By Gavin Newsham
Total Pages: 271
Release Date: March 17, 2026
Published by: Diversion Books
Tiger Woods — the golfer. Tiger Woods — the man.
As author Gavin Newsham points out, the former was the person whose golf skills were exhibited at a level never seen before. The man who excited a global audience with consummate golfing abilities and became the world’s most famous athlete.
The former was the complete opposite. A man sequestered by parents who worked tirelessly in molding a young man who would demonstrate little regard for human contact and showing little to no remorse in pushing aside anyone not serving his purpose.
Newsham’s insightful book — Project Tiger — covers the development of Woods from his early years until making his epic pro tour splash when announcing his famed “Hello world” introduction when turning professional at the Milwaukee PGA Tour event in 1996.
If there was a movie character that accurately fits the motus operandi of Woods, it is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s portrayal in the original movie — The Terminator. Newsham points out that Tiger’s parents — Earl and Tida — were fixated on molding their lone son into a golfing machine. The robotic fixation did not permit outside involvements or distractions.
Tiger did not develop personal interrelationship skills and when people did intersect with him, it was his parents who maintained a strict wall that would not be crossed.
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*** About the AuthorA journalist, editor and author for nearly 30 years, Gavin Newsham has written on sport for a wide variety of publications including GQ, The Guardian, The New York Post and Golf Digest. His first book, a biography of golfer John Daly, Letting The Big Dog Eat, won him the ‘Best New Writer’ Award at the National Sporting Club Book Awards. *** |
Nesham vividly illustrates the relentless push by parents who realized that their son would not be distracted by anything that took away from his rapidly developing golf skills.
Even when the pathway to ultimate greatness hit a clear pothole after Tiger’s Thanksgiving 2009 car crash and everything that had been carefully marketed with Woods portrayed as a dedicated family man was nothing but an elaborate smoke screen to sell Tiger as one thing when in actuality his personal life was a total lie.
Newsham sums it up well–
“Does that diminish what Woods did achieve? Of course not. But how it imploded so spectacularly wasn’t just shocking, but, in many ways, predictable, given the childhood he missed out on, his father’s behavior; and the entitlement he felt as the world’s greatest golfer.”
The early days of Woods and how he was molded by parents fixated on seeing him become the ultimate golfer is examined in laser-like detail by Nesham. For many sports fans the nature of what a person is like personally is often a secondary element when held against the feats of glory attained on the various sports fields or in the case of Woods on the various courses he competed.
Tiger’s second arrest in late March and being charged with driving under the influence shows a person who has learned little from his past transgressions. Woods was able to successfully convince a Florida judge of his need to head outside the States for comprehensive treatment and his future in golf remains unknown. Woods has already stated he will not serve as captain for the American team at the 2027 Ryder Cup matches in Ireland.
The role of Tiger’s parents is a core element which Newsham drills down again and again in the book. Yes, the golf triumphs Woods attained are presented too but much of that ground had been covered elsewhere.
The molding of a golf robot is the essence of Project Tiger.
The high bar set by his parents is something a young Tiger was embedded with on a constant basis. His father Earl even boasted how his son would be impactful far beyond the golf course and Nesham delves into this issue quite directly.
“Despite all of Earl Woods’s early predictions for his son and the heavenly levels of greatness he would almost invariably achieve on and off the golf course, Woods’s decision, conscious or otherwise, to navigate a wide circuitous route around anything remotely controversial is perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of his life and career. That’s why he can never be mentioned in the same breath as, say, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, or Arthur Ashe. They took a stand, Tiger never did.”
Woods clearly transformed golf in numerous ways. He elevated the standard of ultimate greatness with a series of on-course performances that will undoubtedly resonate forever. Among those mind-boggling achievements include a 15-shot win at the US Open in 2000. Capturing what was tagged as the “Tiger slam” in which Woods held at the same time all four of golf’s major championship. Becoming the youngest member of the career Grand Slam club at age 24. And ranked number one in the world for a record 683 weeks. That list is only a partial recounting of the golf milestones attained.
Was he a transcendent figure? That remains a question with a split verdict. As Nesham points out the sport of golf remains where it was prior to Tiger’s emergence on the scene.
“What is depressing is that with a record like that, Tiger Woods had a chance — a genuine opportunity — to make a difference in a game steeped in elitism and riddled with discrimination. And he blew it?
The face of golf remains as it was – predominantly white and often providing little access to those with limited means to enter the golf ranks. Nesham concludes — “Golf, it seems, is as impenetrable as it ever has been.”
Like any story there are multiple vantage points and the one of most immediate focus is what Tiger Woods has to say. Nesham attempted to interview Woods but, as has happened with previous attempts, the outreach was rebuffed.
Woods has viewed media as nothing more than noisy outsiders — hellbent on tearing him down. It stands to reason his yacht is aptly named ‘Privacy’. The remarkable youthful candor Tiger displayed in the 1997 GQ interview was a one-time situation that would be forever ended in future intersections with media.
Even the esteemed news program — 60 Minutes — would agree to the terms Woods wanted in a March 26, 2006 interview with a fawning correspondent Ed Bradley. The image — not the reality — was always the selling point.
On the flipside with Tiger no longer needed – the end was swift and permanent.
Nesham points this out in utter detail through the book.
Joe Grohman, a PGA professional and former head golf pro at the Navy Golf Course in Seal Beach, California, was a close mentor and coach to a young Tiger Woods. When Woods opted to move to Florida and start his journey in the pro ranks, there were no good-byes or thanks offered.
“Joe Grohman wasn’t the first, and he wouldn’t be the last to be jettisoned as Project Tiger moved on to a new phase. Caddies, friends, girlfriends, even the man who made millions for him, IMG agent Hughes Norton, soon found themselves out in the cold,” said Nesham.
A telling quote from Norton sums up the approach Woods would follow rigidly. “Managing Tiger has put us in the business of pissing people off.” He would add — “But that’s how Tiger operates. One minute you’re on the inside, the next you’re out. He just cuts you right out.”
Following his recent DUI arrest and court approval, Woods is seeking “comprehensive inpatient treatment” outside the United States. His private jet landed in Zurich, Switzerland, a country known for luxury rehabilitation centers, to receive intensive care for a complex medical situation.
Fans of the golf Tiger produced will have to be satisfied by whatever his body can now manage. How much of a role with the sport will Tiger have? Hard to say with any certainty.
Newsham’s Project Tiger is revealing in detailing how hyperactive and controlling parents produced a person delivering spectacular results on a golf course and then retreated into a self-absorbed role in which all that matters was his needs.
Will anything be learned by Tiger?
The future for Woods remains an ever-evolving and unfolding story.
