A two-part documentary series illuminating in sweeping scope and vast detail the rise, fall, and epic comeback of global icon Tiger Woods is in production and set to air on HBO in December. Alex Gibney (Academy Award winner for “Taxi to the Dark Side,” nominee for “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” and Emmy-winner for HBO’s “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”) are among the executive producers with Academy Award nominee and Emmy-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land,” “A Private War”) and Emmy nominee Matthew Hamachek (“Amanda Knox”) serving as directors of the two-part television presentation. Part one of Tiger will debut Sunday, December 13, with part two airing Sunday, December 20, exclusively on HBO.
Using Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s best-selling book Tiger Woods as a resource, the two-part series is driven by never-before-seen footage and revealing interviews with those who know Tiger best, including his former caddy and close friend, Steve Williams; golf legend and six-time major champion Sir Nick Faldo; Earl Woods’ friend and biographer, Pete McDaniel; Tiger’s first true love, Dina Parr; as well as Rachel Uchitel, the woman at the center of the sex scandal that forever altered Tiger’s world, breaking her silence for the first time.
“Since his introduction to the world at the age of two, Tiger Woods has inhabited our collective consciousness as a prodigy, a pioneer, a champion, a global icon, and then a tabloid headline,” said directors Heineman and Hamachek. “After months of research and countless hours of revelatory conversations, we discovered that he has always been a projection of outsized expectations. His father, his sponsors, and his fans all made Tiger Woods into whom they wanted him to be. Our goal was to dive deeper and create an unflinching and intimate portrait of a man, who like all of us, is imperfect and inherently human.”
“This is an epic tale,” said executive producer Alex Gibney, “For sports fans and for anyone interested in the pursuit of greatness and the price of ambition paid by athletes, particularly when parents and the society-at-large push them to win at any cost. The directing team of Matthew Heineman and Matthew Hamachek have used their extraordinary cinematic talents to tell a riveting story.”
“The new two-part series TIGER is a tremendous eye opener in looking at a master athlete whose dedication and obsession with the game of golf took him not only to the heights of fame and success, but down a spiraling road of darkness and finally redemption,” said executive producer Sam Pollard. “Hamachek and Heineman are masterful storytellers and have done an extraordinary job in shaping this nuanced and detailed journey of a man who is probably the greatest golfer of all time.”