By Joel Beall
The best documentaries tell a story, or a side of a story, that hasn’t been told. Either that or they lean hard into a spectacle. It helps to explain why those who have followed Tiger Woods’ career can expect to find an upcoming special on the 15-time major winner entertaining, but also somewhat familiar.

“Tiger,” a two-part HBO documentary that airs this Sunday, is based on the 2018 book “Tiger Woods” by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. Their work explored Woods’ career arc, particularly how it was shaped by his upbringing and the influence of Earl Woods. It was diligently researched and ambitious in scope, and though Woods did not participate in the project it was generally well-received. Unfortunately, the film seldom wanders from its pages, at times feeling like a prisoner to the source material’s more sensational claims. When it does venture outside those confines, it offers nothing new or revelatory (Disclosure: Woods has a content partnership with Discovery Golf, the parent company of Golf Digest).

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Few individuals have been extensively covered and discussed like Woods. The good and the bad; as a National Enquirer editor mentions in the film, Woods’ trials surpassed 9/11 for most consecutive days as New York Post cover stories. However, therein lies the rub with Tiger and his past: Any psychoanalysis or observation or opinion, in some iteration, has already been made and repeated to the point where its impact is dulled.

What does matter is who is making those assertions. Like the book, Woods is not affiliated with the film. A subject’s participation is far from imperative; plenty of documentaries have been compromised by surrendering final cut to its protagonist. Still, the absence of Woods and his competitors, save for the occasional Rocco Mediate cameo, is noticeable. A handful of writers who have covered Woods are featured, but “Tiger”—especially Episode 2—relies heavily on those who were on the periphery of Woods’ life or are no longer in it.

It’s not that those voices and vignettes are inconsequential. (Dina Parr, Woods’ high school girlfriend, is a high point as she reveals homemade films of a teenage Tiger, footage showing a side of Woods rarely seen.) But when they’re the only voices, their piece of the puzzle is made out to be the entire picture. That a good number of them are not on good terms with Woods consequently infers a specific agenda.

However, the biggest obstacle “Tiger” faces is time. Mentioned above, nostalgia is often weaponized in documentaries, but objects of sentimentality require distance to acquire their full patina. This is problematic for “Tiger” since most of what it covers feels fresh. It is fresh. Though he recently turned 45 Woods remains the fulcrum this game revolves around, yet at moments it feels like the film is trying to eulogize a career that is very much alive. It should be noted the book came out before Woods’ successful comeback, which may explain why his 2018 season and first win in five years at the Tour Championship is ignored save for a few seconds of footage, and his 2019 Masters triumph is shoehorned into the finale.

“Tiger” does not fail to amuse. Woods as a subject matter is inherently magnetic, and a carousel of highlights serve their intended purpose. Commentaries on race, what this country demands of its celebrities and the thirst to deconstruct them go deeper than surface level. Those foreign to Woods outside tournament broadcasts or are new to the sport will not be disappointed, and viewers, no matter their station, will get an appreciation of the weight of expectations Woods’ carried, and still does.

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By Dave Shedloski
A tale of two major championships, the first he lost and the second he won, separated by nine months, an ocean and a sea of emotions, Tiger Woods absorbed most poignantly through the faces of his two young children.

In winning the 2019 Masters, Woods secured a long-sought prize that a few years ago must have seemed impossible to realize. Yes, to have won a major championship for the first time in 11 years, and roughly two years after a spinal-fusion-surgery Hail Mary, was truly something. In whatever haughty terms one wants to describe it—epic, historic, miraculous, transcendent—the choice is justified.

However, Woods enjoyed the achievement most by having shared it with his kids, Sam and Charlie. At least that was the sentiment he expressed when talking on Tuesday during a conference call as the run-up to the 2020 Masters begins in earnest.

Sam and Charlie watched Dad come up short in the Open Championship at Carnoustie nearly nine months prior, in July, the first time Tiger had legitimately been in contention in a major since the 2013 Open at Muirfield, when he entered the final round tied for second and drifted back to T-6. He led briefly at Carnoustie on Sunday before stumbling, and ended up T-6 again while playing partner Francesco Molinari took the claret jug.

Sam and Charlie Woods watch from behind the ropes during the final round of the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie. (Matthew Lewis/R&A)

The last public view of Woods that day in 2018 was of a father, arms around his kids, walking over a temporary bridge behind the 18th green and disappearing into the clubhouse.

Last April at Augusta National Golf Club, behind the 18th green, after tapping in for a one-stroke victory and fifth Masters triumph, there were hugs all around, none sweeter than those from his daughter and son.

“I think what made it so special is that they saw me fail the year before at the British Open. I had gotten the lead there and made bogey, double, and ended up losing to Francesco,” Woods said. “To have them experience what it feels like to be part of a major championship and watch their dad fail and not get it done, and now to be a part of it when I did get it done, I think it’s two memories that they will never forget. And the embraces and the hugs and the excitement, because they know how I felt and what it felt like when I lost at Carnoustie … to have the complete flip with them in less than a year, it was very fresh in their minds.”

It’s a long and rambling thought, and totally justified in the context of all the emotion woven into the two experiences. Some things are just difficult to express cogently, and the struggle with doing so only underscores their impact.

A moment between a father and a son.#themasters pic.twitter.com/Ft0ta2mD5o

— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 14, 2019

Augusta National arranges the teleconference with its reigning Masters champion each year around this time. It just so happens that this one followed by one day the memorial service for Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, who along with seven others perished in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26 in Calabasas, Calif. What rings most true in what has been written and said about Bryant in the aftermath of that tragedy—other than his indisputable talent with a basketball—is that he was a devoted father and that nothing was more important to him.

We often wonder how difficult it must be for a child to have a famous parent, in this case a parent who is a great athlete. But do we ever stop to think how difficult it is to be a great parent, or even a decent one, when removed from the task of being a great athlete, when he has to leave his self-absorption and intuitive drive on the doorstep?

Not everyone can be Jack Nicklaus, the template for bringing four-star banality to such a delicate balancing act. Nicklaus always revelled in being a dad first, which brought all the balance he needed. Bryant appears to have figured it out.

Woods has spoken often in the last few years about his children and being a part of their lives, being there for them as his father was for him. That’s what being a father is about, and the Bryant tragedy only brings that into sharper relief, not just in relation to Woods, but for all of us.

The payoff is that rare time when the father gets to have his children there for him and to have them join in the achievement, and to understand and appreciate it. That was the real reward for Woods when he won the Masters.

In the aftermath of his 15th major title, one incident, again involving his children, came to mind for Woods. They were flying back home to Jupiter, Fla., and there was a bit of a tussle over dad’s new wardrobe accessory. You could hear in his voice how much he savoured the proceedings.

“Just watching them fight over the green jacket on the airplane was pretty funny,” Woods said. “ ‘I want to wear it; no, I want to wear it,’ and that’s something I certainly will never forget.”

We didn’t get a chance to ask which child won the tug of war between them. Their father slept clutching his first green jacket the night of his epic 12-stroke victory in 1997. That’s how much it meant to him, and it’s doubtful any other win in his career has come close, except perhaps the 2006 Open Championship, his first major victory after his father died.

Obviously, the revelation of that moment between his kids, wrestling over their father’s prize, indicates how thoroughly Woods is touched by the memory. For a man known to struggle with sleep, he’ll always have that scene for his daydreams.

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RELATED: Jim Nantz calls Tiger Woods’ Masters win the “best event I’ve ever covered”

In an interview with Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, Nantz said he was already in Butler Cabin for Tiger’s winning tap-in on the final hole. Meanwhile, booth partner Nick Faldo remained in the TV tower above the 18th green.

“After that putt dropped on 18, there wasn’t a chance in the world that I was going to say anything,” Nantz said. “Lance Barrow’s a great producer and we work together exceptionally well. He’s in the truck half a mile away. I’m in Butler Cabin already. And Nick [Faldo] is 300 yards away from me in the tower on the 18th green.”

Nantz said on a recent episode of the Golf Digest Podcast that former CBS boss Frank Chirkinian taught him early in his career to “use silence as a weapon.” He certainly wielded it in this case for the majority of an incredible four minutes of TV.

“As soon as the ball dropped, I said to Lance on the talk-back switch, ‘I’m not saying anything for a long time.’ Lance and I wanted to make sure since that none of us were together, the next time somebody spoke it was going to be me,” Nantz told Sports Business Journal. “We were going ride this thing out and sit back and enjoy it. I never would have jumped on a moment that was that big. It was just so big. There was nothing you could do to add to it. You could only ruin it.”

When Nantz, working his 34th Masters for CBS, did finally speak again, this was the back-and-forth with Faldo, which is even more impressive considering they weren’t sitting next to each other as originally thought:

NANTZ: “I never thought we’d see anything that could rival the hug with his father in 1997, but we just did.”

FALDO: “That will be the greatest scene in golf forever, Jim Nantz.”

NANTZ: “That hug with his children, if that doesn’t bring a tear to your eye if you’re a parent, you’re not human.”

Watch and listen to the four-minute clip below:

Roaring back.#themasters pic.twitter.com/nlTwxWJW8X

— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 14, 2019

Nantz, of course, was in Butler Cabin for the green jacket presentation with Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley. However, there was more of a sense of urgency to the proceedings than usual with an approaching storm cell that had caused final-round tee times to be moved up by more than five hours. Nantz wound up conducting the brief ceremony before eventually doing a longer interview with Woods (and Faldo) more than an hour later when Woods returned to the building after his winning press conference in the media centre.

Since Woods’ fifth Masters win, Nantz has called it “the best event I’ve ever covered.” And given all the circumstances, one could argue it was also the legendary broadcaster’s best-ever call.

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