Raising the Bar: The Championship Years of Tiger Woods

Since storming onto the PGA Tour in 1996 and winning the Masters in 1997, Tiger Woods has topped golf's leader boards in most of the important categories, including ink. No golfer--indeed, no athlete, except maybe Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali--has been the subject of so many words in such a short time. In Raising the Bar, Tim Rosaforte adds to the flow, focusing on how Woods rebuilt himself and his game after the 1997 Masters and the slump of 1998. What's happened since, of course, is history.

And Rosaforte is there for every part of it. The conquests. The struggles. The endorsements, the contracts, the commercials. Tigermania. The horrible performance in the 1997 Ryder Cup matches. The doubts. The questions. The reassessment and reformulation of his game under the guidance of Butch Harmon. The weightlifting and fitness routine. The streak. The majors. The Grand Slam. It's a riveting triumph of will and focus, hard work and raw talent.

If Woods's game raises the bar--and there's no doubt that it has--Rosaforte's chronicle can't quite match the standards set by his subject. Yes, the book is well reported and certainly readable, but it seems rushed, a recapitulation churned out to be timely, rather than an analysis of a phenomenon that might be timeless in itself. Perhaps it's just too soon to expect that in a book, but if Tiger can raise the bar on the course, there's no reason the scribes who have him in their sights can't raise it some, as well. --Jeff Silverman