Earl Woods was a pushy dad but Tiger always had a choice and is grateful for what his father did for him. Click on the image to have a closer look at Tiger's muscular development in his arms. When Butch Harmon was Tiger's coach, he used to say Tiger is the fittest athlete ever to play the US PGA Tour ... he could beat them at running, jumping, arm-wrestling ... you name it. Image by courtesy of Getty Images.

Too many dads pushing their sons

to be the next Tiger Woods

From the www.telegraph.co.uk website
By Mark Reason

Sean O'Hair beat a high-class field including Tiger Woods in North Carolina on Sunday. But 10 years ago O'Hair was one of the lost boys. He was a trophy kid, driven by a relentless dad to succeed at the expense of his childhood.
The question is: do the means justify the end? Does the million dollars that O'Hair won at Quail Hollow justify 'the means' of his dad? Marc O'Hair used to make Sean run a mile for every stroke he was over par. Young Sean became so miserable that he ran off with his first ever 'date', married her and broke off contact with his father.
O'Hair is a forerunner of a trend that is growing at a disturbing pace as parents (make that dads, because it's nearly always dads) push their sons and daughters to be the next Tiger Woods.

A recent Channel 4 documentary called Trophy Kids focused on two young British golfers. Lee Spurling appears to have no friends and he is not allowed to play outside because his dad says: "He is too valuable." Ian Spurling says: "He's nicknamed 'the wolf' and he's the new Tiger Woods. He can become the greatest golfer this country's ever seen."
Dad then picks up a plastic yacht – "looking at £4 million there, it will be called Wolf II" – and points to a picture of a Ferrari. The current humbler family car has a sticker that reads 'Future millionaire on board.'

Lee is 12 and has been pulled out of school to concentrate on golf.
A couple of years ago Billy 'the iceman' Spooner, from Boston, Lincolnshire, won the world under-nine championship. But after one performance that didn't meet the necessary gold standard, dad Andy says:

"I'm embarrassed to caddie for you today. You've let me down, you've let your family down and most of all you've let yourself down. You want to look yourself in the mirror tonight and sort yourself out. That's bad. Really bad."
In some ways the dad is also a victim, a casualty of today's X-Factor celebrity culture in which everyone wants to be rich and famous. It is a pernicious trend that is coming into golf. Peter McEvoy hosted a recent glitzy golf event at a Manchester driving range.
McEvoy says: "One thousand five hundred people turned up in the car park for 'Tiger Hunt' because it was like the X-Factor. The place was rocking. It flushed out all the aspirational parents. The kids were running up and down the steps to warm up. These same kids would then miss the ball."
So when does 'aspirational' leak into pushy and pushy leak into abusive? Earl Woods was a pushy dad, but his son always had a choice and always saw the love behind his dad's military routines.
But when Marc O'Hair was questioned about the way he brought up his son, he said: "What am I supposed to do... say, 'Oh, Seany boy, you don't have to get up early today?' The military, they know how to build a champion. Somebody who slacks off, that's a loser. The typical high school kid is hanging out at the mall. That's a loser."
There are now huge numbers of young British golfers looking to make their fortunes and to be the next Tiger Woods. Seve Benson – named after Seve Ballesteros – is having a good season on the European Tour. Rory McIlroy, whose parents made all sorts of sacrifices, will be a superstar. There is even a Tiger out there. Tiger Adams was apparently not named after one T Woods, but he wears stars-and-stripes trousers and recently put in a 'Monty'-type performance to lead his team to victory in a junior competition devised by dad and called the 'Adams Cup'.
It sounds like fun, but what of all the kids you see with empty faces who are going the way of those teen tennis casualties Andrea Jaeger and Jennifer Capriati? Who is looking after them?
Maybe we need to ask the kids themselves. Sean O'Hair now has two children of his own. He says: "Kids have to make their own decisions even if it's the wrong decision. You need to keep it kind of fun for them and let them run their own show."