Shooting for Tiger

This book tells how golf's obsessed new generation is transforming a country-club sport. What the Super Bowl is to professional football and Wimbledon to tennis, the culminating event of the American Junior Golf Association tour, the Polo championship is to youth golf - an opportunity to cinch the world's junior golf championship. (Unsurprisingly, Tiger Woods is a former winner). In "Shooting for Tiger", Echikson follows the season from June 2007 to December 2008 to watch the highly competitive tournament of 120 of the world's best young golfers as they tee off against one another. The final tournament is watched closely by college coaches and professional agents keeping their eyes out for the next big thing. The winner will be awarded a college scholarship and have a good chance of joining the pro-golf tour.Aside from the very real tensions between these young, highly competitive golfers, Echikson will sketch the strange sub-culture of aggressively competitive parents who ferry their children from championship to championship. In this respect, "Shooting for Tiger" offers a fascinating portrait of obsession from the points of view of hopeful parents and driven children.
Their goals might be the same, but their understanding of how best to get there, as Echikson demonstrates, often diverge.