The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods [Rilegato]

This is a difficult book to describe. It is very well written, and it provides what would appear to be a pretty good picture of the real Tiger Woods...both the golf prodigy and the totally self absorbed person.
If you have read reviews or watched interviews with Hank Haney, you already know most of the "juicy" parts (and they really aren't that juicy). If you are not into golf, you will probably find the book excruciatingly dull as Haney goes on at length about the mechanics of Tiger's golf swing and the details of his practice routine and of various tournaments.
If, however, you enjoy the details of golf and/or enjoy reading about the personalities of superachievers, you will probably enjoy the book a lot. I did.
In fact, on the personality side, you get a twofer. You get one man's analysis of superstar/super narcissist Tiger Woods. And you also get to observe what happens when that ego collides with the big but fragile ego of super coach Hank Haney. Very interesting dynamics!!! In the end, Haney hails Tiger as the greatest golfer of all time. But that accolade is tempered by Haney's assessment of Tiger's underdeveloped personal skills. You also get Haney's defense of his own record as Tiger's coach.
Haney does not do this, but I noted parallels between Tiger and what I have read about superstars in other fields--particularly Steve Jobs and the early Bill Gates. It is apparent that super talent and warm, fuzzy personalities are not often combined in one package (although Gates seems to have mellowed).
Haney should have probably not written this book. While he apparently violated no contracts with Tiger, I agree that he violated the implied trust between a teacher and a student. Nonetheless, we readers are better off because he did. Once you filter out Haney's bruised feelings, "The Big Miss" really does appear to be as accurate a view of Tiger Woods as we will ever get.

Hank Haney is a golf instructor and not a writer, but this book is well written. The focus is on Tiger Woods as a golfer, and to a lesser extent as a person, but Haney is mainly interested in the golf. We learn a lot about golf instruction and the fine line that some of these golfers have to maintain in order to compete. I wondered, before reading the book, why a guy like Tiger even needs a coach, but if his swing gets just a little off, he doesn't have the ability to correct it.

There is a fair amount of information provided about Tiger's life, his family, his personal conduct, but Haney does not dwell on the scandalous behavior that ruined Tiger's reputation; he says he didn't know about any of it. Some of the revelations about how Tiger feels about other players and other athletes border on creepy.

The most surprising information is about how Tiger basically seemed bored with golf and wanted to become a Navy Seal. His body is overbuilt for his frame, which may be causing some of his physical problems. The book concludes with a lengthy and somewhat unpleasant self-justification of how Haney did a good job as Tiger's coach. I think he would have been better off letting the record speak for itself.

The media tour couldn't have gone any worse for Hank Haney as a bunch of media members who don't play golf and didnt read the book peppered him with questions about breaking a code. Read the book and understand the context of what Haney is trying to say. The relationship was very complicated and if Hank wanted to he could have blasted Tiger but stuck to golf 95% of the time and the other five was off the course stuff that affected his golf. Well worth the read.