Truth be told, I’ve read one James Patterson volume and this one is it. I cannot tell you much about his compositional style, and how it has evolved since 1976, when his first novel was published. That’s nearly fifty years of writing, and suggests that he knows his way around a keyboard (nee typewriter.) In 2018, Patterson published The President is Missing, a collaborative effort with William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the USA. No doubt, the lure of inside knowledge was too much to resist.

One guesses that Tiger, Tiger does not benefit from nearly the same level of inside knowledge. Not for a lack of charm on Patterson’s part, nor for a dearth of investigative skills. Tiger Woods is a closed book. Even the ones that he writes and co-writes, are carefully curated to reveal only what the great golf champion wishes to release. Forget Chuck Norris; if truth serum came in contact with the 15-time major champion Woods, the syrup would lose all respectability.

Tiger, Tiger reads like an epistolary novel. It is made of a prologue and six parts, containing 87 chapters. It concludes with a wee epilogue, and thus do 439 pages come to a close. Patterson’s writing style is direct and suggests someone dancing along the edge of golf literacy. If you told me that Patterson is not a golfer, and that he has never associated with the game to any degree, I would not be surprised. He avoids the trap of the golf-expert-turned-chronicler, and lays out what is known about Tiger Woods, in a unique way.

Each chapter is identified with a number, a date, and a location. After the prologue, the chapters play out in chronological sequence. There’s no magical realism in the telling of this Tiger’s tale. The secondary title His life, as it’s never been told before, neither lies, nor promises the unrealizable. No other writer has told this much of the story. For those who wish to remember and keep up, this is their tome.

There are no great revelations about the epoch spanning from December 30th, 1975, to the present day. Those of us who have followed the arc of Tiger, know by heart, or have read or heard, each detail contained within the cover of Tiger, Tiger. Why dedicate time, energy, and money to acquire and read this volume? For starters, it’s all in there. The early days in the garage, the school years, the amateur victories and the professional debut. The major victories, the marriage and children, and the scandals, you’ll find them all.

Interestingly, the one element that I’d like to read a bit more about, the rumored hold-up of Tiger during his college days, receives no attention. Someone has control of the strings, and is making this story-puppet dance. We get the sense, as we’ve always suspected, that Tiger’s family exerted tremendous control over his personal relationships, at least when it came to romantic involvement. Essentially, they trusted him to hit the correct shots and to choose the proper friends. When it came to something bigger, Tida and Earl stepped in.

In 2018, Tiger challenged for the Open Championship, before falling away. With the knowledge that his children knew him as a “YouTube Golfer,” and not a flesh-and-blood, major champion, he summoned the will and the expertise to win the 2019 Masters. If you only know Tiger as a “YouTube Golfer,” you should read this book. If your friends are similar, you should tell them about it.

Details

Tiger, Tiger: His life, as it’s never been told before

James Patterson

Little, Brown  2024