By Sam Omatseye
It was April 2004, and the world’s leading golfer had just won the jewel of all championships, The Masters. But as Tiger Woods tearfully hoisted the trophy and gave his victory speech, his glee was tempered by grief.
The reason was that Earl Woods (“Pops” as he called him), his father and the force behind the mega-success of this golf pro, was not around this time to smother him with a hug as he walked off the 18th green after his final triumphal putt. Earl Woods had done it the past three times, including Tiger’s epochal win in 1997. His fourth Masters conquest was a blessing laced with sorrow.
Prostrate cancer had the elder Woods battling for his life as his son was winning on the golf course. Fate, it seemed, had begun to interfere with their fabled pairing -- more like twins than father and son.
“He is my best friend,” Tiger said in response to a question from Ed Bradley during the CBS magazine show, 60 Minutes.
Woods discovered his son’s talent at age two and shepherded him into the limelight -- one of a rare breed of sports prodigies in American history. He was practicing his golf swing one day in his garage and Tiger sat in a high chair watching. Fascinated with his father’s moves, he left his seat and asked to swing the golf club. Woods often said that Tiger’s golf acumen was an accident of good breeding.
Tiger appeared on the Mike Douglas Show at the age of two, and the footage of him making a putt has been shown on golf programs ever since. 
“I make it very, very clear that my purpose in raising Tiger was not to raise a golfer,” Woods told Golf Digest magazine. “I wanted to raise a good person.”
Tiger’s education, according to Woods and confirmed by Tiger, took precedence over golf. One of Tiger’s attributes on tour is his mental toughness. He learned that from his dad. During one of their practice sessions, the former Green Beret told Tiger that he needed to be tough to excel. Tiger then asked him if he could teach him how to be tough. Woods said yes, but he would not like it. Yet today, when Tiger makes putts, and maneuvers fades, and delivers winning swings, he attributes them to his father’s lessons in toughness.
“In retrospect, golf for me was an apparent attempt to emulate the person I looked up to more than anyone: my father,” wrote Tiger in the forward to his father’s book, Training a Tiger. “He was instrumental in helping me develop the drive to achieve, but his role – as well as my mother’s – was one of support and guidance, not interference.”
That partnership ended in May as Earl Woods finally succumbed to prostate cancer at the age of 74.
Tiger’s attachment to his father was profound.  He abandoned golf with all its lush greens and fairway beauties to be with his father in his dying days. “My dad was my best friend and greatest role model, and I will miss him deeply,” said Tiger on his Web site. “I am overwhelmed when I think of all the great things he accomplished in his life. He was an amazing dad, coach, mentor, soldier, husband and friend. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him, and I’m honored to continue his legacy of sharing and caring.”
He is expected to return to the game in mid-June for the U.S. Open, which consequently, also coincides with Father’s Day.
Woods accomplished with his son Tiger what another father of African ancestry, Richard Williams, accomplished with his daughters, Venus and Serena.

Williams planned his daughters’ careers before they were born. He wanted two girls and wanted them to play tennis. At the time, he was a local tennis coach for neighborhood kids at Compton. He noticed Venus’ talent at the age of four.
“The first time I knew Venus was going to be a good tennis player was the first day I took her out,” he said in an interview with Ebony. “I was working with some other kids, and had a shopping cart that would hold 550 balls. It took three teenagers a long time to hit those balls. They wanted to take breaks.” While those kids took breaks, Venus wanted to hit “every ball in the basket.” When they got home, he told his wife that Venus was a winner. “‘No, you’re just a proud father,” she replied.
Just as Tiger has broken many records in the game of golf, the William sisters have dazzled the game of tennis. The sisters have many Grand Slam titles, in both singles and doubles, to their credit.
The fathers of these world renowned athletes had to guide their children through racial prejudice as their games developed. Tiger was denied special tickets to the golf clubs and was, on occasion, called the N-word. Williams also recalled his daughters being snubbed when he took them to tournaments. At a tournament in Southern California, the other players looked at Venus with disdain. “I overheard some people say we shouldn’t even be here. They are from Compton. What are they doing here? They can’t play.  People would pick at us all the time,” said Williams.
It isn’t that Blacks never played golf or tennis before. Tiger often cites Lee Elder, another Black golfer, who was routinely ignored throughout his career. And tennis has had a sprinkling of Blacks, including Arthur Ashe, who won Wimbledon before succumbing to a terminal illness. 
In such sports as baseball, basketball and football, several African American standouts have attributed their excellence to their fathers. Ken Griffey Jr., the slugger with a smooth swing for the Cincinnati Reds was a chip off the block of his father, Ken Griffey, a mainstay talent of his time.
Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants outfielder, was reared by Bobby Bonds, another flawed but important personality in the history of the sport. He gave his son the rare privilege of locker room experience and taught him the subtleties of hitting and defense.
Kobe Bryant, the basketball shooting guard and surefire hall of fame material, learned the game from his father, Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant.
These sports gems excelled in sports with a sizeable minority presence. Although African American participation in baseball is dropping, Bonds and Griffey Jr. cut their teeth when a good number of Blacks saw it as a career. Today, basketball is still a major option for Blacks. A basketball court blossoms in every neighborhood
But Earl Woods and Richard Williams dared venture into territories where only Caucasians had great track records. Both men not only molded their children into great athletes, but nurtured stars that would ultimately dominate sports once perceived as the exclusive territory of Caucasians.