THE YEAR OF THE TIGER

Unparalleled golfing excellence.

Miller, a reporter for the Athletic, describes how Woods became the first man to win golf’s four major tournaments in a row, leaving rivals and retired players awestruck. Acknowledging how much has been written about his subject, Miller promises “an investigation” of Woods’ ascent “from the next big thing to the only thing.” But in a rather desperate first-chapter gambit, he tries to elicit drama from a hypothetical. Unbeknownst to Woods, his caddie didn’t carry a full complement of balls during the third round of the 2000 U.S. Open in California. Had Woods accidentally knocked his last ball into the Pacific, he’d have faced a two-stroke penalty. That didn’t happen, and Woods won by a huge margin. Eventually, this book becomes a compelling look at process and craftmanship, sparing readers from scandalous tales about Woods’ much-chronicled private life. Woods won the 1997 Masters at 21, but he was unsatisfied with his game—“he was delofting the clubface through impact,” Miller explains—so he and a coach overhauled his swing. By April 2001 he had completed the so-called Tiger Slam, becoming “the only golfer to ever consecutively win all four majors open to professionals.” Miller pays close attention to subjects that will fascinate golf die-hards, among them Woods’ fruitful switch from “liquid core” to “solid core” golf balls and his habit of staging “mini competitions” with himself, shooting for personal-best scores after building big leads in tournaments. Miller’s prose can be overwrought. “The history of Tiger Woods on Sundays goes so much deeper than you may know,” he writes of a teenage Woods’ closing-round performances in amateur tournaments. But his effective use of statistics helpfully contextualizes Woods’ dominance, and his anecdotes about the golfer’s work ethic are gratifyingly specific.

A knowledgeable celebration of a great athlete’s finest year avoids the rough.