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Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning were paired together during Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial pro-am Tournament Wednesday at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. The two 42-year-olds have cultivated a friendship over the years, as they were both at the pinnacle of their respective sports some time ago.
Manning told an entertaining story to Charlie Rymer of Golf Channel demonstrating yet again Tiger’s relentless competitive spirit and what fueled his motivation to regain his status as the No. 1 golfer in the world.
The legendary quarterback recalled that when he was with the Colts, his no-huddle audibles included “Tiger” (snap on one) and “Phil” (snap on two), signifying their world rankings at the time. Manning claims that this brought Tiger a lot of joy.
In Manning’s first season with the Broncos in 2013, he recalled playing a round of golf with Tiger, who asked him what the biggest difference was between the Colts and Broncos offense. Manning’s response:
“Tiger, it’s really similar. The hardest thing for me right now is that ‘McIlroy’ is on one, and ‘Tiger’ is on two,” alluding to Tiger entering the 2013 season ranked No. 2 behind Rory McIlroy.
This infuriated Tiger and in that month alone, he won two events and would become the 2013 PGA Player of the Year (his 11th, and most recent).
Manning said that after Tiger reclaimed the number 1 ranking, he called Manning up and told him to switch back the audibles.
Beast.
[h/t Business Insider]