Tiger Woods’ guiding lights were a bull of man — his father, Earl — and a tiny woman — his mother, Kultida.

Together, they helped shape the kid he was and the man he would become. 

But it wasn’t the infantry officer who served two combat tours during the Vietnam War and was a member of the elite U.S. Army Special Forces who was the disciplinarian. 

No, the shortest member of the Woods household held sway.

“As we said in our family, my mom was the hand, and my dad was the voice. I could negotiate with him, but not with my mom. 

There was no middle ground with Mom,” Woods wrote in The 1997 Masters: My Story (Grand Central Publishing) released March 20. 

With Canadian Golf Hall of Fame writer Lorne Rubenstein, Woods reflects on his life inside and outside the ropes that led to his historic march to the green jacket in 1997.

In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY Sports, Woods said his parents never pushed him to play golf and never were disappointed no matter what score he shot. The two were equally influential when it came to his studies, curfew and his treatment of others.

“My dad was always the person who would plant seeds and give me encouragement but also would say things that would fester inside me that wouldn’t come to fruition for a while,” Woods said. “He was very worldly and deep in his thinking. My mom was the enforcer. My dad may have been in the Special Forces, but I was never afraid of him. My mom’s still here, and I’m still deathly afraid of her. She’s a very tough, tough old lady, very demanding. She was the hand, she was the one, I love her so much, but she was tough.

Woods writes about the psychological wars his father waged with him to make him tougher, to make him deal with any adversity he faced. And together, Woods said, the three combated racism as a team. Throughout the book, he writes about multiple incidents that left a lasting mark and served as a teaching moment.

While Woods took in the wisdom of some of the game’s greatest players, including Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros, Woods makes clear in the book his most important teachers are his parents.

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Source: Tampa Bay Times