As more details emerge from the new book on Tiger Woods (entitled Tiger Woods) by Armen Keteyian and Jeff Benedict, the stories keep getting more interesting. Not that I would expect anything different from a book that got this kind of a review in the New York Times.
The theme of the book seems somewhat easy to pin down — true genius struggles to adapt to societal norms but comes around at an older age — but the path to where we’re at today is fraught with some indelible moments like the one about a round of golf Tiger played with former President Bill Clinton in the mid-2000s.
According to the excerpt on Golf Digest, Woods and Clinton were slated to play a round together somewhere in the 2005 or 2006 range before Clinton was to appear at a grand opening for the Tiger Woods Learning Center. They had a bizarre, complicated and contentious backstory, and it did not get better based on the reporting of how their round went.
Here is a portion of the excerpt from the book on Golf Digest.
The situation got even more awkward after Clinton arrived. Tiger’s behavior did nothing to bridge the gap between him and Clinton. At the outset, Clinton started carrying on, monopolizing the conversation, as he was known to do, before Woods interrupted and said, “How do you remember all that s***?” Once they got onto the course, Tiger acted completely indifferent to the entire group, mostly riding alone in his cart and spending an inordinate amount of time on his phone. After finishing a hole, he would routinely exit the green while others were still putting, a major breach of golf etiquette. When the president hit a wayward drive, Woods snickered. He also told a series of off-color jokes.
“He was really obnoxious,” said one observer. “It was so clear to me that day who Tiger really was. I’ve never seen the president more put off by a person than that experience.”
So that sounds completely crazy, but it’s apparently just one of many wild tales in the newest — and possibly most comprehensive– construction of what Woods’ life has really been like.
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