After winning six of the twelve majors played from 2000 to 2002, Tiger Woods was struggling with his golf swing in 2003, leaving him out of the running at the US open and the PGA. As a consequence, 2003 saw four first-time major champions: Ben Curtis, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk and Shaun Micheel. After their respective upsets, the four players have had little success, however. Micheel and Curtis jumped from obscurity to stardom and subsequently overplayed all over the world. Neither has won another major, and Weir has only won one other major, in 2004.
In Moment of Glory, John Feinstein returns to this unlikely year and chronicles the personal and professional struggles the four players have experienced since then. With his great affection for the underdog and extraordinary access, he gives readers an insider’s look at how winning (and losing) major championships changes players’ lives.
- “Feinstein’s storytelling is so compelling, his understanding of the structural cruelties and emotional consequences of winner-takes-all competition so acute, that we can grasp why so many of us, caught in precisely these situations in our own lives, flock to the golf course to watch them played out on the fairways.” Observer
Hardback
Published 17/06/2010