GOLF FICTION?
‘Swinger’smacks of reality
He was the
world’s most fa-
mous and accom-
plished golfer, not
to mention its
richest. He had a
bikini model for a
wife, two beautiful chil-
dren, a father who raised him to
dominate the game and was capable of
astonishing shots every time he gripped
a club. He was also a serial philanderer,
a secret personal failing that caused all
around him to crash one fateful day.
Yeah, like the authors of “The Swinger”
(Simon & Schuster. $25) expect us to
believe that all that could ever happen.
It is easy to imagine the respected
Sports Illustrated writers Michael Bam-
berger and Alan Shipnuck giggling like
naughty schoolboys while dreaming up
the story of Herbert X. “Tree” Tremont
and his entourage of caddie, manager,
wife and controversial doctor, not to
mention the many women – 342, in this
version – who stand in here for the “fic-
tional” version of Tiger Woods’ crash
from grace. Not that there was much to
dream up, given the real-life facts upon
which they fixed their fiction. Here the
bikini model wife is Italian, not Swedish,
his ever-smiling rival is Will Martinsen,
not Phil Mickelson, and his “famously
brusque” agent worked for IGM, not
IMG, but in every other way their tale is
lifted straight from the tawdry gossip
websites that Woods’ scandal did so
much to elevate.
Though if the book’s account of Tree’s
illicit tryst in the wine cellar of Augusta
National is anything close to true, expect a new set of locks on that room before next year’s Masters.
“The Swinger” is a breezy and some-
times funny read, though a public that
likely has exhausted its interest in Woods’
own fall might wonder why they should
sign on for more. Bamberger and Ship-
nuck suggest their story was written not
with disdain for athletes like Tree but
with a smile, “with empathy and affec-
tion that Tree’s transformation, redemp-
tion and return to greatness may be just
around the corner.”
Maybe. But remember that Tiger
Woods once could leave golf writers
cowering with a single withering glance.
That Bamberger and Shipnuck dared to
have such fun with his troubles shows
just how far he has fallen, and how far a
return to greatness might be.
CRISPY CHICKEN
SANDWICH
(Recipe No. 40)
