There are three types of golf fans.
Those who remember what golf was like before any of us had ever heard of Tiger Woods. The game at that time was glorious and proud yet exclusive, elitist and lacking much diversity.
Then there’s a second batch of fans who began paying closer attention to the game largely because of Woods’ meteoric rise to fame. It was hard not to. We’d never seen anything like him before; his persona and style of play were captivating.
And now there’s a third, younger generation who never got to watch Woods play, experience his dominance firsthand or live through the cultural explosion he brought upon both golf and our nation. While they may recognize how he changed the game, he’s largely portrayed as a flawed and conflicted character. Rightfully so, as he was all the above.
Gavin Newsham’s Project Tiger: The Birth of Genius and The Price of Greatness is a compelling story of a determined young man (and his perhaps even more determined father) that many of us can relate to… to a point. While our fathers all wanted greatness for us, few were as obsessed, as protective or as demanding as Earl Woods.
Project Tiger is the story of Tiger Woods’s upbringing, from childhood to prodigy. If you’re looking for a recap of his pro career, you won’t find it here, but rather all the hard work that led up to it, to potentially serve as explanation for what came afterwards. Project Tiger is a detailed recount of his youth, which was no ordinary childhood, unless you consider ordinary getting your first hole-in-one at the age of six and your first death threat at sixteen.
As the legend of their young son grew, the Woods family had no room in their house for all the trophies he would amass. They would eventually be removed by Tiger’s mother not for lack of storage but to keep her son in check. With every chapter, Newsham reminds us of Tiger’s incomparable early dominance and includes interviews with people Tiger played both with and against along the way.
Gavin’s principal objective with Project Tiger is to find out how and where things went south for Tiger and perhaps to properly assess a little blame along the way. Per Newsham, there’s plenty to go around. How did a young, cheerful, insanely talented kid who had it all, lose it all? But Tiger is a tough nut to crack, Newsham admits. “Getting to Tiger is like trying to complete a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded. Woods can be reclusive and unreachable.” Newsham’s project is to find out how Tiger’s “strange, dysfunctional and stage-managed childhood then burgeoning celebrity impacted his development” and “the price he paid for it.” Newsham plays analyst, Tiger’s on his couch. Project Tiger is your result.
Both Woods’ parents, Earl and Tida, were integral in their son’s growth, a one-two punch of discipline and ritual. The concept of race in America was ever-present in their household, so much so that Earl Woods once told television producers “that his two-year old son was not just going to revolutionize golf but race relations in the United States.” Talk about pressure. “For him, Tiger’s success was part of a personal mission, an attempt to not only right the wrongs of discrimination he had faced… but to throw a hand grenade into the very heart of the game that was archaic and impenetrable in equal measure.”
As a result, Woods became aware of his racial identity early on, as well as the controlling nature of his father. Per Newsham, “the more Tiger progressed, the more Earl took credit. The greater he played, the more he hogged the limelight.” Woods was convinced his son would change the world, and in many ways, he was right. Newsham can’t help but wonder if Woods could have done more had things been different.
All this pressure came at great cost. “Golf was all he ever knew, and he did what he was told, lest he incur the wrath of his father or the disapproval of his mother. Did he miss out on a childhood,” which begs the question, what, if anything, would Tiger change about his childhood and who, if anyone, does he blame?
In Earl, Newsham paints the picture of a John Creese-like, Vietnam vet, strike fast, no mercy upbringing, that would ultimately create a rift between Earl and his wife and leave a wake within which their son would eventually drown. “This is what drove Tida crazy. Proclamations that went far beyond unconditional paternal love and tipped into some alternative reality where this little boy wasn’t just really good at golf but, in all likelihood, the Second Coming.”
The bulk of Project Tiger discusses not his foibles later in life, nor much of his pro career but rather his rise to the professional ranks, the likes the sport has never seen and likely will never see again. By the time Woods turned pro, Nike and other sponsors made him the highest paid golfer in the world, and why wouldn’t they as Tiger seemed the safest bet on the board. “Woods appeal was almost universal. Tiger Woods wasn’t just a golfer; he was a cultural phenomenon in waiting.”
Reading through Project Tiger, particularly its searing epilogue about how and where Tiger went wrong, I couldn’t help but wonder about his relationship with his father, how he feels about it all, and if there’s anything he would have changed. Newsham is probably harder on Tiger’s father than Tiger could ever be.
I thought of other notable sports fathers, like Richard Williams, father of the Williams sisters, whom Newsham mentions, or Monty Ball, who both possessed a protective vision for their children in their own unique ways. If you weren’t with them, you were an obstacle along their path to greatness. Was Earl Woods a motivator or a madman? I suppose the answer to that question is a resounding both. But Project Tiger isn’t only about Tiger’s life with Earl, his mother’s presence is equally prominent. “While Earl played the part of outspoken mentor, Tida was the quiet, unyielding force, the embodiment of a stoic discipline. She taught Tiger to block out distractions, to channel his emotions and to use an inner calm to his advantage.”
Newsham’s epilogue is where he ultimately takes off the gloves, not just for Earl but for Tiger himself. “What is depressing is that with a record like that, Tiger Woods had a chance – a genuine opportunity – to make a difference in a game steeped with elitism and riddled with discrimination. And he blew it.” Newsham isn’t the first to point out that Tiger was no Jackie, Ali or Ashe. But then again, neither was Michael Jordan. Half the nation wants these men to shut up and dribble while the other half criticizes them for not doing enough. Hardly seems fair.
The hypocrisy within Project Tiger is that Newsham criticizes Woods for not fully following through with his father’s vision, yet he routinely blasts Earl for instilling that pressure upon him in the first place. So where do we end up?
“November 27, 2009… was the day Tiger Woods stopped smiling. His demise, shocking as it was, seemed to be the almost inevitable conclusion of a life spent turning a blind eye to the same kind of behavior that Earl Woods exhibited around women.”
As we now know, both Tiger and his father are flawed like the rest of us. Let us not point fingers, even if it means searching for a greater understanding of the truth. Woods changed the game and perhaps Newsham is right, when he suggests not as much as he could or should have. Who’s to say? To single-handedly bear the burden of eradicating racism from both golf, and America, sure seems like a lot to handle, while also focusing on the perfect golf swing and some semblance of a family life.
Despite his flaws and where they came from, Woods still did fairly well under the circumstances. I suppose that depends on who you ask.
