The Secret Story of Tiger Woods.
The death of his father sparked a struggle between the world’s best golfers.
How he waged that war—through an obsession with Navy SEALs—is the story of how Tiger lost his way.
Ten years ago, Tiger Woods sat in his childhood home, across from his father’s body, waiting for the funeral home men to come and take Earl away.
It was about 3 a.m. Outside this bedroom in Cypress, California, the mechanisms of funeral and farewell were in motion, while inside, Tiger and his half-sister, Royce, floated in those hazy first hours after a death, when a loved one is no longer there but doesn’t seem quite gone.
About an hour earlier, Earl had taken two or three final breaths that sounded different from the ones before. Tiger got the call and came straight to Cypress, past the Navy golf course where he’d learned to play golf, and finally turned onto Teakwood Street.
His father never sold the house because he liked the accessible nostalgia. If Earl wanted, he could look at the Obi-Wan Kenobi poster that still hung on Tiger’s closet door, or find an old Nintendo or Lego Star Destroyer.
Earl died three steps from his son’s old room.Royce says she sat on the bed with her father, rubbing his back as she had done for the last few hours as he faded away.”Are you waiting for him to wake up?” Tiger asked.”Yes,” Royce said.”Me too.”
Three days later, on May 6, 2006, the family gathered at a private airport in Anaheim to return Earl’s remains to Manhattan, Kansas, where he had grown up. Tiger’s mother, Tida, and his wife, Elin, sat together in the Gulfstream IV, facing each other, according to Royce.
Elin was doing her college homework, which she often did in any free time on planes or even on fishing trips, and studying for her psychology degree. Tiger’s half-siblings arrived; Royce and Earl Jr. sat at a table and Kevin sat across from them on a couch. There were six passengers in total, and Tiger settled into his usual seat in the front left of the plane.
He placed the urn containing his father’s remains directly in front of him — Royce joked about “fastening Dad’s seat belt” — and as the pilot pushed the thrust levers forward for takeoff, Royce said Tiger stretched out his legs to hold the urn with his grip on your feet.
