The 15-time major champion said he and Sam have their "own relationship" outside of the sport
Tiger Woods’ daughter Sam is not planning on following in her father’s footsteps.
In a rare live interview while on the Today show May 1, the golf legend shared that his 16-year-old, whom he shares with ex-wife Elin Nordegren, has a “negative connotation” to the game due to his frequent travel when she was a child.
“You know, hey, when she was growing up, golf took daddy away from her,” Woods, 48, said. “I had to pack and I had to leave and I would be gone for weeks and there was a negative connotation to it.”
Despite caddying for her dad — for the first official time — at the PNC Championship in Florida last December, Sam and Tiger are pursuing a bond away from the links.
“We’ve developed our own relationship, our own rapport, that’s outside of golf that we do things that doesn’t involve golf,” Woods said on Today.
All of which is not to say the 15-time major champion didn’t try to involve her in his passion.
A few weeks after Sam was born in 2007, Tiger revealed that he had already put a golf club in his baby daughter’s hands. “She couldn’t quite hold it. But it was there,” he said at the time.
Over the years, Sam has supported her dad at numerous golf tournaments, and was front and center when it came to honoring Woods at his World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Florida in March 2022.
“We didn’t know if you’d come home with two legs or not,” she said during a speech at the event, referencing her father’s 2021 car crash, which led to him being hospitalized.
Meanwhile Sam’s younger brother, 15-year-old Charlie, is charting a course in Tiger’s wake.
Last week, he attempted to qualify for the U.S. Open but missed the cut, failing to advance in qualifying after hitting a 9-over-par 81 in an event at the Legacy Golf & Tennis Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
But he has seen success in the sport and competed alongside his father the last four years at the PNC.
In addition, in late March, Woods and Nordegren celebrated his latest accomplishment, when he received his state championship ring after his North Palm Beach, Florida school won the Class 1A golf title.
“My son and I, we do everything golf-related,” Tiger said on Today Wednesday, comparing his relationship with his two kids. “It’s very different.”
