Project Tiger: The Birth of Genius and the Price of Greatness by Gavin Newsham

Discover Tiger Woods’s childhood path to dominance and the origins of his downfall.

There are two Tiger Woods: the man who won fifteen majors and broke numerous golf records, and the billionaire whose personal flaws destroyed his reputation. But there is another story to tell: “Project Tiger,” the plan his father orchestrated to make his son the greatest golfer ever and a world-changing savior. The demands were extraordinary. The impact, permanent.

In Project Tiger, veteran golf journalist Gavin Newsham mines his extensive interviews with Tiger’s coaches, classmates, girlfriends, and competitors for stories that refine our perception of Tiger’s enigmatic character and legacy.

Young Tiger succeeded despite many conflicts, especially weekly vitriolic, racist hate mail in greater quantities than any other athlete alive today. Although Tiger had the talent to swing golf clubs before his first birthday, it was his father’s drill-sergeant coaching that motivated him, driving him with fear and into obsession. Tiger emotionally detached as he rapidly ascended, a volatile perseverance that erupted in entitlement, arrogance, and selfishness.

In Project Tiger, readers witness golf’s most sensational prodigy develop the unique traits that led him to the pinnacle of success, and also doomed him, and understand how his trajectory brings him full circle, training his son, Charlie Woods, with a different, loving approach to the game.