Good Books!

Tiger Woods, by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian

Golf is not my thing…I grew up in a non-golfing home and never understood the appeal it held for those who revere the game.  But, over the almost 30 years I’ve lived with a golf fanatic, I have unconsciously absorbed more than I would care to admit about the game, and arguably, the 1990s was golf's golden decade fundamentally because of Tiger Woods.  Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s eponymous biography offers an exhaustedly researched tome (490 pages) of the super-human golfer and the all-too-human man.  Though unauthorized, and despite the NDAs (non disclosure agreements) those in Wood’s orbit were compelled to sign, the authors have written a book that is of interest to both golfers and non-golfers as well primarily by presenting the profoundly flawed but still sympathetic figure of this sports phenom.  Without question the relationship Tiger had with his father Earl (“Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity.”) helped create both the sublime successes and the extreme failures in his both his professional and personal life.   Besides the expected who’s who of the golf world, a parade of notables appear in these pages as well;  Bill Clinton, Michael Jordon, Roger Federer, Lindsey Vonn, world leaders, famous musicians, as well as other sports icons, illustrating the rarified air Wood’s breathed during the apex of his popularity.   Unfortunately, to many, Wood’s legacy will be the scintillating headlines about sex addition, drug abuse, and domestic violence.  This book looks past the sensational stories and creates the whole picture of this undeniably gifted athlete but profoundly complicated man.