If there were a list of people to take advice from to improve one’s golf game, Tiger Woods would probably top everyone’s list. The Big Cat is probably the best student of the game. His methodical approach has helped him win 82-PGA Tour titles throughout his career. So when Andy Garcia received tips from Woods, he didn’t think twice before putting them into practice.

Joining Skratch for an exclusive interview, Garcia recollected an incident from 1997, “You know why I used to play with Ping Eye 2 Irons? A friend of mine said, ‘Hey, I got these clubs. You should come see in the club.’ So I went to his house. They were these brand new Byron Nelson blades. I looked at them and said, ‘I’m going to try to play with those things.'”

“I was on the driving range at Lakeside a couple of weeks before the tournament, and Tiger Woods stands behind me. So I’m hitting these Byron Nelson blades. He watches me hit a couple of blades. He comes up to me and says, ‘You can’t be hitting those clubs. You need to change those clubs.’ I said, ‘Yes, sir!’ I put it in the bag. I walk to the pro shop, and I go, ‘David, how soon can I get a set of Ping Eye 2 Berylliums here? And I won the tournament that year. Thanks to Tiger!”

The tournament he is talking about was the 1997 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Garcia participated in the event alongside two-time PGA Tour champion Paul Stankowski. Woods’ advice certainly helped ‘The Godfather’ actor as he ended up winning the amateur edition of the event.

Ironically, Woods himself didn’t go all the way at Pebble Beach that year.

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Despite giving Andy Garcia the right advice, Tiger Woods didn’t beat the odds at Pebble Beach in 1997

1997 was a glorious year for Tiger Woods. He had won his first Green Jacket and was a six-time PGA Tour champion already. However, he hadn’t overcome the feat at Augusta National when he joined the field at Pebble Beach.

In fact, Woods had come off a win in the Mercedes Championship a few weeks before. In his previous season in 1996, he had captured the Las Vegas Invitational and the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic. As good as he was, Woods was still relatively inexperienced at that point.

Going up against a tough field, Woods came close to capturing the victory at Pebble Beach as well. However, he fell short by 1 stroke to Mark O’Meara. The veteran pro’s miraculous luck on the 18th hole on Sunday certainly played a huge role in that. But Woods was finally able to beat the ‘Prince of Pebble’ & Co. in the 2000 edition of the event.