
The enigma of Tiger Woods
It's the Tiger Slam rather than the Grand Slam because purists will argue that technically (purists always argue 'technically') Woods did not win all four trophies in the same year: he took the British and US Opens and the PGA in 2000 and added the Masters in April 2001. Whatever. The fact remains that Woods is the only player ever to hold all four titles simultaneously. Given how transient form on the golf course is, he is likely to be the only one who will ever do so. Whatever we choose to call it, it is a truth universally acknowledged that Woods's run from the summer of 2000 into the spring of 2001 constitutes a phase with very few parallels in sport. It is a subject worthy of a truly deep dive. For reasons we'll come to, this book isn't quite it.
There's still much for the Tiger fiend to enjoy. Brody Miller wonderfully recreates moments like the 3-wood Woods blasted 20 yards past Phil Mickelson's driver on the 13th at Augusta on his way to winning the 2001 Masters, a shot he had been practising for months. (Mickelson asks Woods if he always hits his 3-wood that far. 'No, further,' Tiger replies. Ouch.) Or the exchange between Woods and his caddie Steve Williams on the 14th fairway at St Andrews in 2000, when Woods was facing a blind shot into high wind and Williams urged him to hit the ball on the line of a specific cathedral spire in the distance. 'Is that the one you're talking about?' Woods says dryly, twirling his club after executing the shot perfectly – one he still regards as the greatest he ever hit in competition.
And so it goes, with Miller alternating between reconstructing the peerless rounds of golf Woods put together back then and recapping what was going on in the man's life at the same time. It's here that we run into problems; and they are ones you knew were coming from the moment you encountered this sentence in the introduction: 'Woods declined to speak to us for The Year of the Tiger.'
Well colour me stunned. Having made the mistake of chatting freely to sports journalists at the beginning of his career, Woods simply stopped talking to writers. He went into sphinx-mode and has remained locked in it ever since. Without recourse to the man himself, Miller can only resort to secondary texts. So you're very quickly into the realms of stuff you've read about many times before. Another rehash of Earl Woods's deeply unreasonable military-style tutoring techniques, anyone?
The Tiger book industry – and it is exactly that – has now reached a pitch where there is shelf after shelf of the stuff. A pitch where, earlier this year, the not-cash-averse James Patterson (or perhaps some writer who toils at James Patterson Industries) entered the fray with a scissors-and-paste job imaginatively titled Tiger Tiger purporting to be 'a new biography uncovering the life of golf superstar Tiger Woods. What makes Tiger tick?'
Those who really were there have already told their stories. Step forward Williams (The Caddie's Tale) and Hank Haney (The Coach's Tale). Those who were there-adjacent have told theirs, too. (Any number of the sportswriters who Woods spent 15 minutes with early on.) Even Williams now has his own biography. We're probably not far away from seeing 'How I Made Tiger's foot-long Turkey on Wholemeal,' and then the biography of the sandwich-maker. By James Patterson. ('It was a blazingly hot August day in the staff room at the Jupiter Island branch of Subway as Marianne F. Jenkins prepared for an eight-hour shift. Little did she know what customer fate would soon be sending her way.')
Miller does a perfectly decent job of putting you inside the ropes for Woods's finest hours. But the chapters around this feel padded; and ultimately The Year of the Tiger reads like a Vanity Fair piece fleshed out to book length. Sadly, until Woods himself decides to sit down in front of the computer screen – or Dictaphone – and say 'Here's what I was thinking…', most of the books about him will continue to fail in the same way.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
Lottie Woad fires final-round 68 to claim victory on her professional debut
The 21-year-old former world number one amateur from Surrey finished with a final round score of 68 after four days of competition at Dundonald Links. It was Woad's first victory since turning professional earlier in July. She entered the final round with a two-stroke lead and made birdies on the second, third, 13th and 14th before hitting a bogey on the 16th. Lottie Woad wins the @Womens_Scottish on her professional debut 🏆#WSO25 — Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) July 27, 2025 Woad made par on the 17th before a pinpoint approach set up a birdie on the 18th to wrap up the title. She becomes the first player to win on their professional Ladies European Tour debut since Singapore's Shannon Tan at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open in February 2024. Woad said on Sky Sports: 'It's a pretty good outcome, I guess! Definitely wasn't expecting to win my first event, but I knew I was playing well so I was kind of hoping to contend. 'I played really solid today. It was pretty nice in the end, could lay up on the par five. 'Links golf is really fun, don't get to play it too often. This is my first time playing links golf since the Open last year. I wasn't exactly sure how it would go, but it went fine!' Woad won the Women's Scottish Open on her professional debut (Steve Welsh/PA) Woad finished three shots ahead of second-placed Kim Hyo-joo, who fired seven birdies and three bogeys in a mixed fourth round. Julia Lopez Ramirez and Kim Sei-young shared third on 14 under, with world number one Nelly Korda a shot back in fifth. English duo Alice Hewson and Charley Hull finished tied for 10th and 21st, respectively. Attention now turns to the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl, which begins on Thursday. Looking ahead to that tournament, Woad added: 'Even if I hadn't won this week, I'd still be trying to win it and just trying to be up there really is all you can ask for going into the final day.'

South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
Lottie Woad fires final-round 68 to claim victory on her professional debut
The 21-year-old former world number one amateur from Surrey finished with a final round score of 68 after four days of competition at Dundonald Links. It was Woad's first victory since turning professional earlier in July. She entered the final round with a two-stroke lead and made birdies on the second, third, 13th and 14th before hitting a bogey on the 16th. Lottie Woad wins the @Womens_Scottish on her professional debut 🏆#WSO25 — Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) July 27, 2025 Woad made par on the 17th before a pinpoint approach set up a birdie on the 18th to wrap up the title. She becomes the first player to win on their professional Ladies European Tour debut since Singapore's Shannon Tan at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open in February 2024. Woad said on Sky Sports: 'It's a pretty good outcome, I guess! Definitely wasn't expecting to win my first event, but I knew I was playing well so I was kind of hoping to contend. 'I played really solid today. It was pretty nice in the end, could lay up on the par five. 'Links golf is really fun, don't get to play it too often. This is my first time playing links golf since the Open last year. I wasn't exactly sure how it would go, but it went fine!' Woad won the Women's Scottish Open on her professional debut (Steve Welsh/PA) Woad finished three shots ahead of second-placed Kim Hyo-joo, who fired seven birdies and three bogeys in a mixed fourth round. Julia Lopez Ramirez and Kim Sei-young shared third on 14 under, with world number one Nelly Korda a shot back in fifth. English duo Alice Hewson and Charley Hull finished tied for 10th and 21st, respectively. Attention now turns to the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl, which begins on Thursday. Looking ahead to that tournament, Woad added: 'Even if I hadn't won this week, I'd still be trying to win it and just trying to be up there really is all you can ask for going into the final day.'


South Wales Guardian
2 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Lottie Woad fires final-round 68 to claim victory on her professional debut
The 21-year-old former world number one amateur from Surrey finished with a final round score of 68 after four days of competition at Dundonald Links. It was Woad's first victory since turning professional earlier in July. She entered the final round with a two-stroke lead and made birdies on the second, third, 13th and 14th before hitting a bogey on the 16th. Lottie Woad wins the @Womens_Scottish on her professional debut 🏆#WSO25 — Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) July 27, 2025 Woad made par on the 17th before a pinpoint approach set up a birdie on the 18th to wrap up the title. She becomes the first player to win on their professional Ladies European Tour debut since Singapore's Shannon Tan at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open in February 2024. Woad said on Sky Sports: 'It's a pretty good outcome, I guess! Definitely wasn't expecting to win my first event, but I knew I was playing well so I was kind of hoping to contend. 'I played really solid today. It was pretty nice in the end, could lay up on the par five. 'Links golf is really fun, don't get to play it too often. This is my first time playing links golf since the Open last year. I wasn't exactly sure how it would go, but it went fine!' Woad finished three shots ahead of second-placed Kim Hyo-joo, who fired seven birdies and three bogeys in a mixed fourth round. Julia Lopez Ramirez and Kim Sei-young shared third on 14 under, with world number one Nelly Korda a shot back in fifth. English duo Alice Hewson and Charley Hull finished tied for 10th and 21st, respectively. Attention now turns to the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl, which begins on Thursday. Looking ahead to that tournament, Woad added: 'Even if I hadn't won this week, I'd still be trying to win it and just trying to be up there really is all you can ask for going into the final day.'