Some competitors do not wait for the scoreboard to decide the outcome. Michael Jordan was one. Tiger Woods made it his trademark. Their edge was not just physical; it was psychological. Opponents felt it as soon as Woods stepped onto the tee. John Smoltz, a Hall of Fame pitcher with 22 seasons of experience, saw this immediately when he played with Woods.

“I told everybody I took to play with Tiger — he’s going to bait you into talking trash. Don’t talk trash. Keep his antennas low.”

On GOLF’s Subpar Podcast, Smoltz explained what it was like to compete with Woods and shared the rule he gave every playing partner before the round began.

Smoltz set this rule for a reason. Trash talk did not unsettle Tiger Woods; it motivated him. When opponents tried, Woods would raise his game to what Smoltz called ‘that nuclear level,’ where no bet or score could bring him back.

This was clear during a round at Augusta National before the Masters. Smoltz played in a group of five. One player, a 12-handicapper, made a hole-in-one. Smoltz retrieved the ball and spoke to his friend.

“Gottie, what’s more believable when we get back home — that you got a hole in one, or that you beat Tiger by four on one hole?”

The response was not verbal.

“He gave me the universal finger sign and went 12 under the next 22 holes.”

Twenty-seven holes played. One comment. Twelve under par was the result. Smoltz linked this directly to Stephen Ames, who before facing Woods at the 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play, said, “anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball.” Woods responded by birdieing six of the first seven holes and winning 9&8, the largest margin in WGC Match Play history.

“I think he understands now,” Woods said afterward.

That week, “Ames’d” became part of golf’s vocabulary. Smoltz viewed both incidents through the same lens, focusing on what motivated them.

“Those things about Tiger, Michael Jordan — they’re in a level of willingness. They will it. You do not want to go up against a Michael Jordan or a Tiger Woods and talk trash. I don’t care what you’ve done in your life. You’re gonna lose.”

Adam Scott, who played with Woods during his peak, described how Woods used psychological tactics to create pressure during rounds. Smoltz saw this firsthand at Augusta. He also pointed to data showing Woods had a measurable stroke advantage just by being in the field.

Hunter Mahan, a six-time PGA Tour winner, said the field felt that pressure and had no way to counter it. If Scott, Mahan, and Smoltz are correct, then Woods’ impact went beyond statistics and shaped the results of his era.

Smoltz’s perspective matters because he is not just an outside observer.

John Smoltz’s golf resume makes his Tiger Woods warning hard to ignore

Smoltz is a plus-handicap golfer with nine PGA Tour Champions starts. He qualified for the U.S. Senior Open through a playoff and has put in the work at Champions Tour Q-School over several seasons. In December 2023, after three failed first-stage attempts, he made it to the Final Stage at TPC Scottsdale. He finished 73rd out of 78, with only the top five earning 2024 cards. The gap between him and a Tour card was significant. The effort to get there was not.

Smoltz holds a +1.3 handicap at Hawks Ridge Golf Club in Ball Ground, Georgia. This is not a weekend golfer’s number. It shows he plays at a competitive level, consistently. Woods once called Smoltz the best non-PGA Tour golfer he had played with. That puts Smoltz in a rare group of athletes who have measured themselves against professionals.

He did not end with a list of Woods’s achievements. Instead, he focused on what sets Woods apart.

“You can’t manufacture it. You can’t inject it in somebody. It’s something that is going to happen organically — and it happened with them.”