What makes Tiger great?
Talent, sure, but every Tour pro has talent. What puts Eldrick Woods miles above the rest is visceral — heart and guts — as well as what he calls his greatest weapon: "my creative mind."
To know Tiger's mind, you need only decode his signals. In February, Golf Magazine followed Woods during his dramatic victory over huge-hitter J.B. Holmes at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
We then asked body-language expert Jan Hargrave to analyze Woods' moves during his roller-coaster round.
According to Hargrave, who advises Merrill Lynch, Exxon and NASA, our words make up only 7 percent of what we communicate to others. The remaining 93 percent is nonverbal information. Our bodies don't lie. The key to Tiger's secret signals is that they don't just express his dominance — they propel it.
That's bad news for Phil and Ernie but good news for the rest of us, since it's easier to copy Woods' mannerisms than his stinger.
"Emulating Tiger's body language could help any golfer," says Hargrave, who trains phobic clients to be confident by acting confident. "To overcome fear or worry on the course, golfers should match and mirror what he does."
The message: If you want to play more like Tiger, act more like Tiger. After a while, it might not be an act.
Credit: Robert Beck
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