At just 14 years old, Sam Woods was given the responsibility Wednesday night to stand in front of an audience at the World Golf Hall of Fame and introduce her father, Tiger Woods.
It was Tiger Woods’ daughter, wearing the traditional Sunday red her father made famous, stealing the show with a speech that touched on Tiger’s 2021 car crash and how fearful the family was that he would possibly lose his leg.
About a year ago you were stuck in a hospital bed at one of your ultimate lows and one of the scariest moments of your life and ours,” Sam said of the crash. “We didn’t know if you’d come home with two legs or not. Now not only are you about to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but you’re standing here on your own two feet.
“This is why you deserve this; because you’re a fighter.”
“Although I never met my dad’s most influential role model, my grandfather, Earl Woods, I feel like I can hear his voice every day reminding me to ‘train hard, fight easy,'” Sam Woods continued. “This is an old special forces saying that he ingrained into my dad, who now says it to Charlie and me. It not only teaches us that we have to put in the hard work to get what he wanted, but it’s that hard work that will pay off in the end.”
In her speech, Sam also referenced the day she was born in 2007 when Tiger finished second in the U.S. Open at Oakmont and then rushed to Orlando where his daughter was born that night.
He may have lost that day, but he won the greatest gift of all,” Sam said with a smile. “I realized while writing this speech that, no matter what life throws our way, we somehow come out together and stronger.
“You know, ‘train hard, fight easy.'”
“Without the sacrifices of Mom who took me to all those junior golf tournaments, and Dad, who’s not here, but who instilled in me this work ethic to fight for what I believe in, chase after my dreams, nothing’s ever going to be given to you, everything’s going to be earned,” Tiger told the audience. “If you don’t go out there and put in the work, you don’t go out and put in the effort, one, you’re not going to get the results, but two, and more importantly, you don’t deserve it. You need to earn it.
“So that defined my upbringing. That defined my career.”