GolfNewsRI

Sunday night saw the premiere of part one of the new HBO documentary ‘Tiger,’ based off the book by Armen Keteyian and Jeff Benedict.

Keteyian will join the Golf Dudes Podcast on Wednesday afternoon. 

Part one lasted about an hour and a half and featured interviews with Woods’ former caddie Steve Williams, his high school girlfriend Dina Parr, his kindergarten teacher and other “family friends.” 

Overall, part one was pretty straightforward for the most part. It gave insight into his relationship with his dad, Earl, and his dad’s own issues as far as cheating on Tiger’s mother. 

The doc also highlighted all of Tiger’s great golf shots and moments. 

An hour before the release of the documentary, Tiger’s agent put out a statement denouncing the film, calling it “salacious.” 

Below is some GolfNewsRI reactions: 

Earl Woods, Earl & Tiger 

The documentary delves into the relationship between Tiger and his father Earl. How they were very close and then grew a little bit apart as Tiger’s fame grew. 

“We got in an argument, Tiger told me he didn’t know if I could be a businessman and a father,” Earl says during the show, obviously an old video. 

The film also explains how Earl cheated on Tiger’s mother on a number of occassions. Sometimes, using golf lessons as a way to pick up women. Earl would give them golf lessons and then take them to a winnabago near the range for “cocktails,” according to the documentary. 

Dina Parr relays a story about when Tiger first found out that his dad was cheating, he called her up “sobbing uncontrollably.” 

Part one ends with Tiger winning the 2006 British Open and walking off the course crying. It was his first win since his father passed away.

Fast forward several years later and it is Tiger cheating on his own wife. That will be the main subject of part two. 

Tiger vs Phil 

The book flushes it out a little more, but the documentary highlights the rivalry between Woods and Mickelson early on. 

Phil, known as Lefty, would be called “Hefty” by Tiger’s mother, according to Steve Williams in the documentary. 

The documentary highlights a moment at The Masters when Mickelson hits driver off the tee and turns it around the tree. Woods then its it by him – with a three wood. 

According to Steve Williams, Phil then turns to Tiger and asks, “do you always hit three woods that far?” And Woods says, “Usually further.” 

Williams says that Woods got in Mickelson’s head at that moment.

Woods went on to win The Masters that year, while Mickelson faded on the final holes. 

Funny Moments

There were a few parts of the episode there were funny. 

During an interview with Tiger’s first girlfriend, Dina Parr, old videos are shown of a young Tiger dancing at one of her parties with friends. Another video shows him, it appears, to be dressed up as Santa. 

Another funny part was in a story told by Tiger’s former caddie Steve Williams. Williams tells the story of the two driving down a Toronto freeway and Tiger tells him to pull over to the side of the road. Woods takes out a club and starts swinging. He was testing a new swing thought… on the side of a highway. 

Knocks on the Film

One of the knocks on the film from various people who saw it in advance was the people that were interviewed, and those knocks are probably valid – at least for part one.

Tiger and his team refused to participate in the film and as mentioned above blasted it. Back in 2018, they also ripped the book that was out.

At least to this point, no one who is currently close to Tiger is interviewed.

They talk to his kindergarten teacher, golf pro  Joe Grohman who was friendly with Earl, Dina Parr, Tiger’s first girlfriend, who hasn’t talked to him since they broke up and few media members like Bryant Gumbel, Nick Faldo and an SI writer who covered Tiger when he was young.

Steve Williams might be the person who has had the most recent contact with Tiger.

Other things that would have been cool to see, specifically in this episode, would have been Tiger’s time at Stanford and more on his relationship with other players early on, other than Phil.

Obviously, there is only so much time.

Other Notes

• Tiger dumped Dina Parr by sending her a written letter.
• Nike was searching for the next Michael Jordan when signing Tiger.
• Steve Scott, who Tiger beat in his final U.S. Amateur was interviewed, but not used in film.