82 PGA Tour titles suggest that Tiger Woods knew everything. But he didn’t. His wedge game lacked a delicate spin and touch. The solution was to ask for help from legends like Jose Maria Olazabal. Their advice helped him not only improve but also become one of the best.

“What I had him do when he was younger, because he wasn’t the best wedge player in the world. He didn’t spin the ball well. He loved Jose Maria’s short game. He just loved the way Jose could spin the ball,” Butch Harmon shared the story with Katrek & Maginnes On Tap, just hours before the golfer’s 50th birthday. “The guys were great. They would help him.”

Harmon would position Tiger Woods on practice tees beside golfer Olazabal, letting him absorb the Spaniard’s energy and tactics around the greens. Then, all Woods had to do was ask Olazabal questions, and he’d be happy to help him. Harmon also arranged practice rounds with Seve Ballesteros, Raymond Floyd, and Greg Norman.

Those observations mattered because they were from the best. Olazabal had delicate hands, could manage the distance perfectly, and could spin wedges back like yo-yos. Meanwhile, Woods’s wedge play was good, but it didn’t have that delicate touch at the start of his career. He hit it long and putted well, but he needed to work on his game from 50 to 100 yards out.

The work was worth it.

In 2009, Tiger Woods was one of the PGA Tour’s best scramblers. His short game became elite, ranking among the best in strokes gained around the green. In one of his strongest seasons, he averaged 1.69 strokes gained in that category, showing just how much those early lessons with the legends paid off.

Years later, Woods opened up about those experiences.

“When I came out on Tour, the guys I got to play with in practice rounds were phenomenal, a who’s who of who is in the Hall of Fame,” he told TIME. “We’d talk about shots, or if we’re in the same tournament, we would ask if we’d like to go for dinner or chip in a little bit.”

He described sessions with Seve at Harmon’s Houston facility: hours of short-game demonstrations followed by playing until darkness swallowed the course. “To see how he could do it, and I could never do it. But I could take pieces,” Woods admitted.

The 15-time major champion never pretended he mastered everything alone. In Episode 10 of “My Game: Tiger Woods,” he reflected on his journey.

“I was lucky enough to ask them questions and be in a position where they felt like they could answer truthfully and basically disclose how they play a lot of those shots.”

But the learning process wasn’t always easy for Tiger Woods to grasp, especially with Seve’s unconventional methods.

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The chipping lesson from Seve that confused Tiger Woods

“Seve was always trying to teach me how to make the ball roll straight every single time. Then he would choose to make it roll right or left, but the ball should roll every time like a putt, no matter what shot you’re hitting, no matter how high you’re hitting it, which kind of freaked me out in my head,” Woods said.

Seve and Olazabal moved chips left or right on command all the time; they didn’t simply plan it, but did it. Tiger Woods took in what he could use, even if he couldn’t copy everything. When it counted most, those lessons paid off.

Tiger Woods had to deal with a tough chip from thick rough on the par-3 16th hole at the 2012 Memorial Tournament. The hole sloped down, and water was nearby. With his 60-degree wedge, he holed the 50-foot chip shot. Jack Nicklaus said, “The most unbelievable, gutsy shot I have ever seen.” That shot helped Tiger win his fifth Memorial tournament and equal Nicklaus with 73 PGA Tour titles.

It’s interesting how Woods, who once struggled, is now one of the best golfers the world has seen. He now also has a few cheat codes of his own!