Product Description

Tom Callahan has written the seminal book on golfing great Tiger Woods. Woods, who has gone out of his way to protect his privacy, has never allowed himself to get close enough to a writer to be properly examined on the page. Callahan, commonly regarded as one of the best all-round sports writers in the country, has followed Tiger around the world of golf for more than seven years, enjoying a certain access to the man and his family. He even went so far as to travel to Vietnam to learn the fate of the South Vietnamese soldier who was Earl Wood’s best friend during the war - and his son’s namesake.

Tiger is twenty years old when the book opens and twenty-seven when it closes. During those years, Callahan covered Woods at all the Majors, including the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open, culminating in Tiger’s heart-stopping race to make history by clinching the string of Majors affectionately nicknamed the Tiger Slam.

Along the way, Tom Callahan hears from everyone who is anyone in the world of Tiger Woods, including Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, Butch Harmon, Ernie Els, and, of course, Tiger’s rather ubiquitous mother and father. As much as we learn about Tiger - how he sees himself in relation to the courses he plays on and the players he has learned from and competed with - we also enjoy a bird’s-eye view of golf as it is now with Tiger on the scene, and as it was for centuries before.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1879546 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-25
• Released on: 2003-03-25
• Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 6
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
Golf Digest columnist Callahan draws on seven years of interviews with Tiger, his family, friends, coaches and fellow golfers to unmask the man behind the growing legend. This well-written narrative examines Tiger's early years, how he got to the top of his game and his vision for the future. Anecdotes and insider insights highlight portraits of major Tiger victories. For example, when 15-year-old Tiger first met Jack Nicklaus, the old pro said, "Tiger, when I grow up I want to have a swing as beautiful as yours." Tiger thought, "I'm taller." Callahan discusses the differences between Tiger and his competitors with chapters on Ernie Els, David Duval, Sergio Garcia and more. Tiger's thoughts about race, endorsements, psyching out other players (he gives all competitors a nickname) and the infamous Fuzzy Zoeller affair at the 1997 Masters Tournament lift this entry above the crowd of Tiger books. The author even journeys to Vietnam to discover the fate of South Vietnamese soldier Tiger Phong, father Earl Wood's friend and Tiger's namesake. This is a comprehensive examination of the man, his talent, his competition and the world of professional golf, a must-read for fans and players alike.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
A pastiche loosely organized around Tiger Woods' consecutive conquest of golf's four "majors" in 1999-2000, Callahan's assemblage of anecdote and conversation is more a sequence of digressions than an unfolding narrative. It certainly slakes the informational thirst of the duffing masses for all things Tiger, including the source of his nickname, but a biography this isn't. Perhaps one isn't possible, given Woods' guarded privacy and cautious public relations (a posture protective of his $100 million-plus endorsement contracts). More expansively, Callahan tracks what fading greats (Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino) and contemporary second-tier players (David Duval, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson) think of Woods' game, mental and physical. When that peters out, Callahan is apt to toss in golf lore (e.g., the prejudice endured by black professional golfers), before boomeranging back to hole-by-hole commentary on Woods' de facto grand slam. (Technically, a grand slam must be achieved in the same calendar year.) In spring's annual bloom of golf books, Tiger titles are highly popular perennials. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
?Tom Callahan is the most complete sports writer in America. He knows the most and writes the best. In this journey, In Search of Tiger, he discloses the athlete and the man and makes us like and understand both. Pure Callahan excellence.?
?Roger Rosenblatt, Time

?We all relate to the relationship between father and son or parents and their children. That?s where Tom started looking for Tiger, and he found him.? ?Gary Player

?When it comes to style, fresh insight, and perspective, few in a crowded field can even make the cut. As expected, Tom betters par by several strokes.?
?Bob Costas, NBC

?Tom Callahan writing about anything is like Julia Child saying, ?If you don?t have
any plans, stick around and I?ll make you dinner.? ?
?Tony Kornheiser, Washington Post

?Tom Callahan knows the game of golf as well as anyone in the business. Many years, not just many nights, went into the telling of this story. A lot of Tom?s heart is in
here, too.? ?Jack Nicklaus

?In Search of Tiger deserves a place among the finest books ever written on golf or sports. It is the only Tiger book you ever need to read.? ?Dan Jenkins

?Nobody now writing about sports brings more substantial gifts to that strange line of work than Tom Callahan. The voice is untheatrically eloquent, wry, and wise, frequently letting us in on unobtrusive truths that turn out to be strikingly relevant. His enthusiasm for his subject is tempered by a civilised worldliness. He is never cynical but, as was said of the great Chicago columnist Mike Royko, he is baloney-proof. I have long been convinced that he has a clearer understanding than anybody else I know of the essence and implications of the Tiger Woods phenomenon. In Search of Tiger reinforces that conviction.?
?Hugh McIlvanney, The Sunday Times of London -- Review

Customer Reviews

Not found yet
When the writer of a book on the greatest sporting celebrity since Muhammed Ali is a bit of a celebrity himself, there's a clash of egos. The problem with this book is that Tom Callahan, author of In Search of Tiger does not find Tiger Woods at all. Tom finds Tiger's father and a tiny part of his mother, and he does find other players (quite a lot of them) but this book reveals little about Woods himself. There is no question that Tom Callahan is an excellent writer who knows the sports industry intimately. Anyone who loves the sport of golf will probably enjoy this book. It is an easy and worthwhile read. But for anyone looking to reveal the mystique behind Tiger Woods, this book dissapoints.

Not quite
This book is a compelling read for someone with a starting knowledge of and interest in Tiger Woods, but it doesn't quite make you feel like you've found Tiger. The book seems to be too choppy, more a series of isolated chapters thrown in that dont seem to connect. And there are too many questions that you are left with after reading it. If you're going to brag that you covered Tiger at all his first 8 majors, why have chapters only on the 3 in 2000? And if you're going to focus on those, why soak them with background info and then glaze over the tremendous performances? Callahan's description of Tiger during the 2000 PGA is particularly weak; why he decides to condense that great final round with May and the great back nine and the putts on 18 and 16 the second time around into about a page and a half befuddled me. And most of all, why devote so much of the book to learning about golfers other than Tiger? It's true that if you were to write the definitive, thoroughly detailed Tiger book, you could not ignore Lefty, Sergio, Ernie, etc. But when the chapters on the other golfers seem to take up half of this relatively short book, you've gone too far. It's true that this book is well written and will provide you with some nice tidbits about Tiger (such as the fact that his mother was the one to get him to wear red on Sundays), but you will likely leave the book hoping for more detail, more coherence, and more depth.

KEEP SEARCHING
In this latest book about Eldrick Woods, the author takes a different approach in unraveling one of golf's greatest players. Readers should be cautione; this is not a conventional biography of Tiger Woods. What you are given are various anecdotes about Tiger loosely tied together within the historical framework of golf. From the outset this sounds good but you know even less about Tiger than when you started out and find out more about those who have had anything to do with his career.

Why learn about Mark O'Mear, Arnold Palmer, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Jack Nicklaus and other golfing greats and then call your book In Search of Tiger? The book is less about Tiger and more about the development of the game and those who impacted upon it. All of the facts about Tiger's career, business and family can be found in other books. Our author, Tom Callahan has sloopily sewed together a series of articles about other golfers and nongolfers who know Tiger and then you aren't sure if they know him at all.

I must admit that the writing is good. The historical context and relationship of the players to the game and their fathers is interesting. I did expect more about Tiger and less about every Tom, Dick and Harry who supposidly know him. Tiger Woods fans can add another mediocre book to their collection about Woods but if you want a definitive work on the champion try another text. Keep Searching.