Tiger Woods
By Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian
Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, even bigger than Michael Jordan. With a total career earnings north of $1.5 billion he had it all. The perfect wife, two beautiful children, and a golf game that brought golf into the forefront of global culture. Tiger transformed the entire sports industry. Yet beneath the surface his private life collided with his perfectly crafted image revealing a dark history of infidelity and deceit. What went wrong? Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian dissect the rise, fall, and redemption of this global icon.
“As a human being, he might not have been lovable—or even likable—but as a performer, he possessed unsurpassed talents that he honed through a lifetime of practice. On Sunday afternoons, he shared his gifts with millions, enabling them to forget reality and vicariously experience thrills that were more exhilarating than anything felt in a church pew.”
Thoughts
Tiger was always my favorite golfer growing up. His game was out of this world and the way he dispatched opponents one fist pump at a time was scintillating television. I can vividly remember watching him with my grandpa, someone who loved golf and introduced it to my brothers and I, rise up onto a green in his blood red shirt with a murderous stare. It was electric. What I didn’t know as a kid, and what I do now after reading this book was a total loss of innocence. Benedict and Keteyian take us into the craziness that was Tiger’s life off the course. Whether it be in Vegas casinos with Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley or passed out in his car from a cocktail of prescription drugs it becomes very clear that Tiger on TV was not who I thought he was. The authors explore the backstory to the backstory that is Tiger’s life. With so many deliberate lies placed by Tiger’s team no one really knew who he was. Sculpted by his childhood upbringing as the chosen one he became this person that resented any personal information ever leaving his inner circle. Through serial infidelity, drug addiction and career ending injuries we are shown what’s beneath the red polos he sports on Sunday’s final round. But through it all it is a story of redemption. Through the entire story you can’t help but to be in awe of all that he has accomplished and is still accomplishing. It makes his 2019 Masters run that much more impressive. For golf fans and anyone who’s ever wondered what one of the greatest athletes of all time goes through when the cameras go away (Spoiler: they never go away).
Related Content
Recent Reads
Palaver House is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.