18 Things We Learned From HBO’s Epic Two Part Tiger Woods Documentary

Despite enjoying many an evening with my Dad, watching various Major Golf Championships well into my twenties, I fell out of keeping up with golf somewhere along Tiger Woods’ initial rise to greatness in the early 2000s. HBO’s two part Tiger documentary provides a wealth of detail on what I missed, all the way up to his last Major win in 2019, as well as including a tonne of background on his early days.

Here are 18 things I learned about Tiger Woods (and golf!) watching HBO’s Tiger, along with my thoughts on the documentary.

1. Tiger made his first television appearance when he was just 2 years old! The Tiger cub appeared, with his father Earl on The Mike Douglass Show in 1978, with Jimmy Stewart and Bob Hope standing by!
2. Douglass set up a putting competition between Tiger and Bob Hope and after missing his first putt Tiger cheated, moving the ball closer to the hole for his second try!
3. Tiger’s full name is Eldrick Tont ‘Tiger’ Woods!? How did I not know this?
4. Tiger (or his Tiger Mom?) broke up with his first girlfriend, Dina Parr, by letter.
5. Up until 1990, Augusta National Golf Club, where Tiger won his first major on 1997, wouldn’t accept African Americans as members.
6. Tiger Woods does a mean “air sax” as evidenced by Dina Parr’s home videos. 

7. A the time of his 2017 arrest for driving under the influence, Woods had 5 different drugs in his system including Xanax, Ambien, and other painkillers. The arrest footage of a clearly out of it Tiger, swaying in the breeze, is incredibly saddening.
8. Tiger’s dad Earl, a former Green Beret, used to rattle keys and coins in his pocket and walk in front of Tiger’s shots to teach him to play through any distraction.
9. American golf journalists are assholes. The documentary is riddled with footage of them asking Tiger if he thinks the next step in his life, whether it be winning a tournament, having a girlfriend, getting married, or having kids, will “dull his edge” and ruin his game!
10. Despite his ferocious swing and dedication to the game since birth Tiger had only (only!) won 15 professional major championships as of 2019, compared to Jack Nicklaus’ 18 professional major championships over his career.
11. Tiger’s parents Earl and Kultida had a shrine to Tiger and all his golf accomplishments, before he turned professional.

12. Despite his massive initial success, wining his first major by 9 shots, Tiger nevertheless reinvented his swing and bulked up to get even better.
13. The National Enquirer are also assholes. After discovering that Tiger was having a affair with Mindy Lawton, they procured photos of the pair and other… evidence. After realising that the photos were of too poor a quality to print, they used them as leverage to get Tiger to appear on the cover of sister magazine Men’s Fitness. According to the documentary, staff at the National Enquirer called Tiger’s team, asking about the relationship and then hung up?
14. Tiger won all of golf’s major tournaments faster than anyone in history.
15. After the death of his father, Tiger went to a mountain warfare training camp to engage in military training and exercises, like clearing a “Kill House” with Navy SEALs.
16. Woods clinched his 2008 U.S. Open while fighting through extraordinary pain due to a knee injury and recent surgery.
17. In 2010 Woods apologized to a room full of reporters, friends, his mother, but not his then wife Elin, for his infidelity in what must have been an utterly humiliating experience.
18. I’d forgotten just how much Nick Faldo looks like Harrison Ford!

Making the Cut

While undoubtedly a polished affair, HBO’s nearly three hour documentary fell just short of making the cut of great sports documentaries for me.

Golf fans will be delighted by the “front nine” dealing with Tiger’s childhood, and rocky relationship with his dad, with plenty of archive footage showing the commitment required to become a truly great golfer. Insights from his former caddie Steve Williams, and golf pro Nick Faldo, in this first part are utterly fascinating and are accompanied by footage of some truly great golfing moments.

The “back nine” however suffers from being a little too sensationalist. Whatever sins Tiger Woods may have committed, none of them warrant the sensationalist coverage his life received at the time. That the second part of the documentary spends so much time on this, and in such detail, detracts somewhat from the sports documentary feel of the first half.

Over Clubbing?

By including so much of tabloid content from the time, and including interviews with an ex-editor of the National Inquirer, the documentary itself risks sinking to the same level.

There is also some unease as it slowly becomes clear that many of those being interviewed have been cut entirely from Tiger’s life for various reasons. It doesn’t invalidate their experiences and opinions, but it does cast them in a new light.

Despite chronicling Tiger’s worst behaviour, and highlighting his humanity, the documentary makers still can’t resist the urge to mythologize Tiger’s return, again making him out to be more than just a man.

HBO’s Tiger explores the dedication and commitment required to ascend to the very top levels of international sport, as well as the pressures and temptations that can result. At times, it falls between the stools of sports documentary and sensationalist biography, but is worth for the early footage of Tiger’s early years, and of course the golf.

Tiger
HBO, 2 episodes
Directors: Matthew Hamachek and Matthew Heineman
Executive Producers: Alex Gibney, Sam Pollard, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Armen Keteyian, and Jeff Benedict

Part 1 of Tiger aired on Monday, 11 January, and is available to watch on HBO Go, with the second part airing on Monday, 18th January, at 10AM on HBO Go and HBO (Astro Ch 411 HD), same time as the US, with a repeat that same day at 10PM.