We talk about courage and the many people who embody this great quality. Tiger Woods represents courage to many throughout the world. At the 108th U.S. Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, California on June 16th, 2008 Rocco Mediate’s final putt failed to win. 358 strokes to 359. Tiger Woods simply refused to lose. He needed to win, his future dependes on it. He played against doctors orders and after 3 knee surgeries, injured and warned he may re-injure his knee. Tiger decided that if he was going to risk the future, ignore the doctors and win. That takes courage. I quote Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, “This was a test of will as much as a golf tournament. What he lost physically, he gained mentally.”

Rocco Mediate said “I thought I had him for awhile. I kept hitting good shot after good shot after good shot and so did he. If anybody in this world goes up against Tiger when he’s at his best, they are going to lose, it’s just that simple. I don’t care who it is.” Rocco also mentioned that where Tiger is his best is mentally.

Tiger Woods kisses the trophy after winning the 108th U.S. Open on June 16.
Getty Images

This article was written by Mark Borden of Fortune Magazine.  There is much to be learned from this short story about Tiger Woods and how he plays the game – to win.
Your mantra is “Work on your strengths; manage around weakness.”

A great example is Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods has a weakness in his game; he’s 61st in sand saves. If he worked in corporate America, they would label his weakness in sand saves an area of opportunity, and he and coach Butch Harmon would work on that weakness in the off-season. They didn’t do that. They got to the point where the sand saves were good enough so that they didn’t get in the way. Then they spent the whole off-season rebuilding his swing, which was his most dominant strength. Now, what’s interesting about that is, Tiger Woods won the British Open last year at St. Andrews. St. Andrews has more bunkers than almost any other course. There was only one golfer during the four days that didn’t get into one of them: Tiger Woods. His swing was so long and so accurate, he didn’t have to work on his sand swing. He was never in a bloody bunker! Not once.