Tiger Woods on the ups and downs of 2015

I have been asked a lot lately how it feels to have played on the PGA Tour for 20 years. I live in dog years since I turned pro in 1996, so that’s 140 years. It feels like 140 but also feels like five. It’s amazing how fast it has gone but also how slow. I know it’s a contradiction, but that’s how it feels.

Several things stand out. Number one, you have to go back to my first major win, which was the Masters in 1997. How I did it, winning by 12 strokes, was so special. And then winning four-in-a-row and owning the Grand Slam, something no professional golfer has ever done. Third would probably be my 142-consecutive cuts-made streak. Consistency for a long period of time … there’s a lot that goes into that. You have bad days, you have bad weeks, but to battle and endure and suck it up and get it done, I’m very proud of that one.

I think the biggest change on the PGA Tour from when I started playing is the level of focus on day-in and day-out fitness. Now, we have trainers and sports psychologists that travel with the guys.

Also the technology. When I beat Davis Love III in a playoff at the Las Vegas Invitational in 1996, he had a 43-inch persimmon head driver. The transition to metal to where we are now with 460 cc drivers and 45-inch shafts being the norm, and the ball going from wound to solid construction … the technology has changed dramatically.

I had a conversation the other day with some of my friends who play golf. They’re a little bit younger than me, but are amazed how much technology has changed. I said go back to when Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player and that generation of guys played. When they were in their prime and the end of their careers, technology never really changed except for the golf ball. It was always persimmon and steel. That was the reality. Now, some companies are asking guys to change equipment twice a year.

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