Tiger Woods

Chapter 4: The Prodigy

On the course, he had only one rule: play without mercy.

Chapter 6: The Next Level

“Swing as fast as I can, unleash everything I have through the ball,” he said. “Then I go find the ball and hit it again.”

Chapter 8: Rich Friends

The approach to the Newport Country Club is a bit like coming upon the set of Downton Abbey—majestic, with a breathtaking sense of grandeur built with old money. The club was established in 1893 after Theodore Havemeyer, whose family owned the American Sugar Refining Company, convinced some of the wealthiest men in America at the time—John Jacob Astor, Perry Belmont, and Cornelius Vanderbilt—to purchase a 140-acre farm overlooking the ocean. Two years later, in 1895, the Newport Country Club hosted the first US Amateur Championship and the first US Open. For the one-hundredth anniversary of the US Amateur, the tournament had returned to its birthplace.

When he was handed the Havemeyer Trophy, Tiger smiled and held it over his head. “This one should be dedicated to the Brunza family,” he said, turning toward his caddie. “This one’s for you, Jay.”

Chapter 11: Masterful

Tiger hadn’t been the only world-class athlete to make his professional debut in 1996. Eighteen-year-old Kobe Bryant joined the Los Angeles Lakers; twenty-two-year-old Derek Jeter started with the New York Yankees; and fourteen-year-old Serena Williams had played in her first professional tennis tournament at the end of 1995. Each would go on to become superstars in their respective sports.

Smith’s story—“ The Chosen One”—would go down in the annals of sports journalism as one of the most heartfelt cautionary profiles of a modern-day athlete.

He wasn’t interested in whether it was realistic. He was driven by the impossible.

Chapter 12: Mania

Tiger piled into a Cadillac courtesy car with his mom and his friends, popped in a CD by the hip-hop group Quad City DJ’s, cranked up “C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train)” to full blast, and drove down Magnolia Lane with the windows down. No Masters winner had ever left Augusta in such style.

Chapter 21: Changes II

Nike had recently shipped a box of prototype titanium drivers to Woods so he could test them. There were six in total. After putting the drivers through their paces, Tiger told Devlin that he preferred the one that was heavier than the others. Devlin informed him that all six drivers were the exact same weight. Tiger argued otherwise, insisting that one weighed more than the others. To prove him wrong, Devlin sent the drivers back to the design wizards at the Nike testing facility in Fort Worth with instructions to weigh them. They found that five drivers were exactly the same weight, but the sixth was two grams heavier. When they pulled the club apart, they discovered that an extra dab of goo had been added to the inside of the head by one of the engineers to help absorb a few floating particles of titanium. The weight of the goo was equivalent to the weight of two one-dollar bills. Yet Tiger noticed the difference in the way the driver felt in his hands.

Chapter 23: Loss

But his iron play in particular was what separated him from everyone else. “In 2006, Tiger was eight feet four inches better than the Tour average with his irons,” explained Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee.

Chapter 25: It’s Just Pain

There’s a difference between being hurt and being injured. If I’m hurt, I can deal with pain. Pain is no big deal. I can block that out. But when I’m injured, my body doesn’t respond.

Chapter 28: Firestorm

For twenty-one consecutive days, Tiger appeared on the cover of the New York Post, surpassing the previous record of twenty consecutive covers devoted to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Chapter 35: Making the Cut

Rickie Fowler had three PGA Tour wins at age twenty-seven. Tiger had thirty-four at the same age. It took Jordan Spieth 112 Tour starts to get his tenth win. Tiger got there in 63. Dustin Johnson won his only major at age thirty-one. At the same age, Tiger had won twelve.