Tiger Wins At Golf — And Stuttering | Stuttering Foundation: A Nonprofit Organization Helping Those Who Stutter

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (March 27, 2006) — Top-ranked golfer Tiger Woods tells CBS’s 60 Minutes that it takes hard work and a competitive spirit to overcome childhood stuttering.

“The words got lost, you know, somewhere between the brain and the mouth. And it was very difficult, but I fought through it. I went to a school to try and get over that, and I just would work my tail off,” Woods told the news program.

“The parallels between speech performance and sports performance are striking,” said Jane Fraser, president of the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation, “and Tiger Woods is the latest example of how the many hours of practice and hard work to win in sports are no different from those long hours spent in therapy for stuttering.”

NBA Hall of Famer and sports commentator Bill Walton dealt with stuttering just like he did basketball. “I thought about the fundamentals of the game and how to start with the basics like the ability to mechanically duplicate moves on a basketball court. And then I just applied that to speaking.”

Chicago Bulls’ legend Bob Love notes that “countless hours of work taught me to manage moments of difficult speech.”

In a recent interview, Denver Nuggets’ star Kenyon Martin said of his stuttering, “How I got through it was just by working hard at it.”

U.S. Open golf champion Ken Venturi adds, “I have had to work through the years to overcome stuttering and to speak more easily and fluently.” Venturi compares moving smoothly through speech to moving gracefully through a golf stroke.

“Tiger Woods is the perfect role model for all school-age children who struggle with this complex disorder,” said Fraser. The Foundation offers free resources — online streaming videos, books, and a worldwide referral list — at www.stutteringhelp.org where Tiger joins a long list

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Frank Wolf

This Virginian congressman has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1981. The longtime supporter of the Stuttering Foundation drew national attention to childhood stuttering in 2006 when he submitted an article about Tiger Woods from the SFA newsletter to the Congressional Record. The congressman is featured in the Stuttering Foundation's Famous People Who Stutter brochure.

Carly Simon

Carly Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old.

Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz, Ph.D., who passed away in 2018, was an explorer, wildlife conservationist, and author. He established the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Myanmar, which is about the size of the state of Vermont.

His love for animals began when he was very young.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Bob Love

Bob Love has dreamt about being a great public speaker since his early days in Bastrop Louisiana, even though, as a young man, he could barely put two words together, let alone speak a full sentence.

In spite of his severe stuttering disability, Bob Love, the son of a sharecropper, rose to become a Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, whose records were eventually surpassed by Michael Jordan. Throughout his entire athletic career, Bob Love kept his stuttering a secret from the fans who adored him, thinking he could do his “talking” on the basketball court.