Tiger Woods feature story

01 — Project details

Tiger Woods, an Orange County native, was still at Stanford when I interviewed him, but everyone could see what he was becoming.

02 — Creative process

January, 1996. I was Orange Coast's default sportswriter, having previously written features for the magazine about Teemu Selanne, Jim Abbot, and Janet Evans. I was constantly looking for interesting local athletes, and was aware of Woods' amateur golf success.

We met while Woods was home for Spring Break. He pulled into the parking lot of the old Navy golf course in a blue sportscar, music bumping. I could tell from the moment I saw him that he wasn't happy to be there. What college kid on vacation wants to get up early on a weekday to talk to a reporter?

I had a photographer in tow and we asked Tiger if he'd mind posing for a photo. Kind of an ambush question, and he rightly said he wouldn't pose but we could take some shots of him drinking his orange juice and waiting for the Denver omelette he'd just ordered from the course's cafe.