New York, NY, February 22, 2016―Tiger Woods, one of the most accomplished and important athletes of all time, will be the subject of a biography by acclaimed writers Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian, it was announced today by Simon & Schuster.

The team behind the recent New York Times bestseller The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football, Benedict and Keteyian are widely regarded as two of the finest journalists in the country. Benedict, a special features writer for Sports Illustrated, and Keteyian, the 11-time Emmy Award-winning lead correspondent for 60 Minutes Sports and contributing correspondent to 60 Minutes, have already spent more than a year reporting the book and have conducted more than 100 interviews with a wide range of individuals from Tiger Woods’ life, including some of the most celebrated names in the world of sports, entertainment, and business.

Since his professional golf career began in 1996, Tiger Woods has accumulated 79 wins on the PGA Tour (the second highest number of all time) and 14 wins in major championships (second only to Jack Nicklaus). His success off the course is equally impressive: Forbes named him the world’s highest-paid athlete for ten consecutive years, and in 2009 reported that he had become the first billion-dollar athlete in history. His decline in the years since then has been nearly as dramatic as his ascent. Yet except for very occasional ruptures, the bubble of his inner circle is strong and he remains an enigma in plain sight.

“Very few individuals are known throughout the world by one word,” said Benedict. “Tiger reached that elite club by being the greatest golfer—some would argue the greatest athlete—in modern history. But his imprint on history transcends golf, and his influence reaches across the globe. Yet, he is vastly misunderstood. So much of his family history and his personality has been veiled in secrecy, mythical stories, partial truths, advertising campaigns, and scurrilous headlines. Our objective is to get beyond the veil and reveal in full a human portrait of a true, albeit reluctant, American idol.”

“Our approach,” said Keteyian, “has been to gather and digest everything we possibly can.  We’re also talking to a lot of people that haven’t talked previously. It’s clearly been a complicated, unmatched, and well-chronicled, rise, fall, and return. But there’s more. A lot more. And I believe the end result will captivate sports fans and fans of big, sweeping biographies.”

World, Audio, and First Serial rights to the project were acquired by Jonathan Karp, President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster, and Jofie Ferrari-Adler, Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster, from literary agent Richard Pine of Inkwell Management. The book is currently untitled and no publication date has been set.

Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.

Contact:

Cary Goldstein

VP/Executive Director of Publicity, 212-698-1122

Cary.Goldstein@simonandschuster.com