Tiger Woods at age 2, swinging a golf club for Bob Hope on “The Mike Douglas Show.” At 18, punctuating his go-ahead birdie in the 1994 U.S. Cuban / Allsport)“Tiger,” based on Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s 2018 book, “Tiger Woods,” and co-directed by Matthew Heineman and Matthew Hamachek, at once draws on and dismantles the familiar imagery and the standard narratives that constitute Tiger lore. The difference here, even in the portion of the docuseries focused on Woods’ rise to stardom, is the more forthright skepticism of what writer Charles Pierce calls “the gospel of Tiger Woods” — and particularly of Earl, its “original evangelist,” who died in 2006. I am still not allowed to play because of the color of my skin” — that accompanied Woods’ first, $40-million contract with the company. The answer was resounding, and like Earl Woods himself, it established a set of expectations for and about Tiger with which he, golf and culture are still reckoning, 25 years later.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 10, 2021 19:52 UTC