Gavin Newsham

Discover Tiger Woods’s childhood path to dominance and the origins of his downfall. There are two Tiger Woods: the man who won fifteen majors and broke numerous golf records, and the billionaire whose personal flaws destroyed his reputation. But there is another story to tell: “Project Tiger,” the plan his father orchestrated to make his son the greatest golfer ever and a world-changing savior. The demands were extraordinary. The impact, permanent. In Project Tiger, veteran golf journalist Gavin Newsham mines his extensive interviews with Tiger’s coaches, classmates, girlfriends, and competitors for stories that refine our perception of Tiger’s enigmatic character and legacy. Young Tiger succeeded despite many conflicts, especially weekly vitriolic, racist hate mail in greater quantities than any other athlete alive today. Although Tiger had the talent to swing golf clubs before his first birthday, it was his father’s drill-sergeant coaching that motivated him, driving him with fear and into obsession. Tiger emotionally detached as he rapidly ascended, a volatile perseverance that erupted in entitlement, arrogance, and selfishness. In Project Tiger, readers witness golf’s most sensational prodigy develop the unique traits that led him to the pinnacle of success, and also doomed him, and understand how his trajectory brings him full circle, training his son, Charlie Woods, with a different, loving approach to the game.

An entertaining and effervescent history of the English Premier League told through the words and quotations of its players, managers, their contemporaries and the media. Relive the highs and lows, the drama and fun of 25 years of the Premier League through this exceptional compilation, which brings together the very best quotes, comments and soundbites to tell the story of each incident-packed season. Remember Kevin Keegan’s on-air meltdown? Or Paolo Di Canio’s shove? How about those jaw-on-the-floor goals like Tony Yeboah’s volley or Sergio Agüero’s last gasp title-winning goal for Manchester City? And what about some of those teams that set the competition alight – like swash-buckling Newcastle, all-conquering Manchester United and Arsenal’s fabled ‘Invincibles’? All the Premier League’s sensational stories, extraordinary incidents and dazzling moments are told here through the voices, views and reflections of the managers and players involved. ‘You Can’t Win Anything With Kids’ also provides the perfect opportunity to enjoy some of the funniest, most insightful and sometimes perplexing soundbites from the last 25 years, from the endlessly amusing spat between José Mourinho and Arsène Wenger to Jürgen Klopp’s off-the-wall reflections, Eric Cantona’s deeply philosophical musings and, of course, Alan Hansen’s profoundly misplaced pronouncements…

Is there a sport you could turn professional at with only a year of coaching? How can you give yourself a 1-in-12 chance of playing international soccer against Cristiano Ronaldo? Which sport is the most profitable to participate in for the least amount of effort? A highly amusing, alternative take on commonly accepted sporting knowledge. These, plus many more, are the questions posed and answered by Why Playing in Red Makes You a Winner... a diligently researched book that challenges us to use figures to take a quirky and sideways look at sport. Packed with well-investigated observations and explanations of hidden phenomena, Why Playing in Red Makes You a Winner... explores the incredible idiosyncrasies that lie within world sport and will change perceptions of the games we love. Written in a fun and accessible style by a bestselling author and featuring astute observations that range from the technical and serious to fun and entertaining, Why Playing in Red Makes You a Winner... offers a refreshing new take on major sports.

In 1979, after 20 years of thrashings of British and Irish teams by America's seemingly unbeatable golfers, the representation of the British and Irish Ryder Cup team was extended to include continental European players. The experiment began badly for Europe, with defeats in 1979, 1981 and (more narrowly) in 1983. In 1985 at the Belfry, however, European golfers won the trophy for the first time since 1957. Over the ensuing 25 years, the Ryder Cup has been transformed into a highly charged - and sometimes highly controversial - clash of golfing equals, Europe having won 7 cups to the USA's 4 since that memorable September day at the Belfry.In Two Tribes, Gavin Newsham not only tells the thrilling story of 31 years of the expanded Ryder Cup, he analyses how the event has changed from Samuel Ryder's original conception of the competition when he started it in 1927, why exactly it had become so uncompetitive before 1979, and how Europe's golfers have succeeded in turning the tables so effectively from 1985. Two Tribes will tell the full story of the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor. Drawing on interviews with, and contributions from, a world-class line-up of Ryder Cup heroes (and villains) past and present (including Sandy Lyle, Mark James, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Sam Torrance, Nick Faldo, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Colin Montgomerie, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Fred Couples, Hal Sutton, Paul Azinger, Corey Pavin and Phil Mickelson to name but several), Two Tribes captures the essence of three passionate decades of Ryder Cup competition - its dramas, duels, triumphs, traumas and more than occasional moments of controversy.

There have been twenty major international football tournaments since that Saturday in July 1966 when Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup trophy for England. As each of these competitions has come around, a wave of expectation has been followed, with seeming inevitability, by disappointment just weeks later. But with just three semi-final appearances to show for over forty years of effort and pain, why does England - as a team and as a nation - continue to believe that it has an almost divine right to succeed in international football?Tracing the footballing fortunes of ten England managers - Ramsey, Revie, Greenwood, Robson, Taylor, Venables, Hoddle, Eriksson, McLaren and Capello - Hype and Glory shows just why the England football team has struggled to live with the weight of expectation. Full of dramatic on-field action and dressing room gossip, it vividly recreates the highs and lows, the agony and ecstacy, the close calls and the humiliations, and through scores of interviews with players, managers and journalists, pinpoints precisely why things have always gone so badly wrong...

Describes the 1977 birth of the New York Cosmos soccer team, which brought together some of the greatest talents in international soccer, including Brazil's Pele, Germany's Franz Beckenbauer, and others, and the team's descent into the decadence and celebrity culture of the city.

Legend has it that one of the things you really should see if you're a true golf fan is the swing - the awesome 'killer swing' - of John Patrick Daly.Rewind to August 1991 and the USPGA Championship at Crooked Stick, Indianapolis. Twenty-five-year-old rookie pro John Daly tees off as an eleventh-hour replacement for Nick Price and blasts his way to a spectacular and entirely unexpected victory.Now fully updated, Gavin Newsham's award-winning biography examines how that triumph, which, which should have signalled the start of the big time for Daly, instead prompted a shocking descent into alcoholism, gambling addiction and more indidents and accidents than most people encounter in one lifetime - maybe two.He has been arrested, suspended, and seen his world ranking plummet to 507. Yet, his no-nonsense 'grip it and rip it' philosophy has struck a chord with golf fans the world over and his length off the tee is legendary. 'It's all good because I'm still living,' he shrugs. Despite his trials and tribulations, John Daly remains one of the biggest draws in the game.