The Tiger Slam Book Review

The Tiger Slam Book Review

The Tiger Slam
by Kevin Cook
Grade: B
Teacher’s Comments: Well-written, but did the world really need another book about Tiger? I’s a good beach read, though.

An entire cottage publishing industry has sprung up around Tiger Woods. I started counting the available books on Amazon and gave up at sixty. Who knows how many others are out of print and therefore not on the e-commerce site.

At this point, I think the only books that have not been written about Tiger are on his sartorial and cuisine choices.

Still, they must sell, because publishers keep paying authors and printing them.

All that said, Kevin Cook’s “The Tiger Slam” is a well-written, highly detailed, stroke-by-stroke account of Tiger’s four consecutive Majors streak from 2000 – 2001. If you don’t know about that remarkable stretch of golf because you are too young, or have forgotten some of the details because you are too old (I fall in this category), it a good refresher course.

It is also a good “beach read.” I finished it in an afternoon at the lake cottage in Northern Michigan when the threat of thunderstorms kept me from heading out to the golf course. Pull this out for an afternoon in the sand at Myrtle Beach, and you’re set.

One of the things I had forgotten was just how close Bob May had come to winning the 2000 PGA. I also did not remember that Phil Mickelson and David Duval were in the fight until the final holes at the 2001 Masters. Or that Duval took an eight to play himself out of the Open on the Road Hole. It was fun following through those tournaments again.

The 2000 US Open wasn’t as interesting, as it was basically non-competitive. For me, sports are at their most interesting when the outcome is in doubt until the end (even if none of these were in doubt because they have already happened).

Cook does a good job of adding to the play-by-play with commentary by other players, caddies and coaches. It sorts out some of the questions and clarifies the moments.

I very much enjoyed Cook’s earlier work — Tommy’s Honor — and while The Tiger Slam doesn’t live up to that volume, it still is a worthy addition to his oveure. I look forward to his next book.