The Scorecard Always Lies: A Year Behind the Scenes on the PGA Tour [Hardcover]

Chris Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2007

As Tiger Woods broke down in tears on the 18th green at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, legions of spectators strained their eyes to read the emotion on his face. Like the millions watching on television, they knew that Tiger had just won the British Open, and that his father had recently died. Beyond that, however, they knew precious little -- only that he played with a Nike golf ball, carried an American Express card in his wallet, and, presumably, drove a Buick. They were hungry for more, but everything else about his off-course life, and those of his fellow pros, was forbiddingly well-guarded.

Until now. In The Scorecard Always Lies veteran Sports Illustrated golf correspondent Chris Lewis reaches past the results, stats, and sound-bites to focus on the personalities and personal lives of the sport's top players. While embracing all the drama and excitement of the 2006 PGA Tour season, he takes us inside the locker rooms, hotel rooms, and private planes to deliver an unrivaled, behind-thescenes look at the Tour and the men who play it.

Lewis spent thirty weeks of the 2006 season on the road with the best golfers in the world, exploring their backstories, motivations, and preoccupations, and collecting telling, character-revealing tales. He bore witness to both the hard work and the privilege that frame their lifestyles. But he also discovered a Tour that to this point remained largely unknown -- one where a player while pursuing dreams of glory might also be suing his agent, going through a messy divorce, or looking to throw down in the locker room with one of his peers.

There's John Daly trying to explain how his wife has just been taken off to jail. There's Chris Couch making a midnight, barefoot run through a derelict district of New Orleans, fearing he was about to be kidnapped, and taking refuge in a tattoo parlor.

We watch as Tiger Woods tries to deal with losing his father to cancer, while refusing to abandon his fondness for blue humor. We see Phil Mickelson hanging with rock stars, sharing a Masters victory gift with a national championship-winning college football coach, and hooking up a sportswriter with a would-be groupie's phone number. All in all, we get a rare glimpse of the off-course lives of the Tour's stars and their supporting cast.

At turns humorous, touching, and insightful, the book sheds new light on every aspect of Tour life, from easygoing Tuesday practice rounds to feverpitch Sunday showdowns, always taking care to show how their off-course concerns inform their every swing.

Fans will savor the fullest portrait yet of a group of players who, throughout their successes and struggles, remain unfailingly smart, funny, and engaging, and make up the most intriguing subculture in all of sports.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Lewis began covering golf at the dawn of the Tiger Era and has contributed to all the game's major publications. He now works almost exclusively as a golf correspondent for Sports Illustrated. He lives in Atlanta.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1St Edition edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416537163
• ISBN-13: 978-1416537168
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,143,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Only the errors kept me awake, July 12, 2007

By 

Paul C. Curley - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scorecard Always Lies: A Year Behind the Scenes on the PGA Tour (Hardcover)

This is probably the most boring sports book I have ever read.

Wow, I didn't know Phil Mickelson's golf shoes have only five spikes, each of which is eight millimeters in length, while Darren Clarke's seven spikes per shoe are only six millimeters long! Fascinating! That nugget of inside-the-ropes knowledge really set my heart racing and had me begging for more!

Only the typographical, grammatical, spelling and factual errors littered throughout the book kept me awake. Whoever edited this book should be ashamed of himself or herself.

Shall I offer an example? On page 106, Vijay Singh is cited as having been dogged by an allegation that he signed an incorrect scorecard at "the 1985 Malaysian Open in Jakarta". Er, Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia which, for the benefit of the author and editor, is an entirely different country. And, by the way, the missing word the author mysteriously fails to conjure up in describing the incident is "cheating".

What's more, why not tell the full story? The specific allegation was that Singh had deliberately overwritten his scorecard on one hole after his playing partner on Friday had signed the card, lowering his own score by one shot, thus allowing him to make the cut. It was only when his playing partner, who had shot the same 36-hole score as Singh and missed the cut by one shot, learned that Singh had advanced to the third round, that tournament officials were alerted. Allegedly, it was the actual physical evidence of the change in the scorecard that led to Singh being banned from the Asian tour.

Anyway, the author blithely tells us that Singh has always maintained "that the scorecard in question in Indonesia was kept by someone else." Golly, Chris, that's really holding his feet to the fire! Thanks a lot!

This is just one of the countless examples of the author's error-filled, soft-soap approach to the events and personalities covered in the book.

The book is terribly disappointing, or perhaps, disappointingly terrible. I feel like I deserve a refund.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Page Never Lies, October 14, 2007

By 

R. Evans (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scorecard Always Lies: A Year Behind the Scenes on the PGA Tour (Hardcover)

I echo the sentiments of the past reviewers of this book. I have been watching the PGA tour religiously for 12+ years since my childhood and thoroughly enjoying recapping each season with friends and family. Naturally, when I saw this book I thought what a great source for some information/highlights that I mayb have missed from the '06 season. Well, the joy of reading the Kings English was sucked out of this book from the start. I wont take the time to reiterate all the spelling, grammatical and factual errors that have already been pointed out in past reviews. But I will point out two errors that I don't believe have been mentioned:

Page 234" "Off the 16th tee Mickelson hit another foul ball, this one a pull left." Chris, this may come as a shock to you, but Phil Mickelson is left handed. A pull for a left handed golfer goes to the right.

Page 252: "Other players were now wielding longer, graphite-shafted drivers with heads the size of toasters, while Woods stubbornly clung to his small-headed, 53-and-three-quarter-inch steel-shafted driver." Come on Chris, 53 and 3/4" driver shaft? Are you kidding me? Tiger's driver shaft was 43 and 3/4". How could you have made that mistake? No tour player (or amateur for that matter) plays a 53" driver shaft....unless, of course, they are over 7'2" in height.

The question has been asked in other reviews, but how could this book get published? And by S&S nonetheless, it just doesn't make sense. Regardless how quickly they wanted to get the book to press someone should have read it and checked for facts and spelling errors. One final error I would like to point out: Page 309: "Back at the office, Rick Lipsey unfailingly helped erase my mistakes. Farrell Evans did that, too..." Rick and Farrell, I don't know you but clearly you do not do as Chris suggests. This is an embarrassment to the author, to the publisher and more importantly, to the game of golf.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Decent Stories, glaring factual errors, July 12, 2007

By 

Patrick Murphy "Chip" (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Scorecard Always Lies: A Year Behind the Scenes on the PGA Tour (Hardcover)

Decent behind the scenes stories about the PGA Tour, but it's hard to believe everything you read when there are glaring factual errors in it. Here's two off the top of my head:
1.) During the AT&T at Pebble, he writes of Aaron Oberholser, the fact that he's local to Northern California by going to Santa Clara State? Anyone with a history in Northern California will tell you that first, there's not a Santa Clara State, there's a private Catholic University called "Santa Clara University". However, Aaron didn't even go there either, he went to San Jose State University. Pretty big difference.

2.) During the Zurich PGA Event in New Orleans, within 6-9 months of Hurrican Katrina, there's a mention of Reggie Bush being in the City during the day right before the NFL Draft, "about to become the first overall pick." Any novice NFL fan could tell you that, a.) Reggie Bush was not taken number one over all in the NFL Draft in 2006, Mario Williams was by the Houston Texans, Reggie was taken second by the Saints and b.) Reggie Bush was at the draft itself that day and probably didn't go to New Orleans until the day after they drafted him, possible that night.

These are only two of what are probably many. Sorry Chris, but it's going to be difficult for me to take anything you write seriously any more with simple facts like this that are overlooked and printed in a book.



(This gentleman writes for Sports Illustrated now, but can't get a fact checker?)