Many professional athletes will tell you that much of their success was the result of having had a loving, nurturing mother, father or grandparent. In the case of Tiger Woods, it was primarily his mother, Kutilda Woods, who had a profound influence on him as a young boy.

In an interview I conducted a few years ago with John Anselmo, Woods’ 83-year old amateur coach who began working with Tiger when he was 10 years old, he told me it was Tigers’ mother who first brought her son to him for instruction. And because his mother was originally from Thailand and was a practicing Buddhist, the young golfer had been steeped in the ways of Buddhism. Anselmo told me that he noticed immediately that Tiger had a sense of calmness about him and he attributed that quality to his having been reared in a Buddhist environment at home. He also told me that he believed that for Tiger, Buddhism was more of a way of life than a religion and that Tigers’ daily practice of meditation and the fact he leads a righteous life has had a tremendous influence on his mind. And his golf game.