Five most futile literary attempts to catch Tiger's Tale

By MARK S. MURPHY

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This was not the Hollywood ending that was predicted for Tiger Woods' first year in professional golf. No one would have scripted the game's young titan and his American teammates coming up so short - like a weakly struck putt - in the Ryder Cup.

But even that image couldn't erase a year of glittering achievements.

In that first year, he won the first major tournament he entered as a pro - the Masters - as well as five other PGA titles and one tournament in Asia.

If he has not changed every exclusionist mind in golf, he has certainly challenged the racial stereotypes that linger on 19th holes around the world as well as bringing new, younger, more diverse fans to the game.

And like the crowds that follow him on the course, he's also drawn authors in swarms. Here's a look at five books about the Woods that were published this year.

Unfortunately, none of them are very good.

- "TIGER: A BIOGRAPHY OF TIGER WOODS" By John Strege. Broadway Books. $29.95.

Of the collection of books found on the table of a tony Downtown bookstore not that long ago, by far the best one was Strege's biography.

Strege, the least well known of the five authors, is a sportswriter for the Orange County (Calif.) Register, Woods' former hometown paper.

Strege found his way to many of the primary sources for stories of Tiger's childhood prowess. It is from these accounts that one begins to understand the genius of this young man. The stories could not be apocryphal, there are just too many of them.

From the moment when he was 9 months old and struck his first golf shot, to the time he was 5 and showed his pro he could hit 1 irons well enough to deserve one of his own, to the time he was 13 and forced a young John Daly to birdie three of the last four holes to beat him in an Arkansas tournament ... well, you get the picture.

Strege could have been content to just report these astounding incidents, but he has crafted a book worth spending time with. One last Tiger story proves the point.

Woods was appearing on "The Mike Douglas Show," putting with Bob Hope. When he missed three straight, he grabbed the ball and threw it in the hole. "An astonished Douglas laughed hysterically that a boy of 2, incapable of reading a sentence, could already read a green."

- "TRAINING A TIGER" By Earl Woods. HarperCollins. $18.

It goes something like this in "Training a Tiger," a father's guide to raising your prodigy:

Earl was blessed by divinity with this son. He has showed him the way, encouraged him, toughened him, showed him his heritage and along with his mother, taught him good, old-fashioned values.

If you follow his advice, says Earl, your child may not be as big as Buddha, but he or she will certainly be healthy and happy.

Here's the world according to this reviewer:

Earl was blessed by divinity with this son. Buy yourself Dr. Benjamin Spock's "Baby and Child Care," and trust your paternal or maternal instincts. Show your child his family heritage. And save yourself the $18. With the money you spend on Spock, you will get far more useful advice.

- "THE TIGER WOODS WAY" By John Andrisani. Crown Publishers. $18.

As some of you might have figured out by now, I am a golfer. Incurably so. A single-digit handicap when I play often enough. I read my golf monthlies on a regular basis, but I will admit to staying away from instruction articles that have more than 50 words in them. If you are this kind of golfer and golf reader, forget Andrisani's latest swing manifesto.

It may be a great book, but I could make neither head nor tail nor double eagle of this thing. Many of you will feel the same way.

Take this advice: Find a good local pro, take a few lessons, work out a little and drink one fewer beer per nine holes. You'll hit the ball farther and make more putts.

"TIGER WOODS: THE MAKING OF A CHAMPION" Sports Illustrated staff. Simon & Schuster Fireside Book. $10.95 (paper).

Just because we're all in the business of making money, it doesn't mean we should lose control of our senses. Of all the books to come out this past year, this one is the most blatant in its intent.

My only objection to this book - and it is a big one - is that the quality of the writing, the thing that is supposed to be SI's draw among all the dross written in the course of a sporting event, is just not here. Fact is, this collection of the coverage given to Woods over the past five years is just one hackneyed metaphor away from descending to the depths of British sports journalism.

Yet another case where you can save the cost of admission.

"TIGER WOODS: THE MAKINGS OF A CHAMPION" By Tim Rosaforte. St. Martin's Paperbacks. $5.99.

Same title, half the price. Hey, it has the Masters' win, so it must be worth it.

Last we saw Rosaforte, he was trying to stretch a magazine piece into a book about the 1995 Ryder Cup loss by the United States to Europe at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y.

Aside from the usual near-purple prose we have come to expect from Sports Illustrated writers, this book does contain research worthy of the enterprise. One just wishes that Rosaforte spent less time worrying about whether or not the Woods family thinks ill of him or not. But of course, if they don't talk to him, he won't be able to near-whisper his way through a book.

We learn that Tiger was never in danger of losing his amateur status by signing with Nike and others soon after turning pro because the USGA was advising him all along the way, just as they had offered to do with Phil Mickelson when he was in college. We learn how it is that IMG, the sports management group, has earned its reputation as the best seducer, um, career manager of golfers in the business.

But strangely, after all the facts, all the factual errors, all the heartfelt but ultimately empty words, the feeling left me is that I really haven't come any closer to understanding Tiger Woods at all.

And that is what I started down this road to do in the first place.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)