I'm halfway through chapter 5, and I thought I would give some initial reactions.
The overall theme of this book is Haney, not Tiger. As he drifts (somewhat aimlessly) from topic to topic, he'll describe some personality trait of Tiger. Then HH goes to great lengths to explain how he has the same personality trait--basically an argument that he and Tiger are the same person in forms of intensity, competitive desire, and the burden that goes along with being the best at something. He explains every interaction in terms of how it made HH feel.
He spends a lot of time trying to break down Tiger psychologically. Someone in this thread previously referred to it as amateur psychology: that description seems pretty spot-on so far. And, every "psychoanalysis" he gives of Tiger is self-centered. It's always that "Tiger did this to send me a message" or "teach me how things were going to be." Very self-centered view of their relationship.
The Elin references. Only two so far. The first is completely random. On page 45, he mentions the time he first stayed at the house with Elin there. The entire passage is half a page. It starts out normal: I stayed at Tiger's home; Elin was there because they were engaged; she was really cool and had a competitive streak, which was one of the things Tiger loved about her; she's always trying to beat Tiger at tennis.... Then there is a a six-line paragraph which seems totally out of place: "But as life became more complicated, I thought Elin had changed. By the time she and Tiger married, she was friendly but became more guarded, even in her own home....." This passage is a random, vague reference, out of "time" context, that makes no specific observations. It's not well written, doesn't really say anything useful, is unsupported by specific observation, and is completely out of place in the book. It's almost as if it were inserted after the chapter had been written.
The other Elin reference is in Chapter 5, after Tiger wins the 2005 Buick. "[We don't celebrate. We're supposed to win.]" "I would notice in the future that Elin would keep her emotions under wraps whenever Tiger won." Another disconnected passage, that barely fits in context with the rest of it. Another random reference to some vague future emotional diagnosis. This passage is clearly directed at Tiger. It fits into HH's worldview as expressed through the book, that Tiger is manipulating people's emotions through his passive-aggressive and controlling behavior. Oddly, the theme of Tiger's behavior is self-centered, but the book is so obviously Haney's self-centered view of their relationship.
The Zach Johnson joke. Clearly meant to give Tiger a personality. It's random, but I don't know how anyone could take it as negative or out of context. He's describing life on the road as a member of the Ryder Cup team.
The Poulter thing. Clearly describes that Tiger and Poulter don't like each other. It makes Poulter look dumb, and Tiger look petty. No reason that the specific language from the text should have been used. The theme is that Tiger is two-faced: this recurs throughout, particularly when Tiger interacts with the media. Basically, "[Tiger would tell the world one thing, but then he would tell me what he really thought.]"
The Phil and racism thing. The "racism" thing is pure speculation on HH's part, and he says so. "I believe a lot of the public obsession about Tiger versus Phil was about race." Thanks, Hank, for telling us all what we all think. The rest of it is just more pseudo-psychology about why Tiger doesn't like Phil. One thing that hasn't been mentioned before that's mean and petty, and shouldn't be in the book. "I always thought Tiger was going overboard when he'd privately call Phil lazy or make fun of his body..." (page 91). So basically you're saying that Tiger sat around calling Phil "fat Phil" or whatever. We all do it. Of course, I wouldn't say it to his face. And it's pretty rude of HH to put that in there--the sentence doesn't even advance a point in that passage.
So far, my primary conclusions are that HH is self-centered and oversensitive, and Jaime Diaz is a bad writer.
