First Coming (Library of Contemporary Thought)

Feinstein makes this clear from the get-go: he is awed by what Tiger Woods can do with a golf club, and he detests the way money rules sports. Thus, his beef isn't with the phenom of the fairways, regardless of how surly and capricious and self-inflated he can be; it's with Tiger's entourage--his father (who's likened the son to the Second Coming), his management company, and his endorsement sponsors, all of whom seem bent on extracting every pound of flesh they can in pursuit of the almighty dollar. In Tiger's case, the number comes to a very dividable stack of about 100 million of them. Feinstein declares a holy war on Tiger's team. The journalist is extremely tough on Earl Woods, for example, comparing him to one-time tennis hopeful Jennifer Capriati's father. He argues convincingly that, with Tiger's financial den secure, the golfer should forget about burning himself out by chasing every cent he can rake in for them and take dead aim on only one target for himself: the majesty of chasing Jack Nicklaus's seemingly unsurpassable achievement of 18 major tournament victories.

"The most important question that remains unanswered," writes Feinstein, "is this: Who is Tiger Woods? He's not the messiah, that's for certain." At this stage in his life and career, though, the positive side of that answer remains hidden in the rough, even for a scribe of Feinstein's provocative daring.

Product Description
THE LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT

"The Masters elevated Tiger Woods to a level of fame that perhaps no athlete outside of Muhammed Ali had ever achieved. People who knew absolutely nothing about golf, cared not at all about the sport, stopped to watch Tiger play. . . . He signed endorsement contracts for staggering amounts of money. He blew off the president of the United States and Rachel Robinson, the widow of the century's most important athlete--and made no apologies for it. He didn't have to. He was Tiger. They weren't."
--from The First Coming

John Feinstein starts out with the question of who is Tiger Woods and then proceeds to break the myths surrounding the personality. There isn't anything wrong with breaking myths except Feinstein has nothing good to say about Tiger (except for his game). He accuses Earl Woods of exploiting his famous son, he castigates IMG for being Tiger's management agency, and shows his hatred for Tiger's agent, Hughes Norton. He paints a portrait of Tiger being immature, greedy and totally insensitive to his fans. If that is the case, why bother slapping together a work dealing with the greatest player in the golf world?

In all fairness to the author, he does expose Tiger for what he was at the time; a young immature player who makes mistakes. He also shows the myths that the media have perpetuated about the young man. He also points out how greedy sponsors and management agencies can ruin the careers of young players. That is good information in understanding Tiger Woods the icon but says little about him as a person.

What is lacking in the book is Feinstein not really knowing Tiger personally. His diatribes against the player and his cohorts have prevented him from getting to know the other side of the young man who will make a great contribution to golf. Feinstein is caught up in an axe to grind against Tiger's handlers and misses the champion. You don't gain any insight from his musings. If you are a Tiger fan and want to collect books about him regardless of what is said about Tiger by all means pick up a copy. Otherwise leave it on the shelf.


A strange filter, this one.   December 6, 2002
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I submit Feinstein would be better served to consider Woods' family dynamics, rather than skewer them. And no, you can not consider them by skewering them.


A blatant self-serving scribe.   June 24, 2000
 3 out of 7 found this review helpful

If Mr. Feinstein thought this deliberately self-serving effort to drag Tiger's name (and his family's) through the mud would gain favor throughout the sporting world, and throw Tiger off his game, he thought dead-wrong. Tiger's string of top-10 finishes in 1998 (his worst year, when this book was released), his $7-million 1999 season, and now the biggest blowout in majors history (winning by 15 strokes at the 2000 U.S. Open, the only one under par), is an absolutely fitting response, by Tiger, to Feinstein's effort to manufacture scandal from almost nothing. One guy said it best when he said that there are other golfers on tour who are no different, if not worse. Amazing, it seems, that we haven't heard from Feinstein since Tiger's 1999 PGA Championship win. His crow is getting cold.


A blatant self-serving scribe.   June 24, 2000
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

If Mr. Feinstein thought this deliberately self-serving effort to drag Tiger's name (and his family's) through the mud would gain favor throughout the sporting world, and throw Tiger off his game, he thought dead-wrong. Tiger's string of top-10 finishes in 1998 (his worst year, when this book was released), his $7-million 1999 season, and now the biggest blowout in majors history (winning by 15 strokes at the 2000 U.S. Open, the only one under par), is an absolutely fitting response, by Tiger, to Feinstein's effort to manufacture scandal from almost nothing. One guy said it best when he said that there are other golfers on tour who are no different, if not worse. Amazing, it seems, that we haven't heard from Feinstein since Tiger's 1999 PGA Championship win. His crow is getting cold.