Smith “.

The person who understood what I meant was a younger person, the First Secretary of the communications department, Le Dzung. Realizing there was chemistry, I expressed my interest in the budding golf culture in Vietnam, especially emphasizing my desire to play the new golf course designed by Nick Faldo. Coincidentally, this golf course is located where Earl and Phong are stationed: Phan Thiet. I also expressed curiosity about the fate of a soldier who went missing before the war ended.

On a long lacquered table, Le Dzung is researching visa requirements and my itinerary: Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Phan Thiet, Da Lat, Nha Trang and a few other possible provinces. There’s a name I want to search for.

“ Add Hanoi ,” he said softly. “ I have a friend there, Mr. Nghi. He can help. This is his number. Have a nice trip .”

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