Ever wonder who this guy with Tiger Woods is? Get to know an important cog of Team Tiger

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When it comes to Team Tiger, longtime caddie Joe LaCava and even longer time agent Mark Steinberg are faces every golf fan recognizes. But there’s often a third guy flanking Tiger Woods at tournaments. And on Wednesday he gave a rare interview. With Woods by his side.

Meet Rob McNamara, officially a vice president for TGR Ventures, but unofficially, a second set of eyes for Woods’ golf swing. That second role has become especially important with Woods no longer employing a swing coach, although, he has been spotted working on his putting with Matt Killen at this week’s Players Championship. And in GOLFTV’s latest video installment with Woods, McNamara and the 14-time major champ talked about their unique working relationship that dates back to their junior golf days in southern California.

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“I mean he knows my game,” said Woods, who estimates the two have played 500 rounds of golf together. “One, he’s a good player. Two, he’s got a good eye and he has seen me go through changes and iterations in the game of golf, but at the end of the day I try and use Rob for what I’m trying to work on now, because right now it’s different, because I’m limited what I can do, and not only am I limited in what I can do, I’m limited in how much I can practice.”

Because of that limited practice schedule following Woods’ comeback from a back fusion operation in 2017, the two don’t spend much time talking the technical aspects of the swing.

“Because I’ve played with him so much and practiced with him so much over the years I kind of know what it should look like or what typically he’s trying to do,” said McNamara, who played collegiately at Santa Clara and began working on Tiger’s IMG account at 25. “And a lot of it this last year is Tiger is typically telling me, ‘Hey, I’m feeling this. Will you just watch and make sure I’m not doing this or I am doing this?’ Then all I’m doing is kind of quickly confirming it for him, yes, and then kind of backing away.”

Watch the full interview with Woods, McNamara and GOLFTV’s Henni Zuel here:

Woods withdrew from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational with a stiff neck, but will attempt to win a third Players title this week.

“We’ll see how everything goes here,” Woods said when discussing his neck at his Tuesday press conference. “This is an important week. I’m going to focus on this week, and then I’ll let you guys know later in the week.”

Either way, you can count on Rob McNamara being one of the first to know.

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