I had no interest in trashing him”: James Patterson on why he needed to tell Tiger Woods’ story

When the “story” in question is recapping of the entire life and career of an athlete as illustrious — and scrutinized — as professional golfer Tiger Woods, the stakes are considerably high. Second only to the legendary “Golden Bear” Jack Nicklaus in his Masters Tournament victories (Woods has five Green Jackets to Niklaus’ six), Woods from a young age was considered to be a golfing prodigy. His parents, Earl and Kultida Woods, were immensely supportive of their son’s talent and ambitions, even taking out a second mortgage on their home so that a teenaged Tiger Woods was eligible to play in the then-nascent American Junior Golf Association (AJGA), where he could compete amongst top junior golfers and gain exposure to college recruiting scouts.”Tiger, Tiger” delves deeply into Woods’ family, presenting a candid portrait of their unique dynamic and diverse background. Woods’ multiethnic identity — Earl was half Black, a quarter Native American and a quarter Chinese, while Kultida is half Thai, a quarter white and a quarter Chinese — has been a focal point of the athlete’s career and his life more broadly, and as Patterson elucidates, sometimes a point of contention. “Tiger, Tiger” notes how though his mother, Tida, calls him the “Universal Child” who can “hold everyone together,” she also expressed frustration about how the media often construed him as explicitly Black. Woods, who coined the self-referential term “Cablinasian” to describe his mixed heritage, drew public ire in 1997 when he told Oprah that he shared in that same frustration. In the book, Patterson also doesn’t shy away from addressing Woods’ personal woes — namely, his bouts of infidelity that led to the 2010 divorce from his ex-wife Elin Nordegren and the stark shift in Woods’ public perception that lingered for some time after. But to hear it in Patterson’s own words, “Let’s forgive people within reason.””I had no interest in trashing him,” Patterson tells me over Zoom of Woods’ past controversies. “He’s had some real bumps in the road and they’re in the book, but I’m not going to make judgments.”Check out the full interview with Patterson, in which he explains how he told Woods’ story differently, why he thinks Woods is a good dad in spite of his past scandals, and the “big problem” of book censorship.