Running Tiger Woods thread

I don't think Shipnuck's piece or its release had anything to do with the release of this one. It's been in the works a long time. Not like it was suddenly rushed out or anything like that. Maybe SI heard about this one and decided to do their own? Also possible that two places both decided independently it was time to write a big Tiger story.

One cutting room example—Tiger was named after a soldier buddy of Earl's. Wright put a ton of work and somehow found the son of that soldier. I kept waiting to see him in the piece. He's not there. And there are other cases, like the Escalade being in Arkansas, where I imagine a lot of work gave him a single line of copy. But that's the stuff that separates a great story from a good one, or any great piece of material work—that last 10 percent or so that puts it in "above and beyond" territory. I mean, there are quite a few lines that are used almost as asides that could have been the foundations of entire pieces. The line about Tiger's belief in ghosts... I was like, Wait, what? "Tiger Woods Believes in Ghosts" could have been a story all its own. Reading a piece like this feels a little like visiting the Louvre in some ways, where you blow past Little Boy Blue because you know the Mona Lisa is waiting.

 

My impression is that SI was just targeting its story for Masters week and this piece just got published when it was finally ready to go.

 

Tiger doesn't care about being competitive or finishing third.
Tiger cares about winning.
Period.

 

And the Mona Lisa-- the showpiece here-- was the SEAL stuff and how it related to Earl.

Wright didn't delve too much into Tiger's relationships with women, except for how he ultimately became like Earl in that regard. And maybe that's why he didn't get into the Elin relationship or the Vonn relationship (or the Tida relationship for that matter), which is a good thing because it could've undermined his flow and taken the piece too far afield.

But there might be a separate piece in there somewhere. One of the most interesting things about Tiger I've ever seen written... Something that's always stuck with me.... Was actually an interview with the Perkins waitress in one of the British tabs. She said she and Tiger had sex everywhere in the house--- except his bedroom-- clearly, she said, that was reserved for Elin. But the waitress got a glimpse in there once, and the bed was adorned in all white. As if that's what Elin represented to Tiger-- purity.

And I was like whoa. I've always known that men are champion compartmentalizers ... But the degree to which they do-- and the ease with which some of them do-- I found pretty enlightening.

 

I don't know that Elin has ever talked—speculation here: Maybe she can't as part of the divorce settlement—but she would be a great story just on her own.

 

I could be totally wrong, but if memory serves me People or some mag like that did an Elin faces life type story after the divorce. She didn't say anything at all about Woods except he still was relating to the children, so it probably is in the settlement.

 

No question it's in the settlement, although, if it wasn't and she just preferred to keep private about it, good on her.

It's hard for me to see how Tiger could have imposed silence on her. She was getting a shitload of money either way.

 

One of the reasons TW and Elin got together was ability to keep her trap shut. To be seen and not heard. She's a private person.
She, like Tiger, doesn't do interviews.

 

Being that golf is in his wheelhouse, Why didn't Van Valkenburg write this story? Aside from the fact he's teaching. Or is that the sole reason?

 

Finally sat down to read it this afternoon. It's as good a read as advertised. I disagree about no voice for Elle or Lindsay Vonn, though. The essence of the story is the broken relationship with his father.

 

She got more than she was entitled to under their pre-nup and the understanding was the extra was for a non-disclosure agreement.

 

I'd still like to see a story someday on just the women. Elin doesn't have to talk. She's had enough boyfriends and people around her who will eventually talk. The kids will talk someday. Vonn's career will end and she'll be done posing for magazines, so she'll write a memoir and need to promote it. Parnevik opens his mouth quite a bit..... Etc etc.