C12| Saturday/Sunday, March 28 - 29, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
I
F YOU’RE LOOKINGfor a way
to fill the void caused by the
postponement of the Masters,
originally scheduled for April
9-12, two books that celebrate
the wonders of last year’s tournament
might do the trick.
To refresh your memory, Tiger
Woods won at Augusta National last
year by a single shot, 14 years after his
last Masters victory and 11 years after
his last win in any major. (The 2019
final-round CBS broadcast is available
on the Masters website.) It was argu-
ably the greatest career comeback in
sports history. Woods overcame not
just the ruin of his marriage and public
reputation after reports of his compul-
sive sexual behavior began to surface
in 2009 but also the apparent ruin of
his body. In 2017, at the annual Masters
champions dinner, Woods had confided
to Gary Player that his competitive golf
career was finished.
How did Woods turn things around?
How did he manage, at age 43, to pull
himself together and beat back chal-
lenges from the rising generation of
super athletes—including studs like
Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson,
who tied for second at last year’s
Masters along with Xander Schauffele?
That’s the mystery that Michael
Bamberger’s “The Second Life of Tiger
Woods” and Curt Sampson’s “Roaring
Back: The Fall and Rise of Tiger
Woods” attempt to solve.
Of the two, Mr. Bamberger’s book is
the more thoughtful and focuses more
explicitly on peeling back the Tiger
Woods enigma. Mr. Bamberger goes
out of his way to be fair, clearly distin-
guishing between what we can know
and what we will probably never know.
His speculations about the private
Woods, always labeled as such, are in-
formed by his more than three decades
of golf reporting and five previous
books about golf, including one about
caddying for a tour pro. He knows the
world of professional golf, and the
pressures it exacts, like few others.
The crucial moment in Woods’s
turnaround, Mr. Bamberger suggests,
was his arrest, shortly after 2 a.m. on
Memorial Day 2017, on the side of a
highway near his home in Jupiter
Island, Fla. In a running shirt and baggy
shorts, obviously drugged out and
barely able to form sentences, Woods
was sitting in his Mercedes, two of its
tires mangled. A perp video from the
arrest went viral. But Mr. Bamberger’s
interest is not prurient. His review of
that dashcam video, the video of Tiger’s
later interrogation, and the legal pro-
ceedings that followed persuaded
about Woods’s looseness with the
rules, particularly in 2013, when he
won five tournaments but was involved
in four significant rules disputes. Most
famously, he made an illegal drop in
the Masters that year and signed for
the wrong score, normally a disquali-
fying offense. Tournament officials
bent over backward to provide Woods
with a way to continue playing, but
many felt he should have withdrawn
anyway, for the good of the game. Too
often, Mr. Bamberger writes, Woods
“put his own ambition ahead of the
rights of his fellow competitors.”
The book is rife with digressions
like that, but patient readers will find
fascinating gems tucked among them.
Woods apparently has a peculiar
passion to crush rather than simply
outplay those with whom he is paired
on tournament Saturdays, a take-no-
prisoners style that Mr. Bamberger
says derives from his Thai mother,
Tilda, more than from his father, Earl.
In another digression, he speculates
amusingly about Woods’s frosty rela-
tionship with the talkative Phil Mickel-
son: “Earl had theories about every-
thing. Tiger didn’t need to hear Phil’s.”
Toward the end of the book, Mr.
Bamberger turns to his Rolodex of
notable golf personalities for their
perspectives on Woods’s recent trans-
formation. The consensus is that he
has indeed changed, however imper-
fectly. The “new” Tiger can still be re-
mote and dismissive, but in general he
is more personable, less self-absorbed
and extremely grateful still to be play-ing golf. The 2017 spinal-fusion surgery
and Woods’s disciplined recovery even-
tually relieved most of his back pain.
“He’s on a more human level now,”
says Rory McIlroy. “When you show
vulnerability, it’s endearing.” Nick
Faldo, a curt loner in his own play-
ing heyday and a three-time Masters
champ, credits Woods’s devotion to his
two children for the transformation.
“When you’re on a mission, like Tiger
was, like I was, you’re at the front of
a ship, and you’re creating a wake,
and sometimes that wake isn’t pretty,”
he says. “Then your children grow up,
and that changes you. You learn to
forgive and to ask for forgiveness.”
Mr. Sampson’s take on Woods in
“Roaring Back,” which appeared a few
months ago, is breezier. Like Mr. Bam-
berger, Mr. Sampson zooms in on vari-
ous incidents from Woods’s past that
bear on his recent resurgence, but he
spends far less time poking and prod-
ding them. Mr. Sampson gets why
Woods’s 2009 sex scandal offended
Golf (with a capital “G”) but suggests
that it was a bit overblown. “Woods
seemed suddenly to personify some-
thing or other, like pride goeth-ing
before a fall, or Icarus, or King Lear.
Media outlets specializing in the lurid
enjoyed a series of feasts,” he writes.
Mr. Sampson, the author of 17 previ-
ous books, including a superb biogra-
phy of Ben Hogan, says that he person-
ally opposes the kind of perfection
associated with both Hogan and
Woods. “Perfect is the enemy of done.”
That attitude makes for a lively proseMr. Bamberger to credit the profession-
alism of the arresting officers and of
the local court system with effectively
saving Woods. He was required to per-
form 50 hours of community service
and strictly monitored for a year; he
couldn’t even have an alcoholic drink.
Might Woods have turned around
anyway? After all, the five drugs in his
system that morning weren’t from
partying; they were primarily intendedto quell the pain from his recent spinal-
fusion surgery. Maybe, Mr. Bamberger
acknowledges. But maybe not.
People determined to dislike Woods
for his past sins and occasional, above-
it-all arrogance, and there are many,
will sneer at such empathy. But it typi-
fies Mr. Bamberger’s effort throughout
the book to look beyond the obvious
for clues as to what makes Tiger tick.
And he doesn’t give Woods a free ride.
He devotes 30 pages to whether
Woods, despite frequent denials, used
performance-enhancing drugs during
the peak of his golf dominance. If so,
they may have contributed to the
breakdown of his body and his need for
a dozen surgeries. He is also unsparingThe crucial moment
in Woods’s turnaround
may have been his arrest,
shortly after 2 a.m.,
on Memorial Day 2017.Hardcover Nonfiction
TITLE
AUTHOR/ PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount 1 New
Wizards RPG Team/Wizards
Untamed 2 1
Glennon Doyle/Dial
The Splendid and the Vile 3 5
Erik Larson/Crown
Find Your Path 4 4
Carrie Underwood/Dey Street
The Mamba Mentality 5 7
Kobe Bryant/MCDTITLE
AUTHOR / PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
Open Book 6 10
Jessica Simpson/Dey Street
Educated: A Memoir 7 —
Tara Westover/Random House
The Gift of Forgiveness 8 3
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt/Pamela Dorman
Marketing Made Simple 9 New
Donald Miller & J.J. Peterson/HarperCollins Leadership
Wipe Clean: Early Learning Activity... 10 —
Roger Priddy/Priddy BooksHardcover Fiction
TITLE
AUTHOR / PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
Where the Crawdads Sing 1 3
Delia Owens/Putnam
The Boy From the Woods 2 New
Harlan Coben/Grand Central
Dog Man: Fetch-22 3 4
Dav Pilkey/Graphix
Wrecking Ball 4 10
Jeff Kinney/Amulet
The Rise of Skywalker 5 New
Rae Carson/Del ReyTITLE
AUTHOR / PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
American Dirt 6 7
Jeanine Cummins/Flatiron
Pete the Cat 7 —
Kimberly Dean & James Dean/HarperFestival
The Mirror and the Light 8 1
Hilary Mantel/Holt
Smoke Bitten 9 New
Patricia Briggs/Ace
The Jerusalem Assassin 10 New
Joel C. Rosenberg/TyndaleMethodology
NPDBookScangatherspoint-of-salebookdata
frommorethan16,000locationsacrosstheU.S.,
representingabout85%ofthenation’sbooksales.
Print-bookdataprovidersincludeallmajorbooksellers,
webretailersandfoodstores.E-bookdataproviders
includeallmajore-bookretailers.Freee-booksand
thosesellingforlessthan99centsareexcluded.
Thefictionandnonfictioncombinedlistsinclude
aggregatedsalesforallbookformats(exceptaudio
books,bundles,boxedsetsandforeign
languageeditions)andfeaturea
combinationofadult,youngadultand
juveniletitles.Thehardcoverfiction
andnonfictionlistsalsoencompassa
mixofadult,youngadultandjuveniletitleswhilethe
businesslistfeaturesonlyadulthardcovertitles.
[email protected].Nonfiction E-Books
TITLE
AUTHOR/ PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
The Splendid and the Vile 1 3
Erik Larson/Crown
End of Days 2 1
Sylvia Browne & Lindsay Harrison/New American Library
Untamed 3 2
Glennon Doyle/Dial
The Obstacle Is the Way 4 —
Ryan Holiday/Portfolio
If You Tell 5 —
Gregg Olsen/Thomas & Mercer
The Great Influenza 6 —
John Barry/Penguin
Fixing the Fates 7 —
Diane Dewey/She Writes
Educated: A Memoir 8 10
Tara Westover/Random House
How the Irish Saved Civilization 9 —
Thomas Cahill/Anchor
Born to Shine 10 —
Ashley LeMieux/Morgan JamesNonfiction Combined
TITLE
AUTHOR / PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
Untamed 1 1
Glennon Doyle/Dial
The Splendid and the Vile 2 2
Erik Larson/Crown
My First Learn to Write Workbook 3 —
Crystal Radke/Rockridge
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount 4 New
Wizards RPG Team/Wizards
The Odd 1s Out 5 New
James Rallison/TarcherPerigee
Summer Brain Quest 6 —
Workman Publishing/Workman
Paint by Sticker Kids 7 —
Workman Publishing/Workman
Brain Quest Workbook: Kindergarten 8 —
Lisa Trumbauer/Workman
Summer Bridge Activities 9 —
Summer Bridge Activities/Summer Bridge
Big First Grade 10 —
School Zone/School ZoneFiction E-Books
TITLE
AUTHOR / PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
Smoke Bitten 1 New
Patricia Briggs/Ace
The Boy From the Woods 2 New
Harlan Coben/Grand Central
Little Fires Everywhere 3 —
Celeste Ng/Penguin
American Dirt 4 4
Jeanine Cummins/Flatiron
A Conspiracy of Bones 5 New
Kathy Reichs/Scribner
In Five Years 6 New
Rebecca Serle/Atria
Cross Her Heart 7 New
Melinda Leigh/Montlake Romance
Where the Crawdads Sing 8 —
Delia Owens/Putnam
The Front 9 —
Patricia Cornwell/Berkley
Triple 10 —
Ken Follett/PenguinFiction Combined
TITLE
AUTHOR / PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
The Boy From the Woods 1 New
Harlan Coben/Grand Central
Smoke Bitten 2 New
Patricia Briggs/Ace
Little Fires Everywhere 3 6
Celeste Ng/Penguin
Where the Crawdads Sing 4 3
Delia Owens/Putnam
American Dirt 5 4
Jeanine Cummins/Flatiron
The Rise of Skywalker 6 New
Rae Carson/Del Rey
In Five Years 7 New
Rebecca Serle/Atria
The Mirror and the Light 8 1
Hilary Mantel/Holt
The Jerusalem Assassin 9 New
Joel C. Rosenberg/Tyndale
Dog Man: Fetch-22 10 10
Dav Pilkey/GraphixHardcover Business
TITLE
AUTHOR / PUBLISHERTHIS
WEEKLAST
WEEK
Atomic Habits 1 5
James Clear/Avery
StrengthsFinder 2.0 2 2
Tom Rath/Gallup
Deaths of Despair and the Future... 3 New
Anne Case & Angus Deaton/Princeton
Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+ 4 3
Suze Orman/Hay House
The Total Money Makeover 5 7
Dave Ramsey/Thomas Nelson
Dare to Lead 6 8
Brené Brown/Random House
The Ride of a Lifetime 7 —
Robert Iger/Random House
Never Split the Difference 8 —
Chris Voss & Tahl Raz/Harper Business
Capital and Ideology 9 1
Thomas Piketty/Belknap/Harvard
Extreme Ownership 10 —
Jocko Willink & Leif Babin/St. Martin’sBestselling Books|Week Ended March 21
With data from NPD BookScanThe Second Life
of Tiger Woods
By Michael Bamberger
Avid Reader, 258 pages, $28
Roaring Back
By Curt Sampson
Diversion, 253 pages, $26.99
style. He summarizes the Tiger Slam in
2000 and 2001—Woods’s four consec-
utive major championship victories—
by writing out Woods’s score in each
of those 16 rounds: 65-69-71-67,
67-66-67-69, 66-67-70-67, 70-66-68-68.
“That was eloquent,” he says.
Messrs. Sampson and Bamberger,
working from the same basic set of
facts, come to similar conclusions—they
agree that Woods today is far more at
peace with himself than he was in his
glory days—but emphasize different
aspects of the back story. Mr. Sampson
gives short shrift to Woods’s alleged
use of performance-enhancing drugs
and rules issues but offers useful com-
parisons with historical figures, both in
and out of sports, who have faced com-
parable challenges. Not surprisingly,
he is particularly insightful about the
similarities between Woods’s comeback
and Ben Hogan’s recovery from a
nearly fatal, head-on collision in 1949
and his victory at the 1950 U.S. Open.
Mr. Sampson wryly notes that his
book is approximately the 120th about
Tiger Woods, which would make Mr.
Bamberger’s the 121st. Why do we need
these new ones? First, because a lot
has happened since Jeff Benedict and
Armen Keteyian’s comprehensive 2018
biography, “Tiger Woods.” Second, be-
cause Woods remains so inscrutable.
He is a Rorschach test. No one inter-
pretation will do.Mr. Newport, the Journal’s golf
columnist from 2006 to 2015,
is at work on a golf-related novel.Journey Back to the Leaderboard
KING OF THE CATSCelebrating victory after the 18th green of the 2019 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.
GETTY IMAGESBOOKS
‘The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.’—VINCE LOMBARDI
BYJOHNPAULNEWPORT