Armen Keteyian - co-author of 'Tiger Woods' and executive producer of the documentary 'Tiger' - joined Off The Ball to discuss one of sport's greatest enigmas.

Woods has arguably hit the highest heights in a professional sense, before plumbing the depths of personal upheaval.

How, then, does one begin to fairly tell the story of the greatest golfer of a generation, whose extra-marital affairs and off-course conduct have left so much to be desired?

Armen Keteyian on Tiger Woods

Keteyian spoke about the mechanics of boiling down one of the most dizzying and controversial sporting lives into a digestible documentary.

He admitted that telling the story in just over three hours - rather than a ten-part series, say - had its own limitations.

"You are making very adult decisions about where you are going to go, how long you are going to stay, what is the point of being where you're at. What are you trying to tell the audience?

"I have watched the final cut five or six times, and I see different things every time from the director's perspective."

Keteyian said that eight or nine people with real documentary 'chops' were involved in the final version.

Mechanics

Keteyian explained that the 'bottoming-out' of Woods in 2017 began to mark a change in the public perception.

"My sense of him is that what happened on Memorial Day weekend in 2017 was a moment of crisis, it was rock bottom for him," Keteyian said.

"When he was on the side of the road in Florida with this 'rock star' cocktail of drugs in him, believing he was in California, his body was just a mess. Psychologically, he was a mess.

"I think crawling out of that hole, getting healthy and clean, and being able to play golf again, there was a certain level of appreciation, engagement, and gratefulness that I had never seen in Tiger before.

"I saw at the Farmer's Insurance in January 2018, right before we were writing the last chapter of the book. I saw a different Tiger Woods there - he was more engaged, more outgoing, more human.

"You can start to go a little bit too far in the psychological evaluation of things, but I do believe that this is as human and real as Tiger has ever been. In terms of his relationships with his competitors, with the media and fans.

"I just find him happier, he just seems like the weight of the world has been lifted off his shoulders, and god knows he was carrying 12 tonnes over the years.

"A lot of people said to me after finishing the documentary that I had empathy for Tiger, I felt sorry for Tiger. That word 'empathy' to me is the single best word I can hear from people - when they feel empathetic to Tiger, they are starting to understand what he has been through."

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