All eat from the bowl of life -- Tiger Woods just has a bigger spoon.

So writes Curt Sampson in his groundbreaking account of the current state of golf and the man who changed the game forever -- Tiger Woods. With a mix of power, skill, and business savvy, Woods has become the biggest sports figure since Michael Jordan, wielding a competitive edge of equal parts inspiration and intimidation. As for the rest of the golfing world -- including other players, junior golfers and their parents, corporate America, agents, instructors, fans, and the media -- it's either catch up or give up.

As in his controversial bestsellers "Hogan" and "The Masters," Sampson digs deep to tell stories that wouldn't otherwise be told. From the Austin golf course worker whose admiration for Woods leads him to spend every waking minute mimicking him, to the unemployed talk show host whose website stretches the bounds of hero worship, to the other end of the scale, where up-and-coming pro Charles Howell III -- tapped by Nicklaus to be the next great challenge to Woods -- continues to close the gap.

By turns moving, hilarious, and eye-opening, Chasing Tiger is an affectionate yet wary account of one extraordinary man's impact on the world of sports, and the game of golf as it moves into a new era.

The most outspoken and combative coach in NBA history--and one of the most successful, amassing more than 1,175 victories, the sixth best winning record ever--reflects on his life, his career, and his battles on and off the basketball court in this no-holds-barred memoir A man of deep passion and intensity, George Karl earned his bad boy reputation while playing at the University of North Carolina, a rap that continued through the five years he spent with the San Antonio Spurs--and long after he stopped playing. Karl's beery nights, fistfights, and barking followed him into a thirty-five-year coaching career. In a game defined by big stakes and bigger egos, rabid fans and an unforgiving media, Karl was hired and fired a dozen times. After leading a team beset by injuries and with no superstar to its best season of all time--an achievement that earned Karl the title NBA Coach of the Year--he was dumped by the Denver Nuggets in 2013. Less than a year and a half later, Karl was at the helm of the Sacramento Kings, snarling and bellowing on the sidelines before being cut loose in May 2016. Intense, obstinate, and loud, Karl has never backed down from a confrontation, whether with management, officials, or star players, as NBA legends from Allan Iverson to Gary Payton to Carmelo Anthony to Demarcus Cousins can attest. Telling his story, Karl holds nothing back as he speaks out about the game that has defined his life, including the greed, selfishness, and ass-covering he believes are characteristic of the modern NBA player, and the rampant corruption that leads all the way to the office of the NBA commissioner, David Stern. Karl also reveals how he's learned to deal with the personalities, the pressure, and the setbacks with a resilience he acquired from his three bouts with cancer. Raw, hard-hitting, and brutally honest, Furious George is as thrilling, unpredictable, and entertaining as the game that has defined Karl's life.

Of all the games ever played in a sporting competition, never has an event been so bizarre and yet so fitting for its historical moment: the 1968 Masters. Anger gripped America's heart in April 1968. Vietnam and a bitter presidential contest sharpened the divides between races and generations, while protests and violence poisened the air. Then an assassin's bullet took the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Cities burned. The smoke had barely cleared when the Masters began. Never was the country more ready for distraction and escape--but could the orderly annual excitement of Palmer versus Nicklaus provide it? For a while, it could and it did--except that instead of a duel between golf's superstars, several unlikely members of the chorus stepped forward with once-in-a-lifetime performances. There was blunt-talking Bob Goalby, a truck driver's son from Illinois and former star football player; loveable Roberto De Vicenzo from Argentina, who charmed the galleries and media all week; and Bert Yancey, a Floridian who'd dropped out of West Point to face his private demons of mental illness. Just as the competition reached a thrilling crescendo, it all fell apart. The Masters, the best-run tournament in the world, devolved into a heart-wrenching tangle of rules, responsibility, and technicality. In a fascinating narrative that stops in Augusta, Buenos Aires, and Belleville, Illinois, bestselling author Curt Sampson finds the truth behind The Lost Masters. It's a story you'll never forget.

Ben Hogan won four U.S. Opens in six years, three of them after a near-fatal head-on automobile collision. Driven by an obsessive dedication to the game, legend has it, he practiced until his hands bled. The concentration and precision he exhibited on the course awed spectators and fellow players alike.



In this extraordinary book--the first full-scale biography of the enigmatic Hogan in twenty years--Curt Sampson explores the milestones of Hogan's life--his father's suicide, his miraculous comeback after his brush with death, his many triumphs on the Tour. Sampson draws on interviews with fellow golf legends Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, and Sam Snead to present an in-depth portrait of a man with bullet-proof confidence and singlemindedness, a man who turned the negatives he encountered into a life of glory and achievement.