The secret to Tiger Woods' success on the PGA Tour is multi-faceted.

Woods was known for his competitiveness and doggedness, even as a young golfer. He played almost nonstop, practicing and studying the game until he mastered it. When he became the youngest player ever to win the Masters in 1997 at 21 years old — making him the sport's biggest star ever — he was already thinking about how to win another green jacket next year.

"I think that's what separates great athletes from good ones," Woods said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. "The great ones always have that drive inside them to be better than what they are today."

When Tiger Woods was winning golf tournaments, he was the best in the world. But even when he was not playing well, he was still better than his competitors.

He won 82 PGA Tour events, 15 major championships and is the only player in history to hold all 4 major titles at the same time. He's also won 11 PGA Tour player of the year awards, which is another record.

A lot of golf experts will say that Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time.

We know he had a great swing, an incredible short game, could drive it as long as anybody, had a perfect putting stroke and of course a legendary work ethic.

But other than his tenacious grit and ability to work hard, what was the secret to his success on the golf course?

What was the secret to Tiger's success on the golf course?

Tiger dominated the PGA Tour before the advent of radar launch monitors or Strokes Gained golf stats.

These inventions highlighted what players needed to work on to perform at their highest level, but Tiger knew things about the game instinctively.

There's one thing that separates Tiger from all other golfers: His mastery of approach shots!

Tiger's secret weapon was his domination in the approach shots stats category.

If we look at his approach shot stats from 1998 when he first joined the PGA Tour, we see that there was simply nobody better than Tiger in this category.

1998 GIR - 30th

1999 GIR - 5th

2000 GIR - 1st

2001 GIR - 5th

2002 GIR - 1st

2003 GIR - 26th

2004 SG Approach - 6th

2005 SG Approach - 4th

2006 SG Approach - 1st

2007 SG Approach - 1st

2008 SG Approach - 1st

2009 SG Approach - 1st

2010 SG Approach - n/a

2011 SG Approach - n/a

2012 SG Approach - 1st

2013 SG Approach - 1st

2014 SG Approach - n/a

2015 SG Approach - n/a

2016 SG Approach - n/a

2017 SG Approach - 3rd

To understand how to play like a pro, you need to learn the skills of top players and in Tiger's case it is clearly his mastery of Approach shots which was a major contributor to his success.

To understand your own game better and what you need to work on to improve your game, download the Everest Golf app today.