Golf great Tiger writes ‘definitive’ life story
Tiger Woods has announced a new memoir titled Back in which he promises to tell his ‘‘definitive story’’.
The book – to be published by HarperCollins but for which there is no confirmed release date – will start with Woods’ childhood as a golfing prodigy and span his 81 PGA Tour event wins and 15 major victories.
The latest of those was the most remarkable at the Masters in April at age 43, after years of battling injuries, sex addiction and the tabloids. It was Woods’ first major win in more than a decade.
HarperCollins said the memoir was ‘‘the first and only account directly from Woods, with the full co-operation of his friends, family and inner circle’’.
Woods said: ‘‘I’ve been in the spotlight for a long time and because of that, there have been books and articles and TV shows about me, most filled with errors, speculative and wrong.
‘‘This book is my definitive story. It’s in my words and expresses my thoughts. It describes how I feel and what’s happened in my life.
‘‘I’ve been working at it steadily, and I’m looking forward to continuing the process and creating a book that people will want to read.’’
Last year, journalists Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian released the biography Tiger Woods which included interviews with more than 250 people but not the man himself, after he reportedly set strict conditions on their meetings.
The New York Times called the biography ‘‘exhilarating, depressing, tawdry and moving in almost equal measure’’, adding: ‘‘If you stripped most of the golf out of this book, you might sometimes think you are reading the biography of a sociopath, a non-murderous Tom Ripley or Patrick Bateman, or Svidrigailov from Crime and Punishment.’’
Since Woods turned professional in 1996 he has virtually redefined the game.
Not only did he usher in an era of multimillion-dollar endorsements and lucrative appearance money, but his Afro-American-Asian background spread the sport to an audience far beyond its traditional image of male, white and middle-class.
Woods later went through a highly-public divorce in 2010 after revelations of his marital infidelities convinced him to take a selfimposed hiatus from professional golf, a DUI arrest in 2017 and multiple knee and back surgeries that convinced many his best days were behind him.