By the time he signed a new five-year, $100 million deal with Nike following the “Tiger Slam,” Woods and his father, who as a teen he’d unequivocally called his “best friend” (and vice versa), had grown distant.
“Obviously there is far more that I could tell you about their disagreements, but I can’t,” Pete McDaniel said. “I can’t talk about that. That’s one place I know not to go to.”
Joe Grohman, struggling to find the right words, said of Earl, “I love this guy. Earl was a great, great dad.” He paused. “I don’t know how to smooth this one over. I assure you that we were not the best role models when it came to honoring your marriage, I assure you.” Taking a beat to think it over, Grohman sighed. “S–t,” he said. “He’s not going to like this s–t.”
Earl, he explained, used to give private lessons (at the course where Joe was an assistant pro) to very attractive blonde women, who, when the lesson was over, would join Earl in his Winnebago for cocktails. Grohman shrugged guiltily. “And, you know, Tiger was at the course, and I was just every bit as bad.”
So there Tiger was, watching the two predominant male figures in his life, both married, “chasing skirts and bringing them to the course, and he’s seeing this…To expose him to that, I mean…yeah.”
Parr agreed, “That made a huge impact on his life.” She sensed Tiger was bothered by not just the cheating, but by the fact that his dad never even tried to hide his philandering from his son. Tiger loved his mom so much, Parr continued, and he was simply angry at his dad.