Nick Saban reveals funny story about chance pairing with Tiger Woods

Alabama head coach Nick Saban pulled out his golf clubs this week to participate in the Regions Tradition Pro-Am tournament at the Greystone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. A veteran at these types of charity events, he brings experience alongside a number of different partners.

However, as Nick Saban told the crew on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning prior to his round on Wednesday, one former Pro-Am partner stands out above the rest.

“When I played in a Pro-Am when I was at Michigan State – in the old Buick Open in 1997 or 1998 – it was the first time Tiger (Woods) won The Masters and he was like 22 or 23-years old,” Saban started. “This was like the weekend before we started fall camp, so they call and say, ‘will you play in the Pro-Am?’ And I said, ‘I can’t play there, then we’ve got practice starting in three days.” So they said, ‘well if you can play with Tiger will you play?’ And I said, ‘yeah.’

“So that was my favorite Pro-Am, and it was quite an experience. His caddie was Fluff in those days, who was a great guy, and it was really a lot of fun.”

Nick Saban on Tiger Woods fandom

As evident by the words he shares, Nick Saban is a big fan of Tiger Woods on and off the golf course. When asked about the possibility of having the global icon speak with his team like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Ray Lewis, among others.

Choosing to focus on the attributes first, Nick Saban spoke primarily about what he believes any young athlete could take away from watching Tiger Woods.

“I don’t think there’s anyone – maybe in any sport – that was as dominant as he was for as long as he was. And anybody that can accomplish that – because it’s so hard to – success is not a continuum, it’s momentary. So to keep yourself able to stay so well-prepared, to practice, do the things you need to do to stay so competitive, to stay hungry. To have the mental toughness to stay focused all the time for so long.

“And what he accomplished this year at Augusta in The Masters, coming off his injury, to make the cut and to so what he did regardless of what his score was, was pretty phenomenal in terms of what kind of person, what kind of character, what kind of competitive character the guy has. I would love for him to be able to share some of that, but I don’t really have the kind of relationship with him that I’ve had with some of these other guys to get him to do it.”