Before Johnny Manziel was Johnny Football, he was just another kid who idolized Tiger Woods. Manziel’s father Paul taught the Cleveland Browns quarterback to golf when he was barely in grade school. In a recent interview with Golf Digest, Manziel spoke about how huge of a Tiger fan he was growing up.
“I had everything Tiger. I wanted to be just like him,” Manziel said. “I got my dad to get me that Scotty Cameron putter that Tiger used for all of those years. I wanted one exactly like it.”
Those who have followed Tiger’s career know he has a reputation for being standoffish toward his fans. That was especially true before the sex scandal broke, as Woods has now lightened up a bit in an attempt to repair his image. When Manziel was around 9 or 10 years old, he experienced salty Tiger first hand.
“My dad played in a member-guest at Isleworth every year with a friend, and we’d take our family vacation to Orlando,” he explained. “One day I ended up playing with a bunch of kids at the house of Thurman Thomas, of all people. I think he was friends with some of our family friends.
“Somehow we heard that Tiger was out playing on a nearby course, so another guy and I ran out there looking for him. … We saw Tiger on the 16th hole and asked for his autograph, and he said to catch him right after the round. I was sitting about 100 yards from the 18th green, and he drove by in a cart and was pulling his hat really, really low. I remember him saying, ‘No autographs today.'”
Manziel said he was “bitter” for about a day after Tiger snubbed him, and he tries to remember that story now when kids ask him for autographs. You really don’t have to try all that hard to be kinder to your fans than Tiger. He takes the whole “don’t bother me, I’m in the zone” thing to another level.
H/T Devil Ball Golf
