Follow the Roar

by Bob Smiley

With his career at a standstill and his golf game a shadow of its former mediocrity, TV writer and ESPN.com contributor Bob Smiley decided the time had come to turn to the one person who might be able to Tiger Woods. So, in January of 2008, Smiley set out to follow the game's greatest player from the gallery for every hole of an entire season and to absorb all that he could.Smiley traveled from the seaside cliffs of San Diego to the deserts of Dubai, through the hallowed gates of Augusta National, and on to arguably the greatest U.S. Open of all time back at Torrey Pines, where, in a legendary duel with charismatic journeyman Rocco Mediate, Woods won his fourteenth major--on one leg.Smiley chronicles every dramatic and often hysterical moment of his journey with Tiger, including his off-course run-ins with Arabian sandstorms, ex-con ticket scalpers, and the motley assortment of strangers who became friends along the way.Told from the perspective of a true golf fan, "Follow the Roar" is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure through the most spectacular and inspiring season in Tiger Woods's celebrated career. In addition to the thrill of witnessing all 604 holes Woods played in '08, Smiley found in Tiger both inspiration and the gutsy embodiment of what it really means to be an athlete--and a man.

304 pages, ebook

First published November 11, 2008

About the author

Bob Smiley began his writing career as a research assistant to the late, great William F. Buckley, Jr. In 2008, he wrote the sports memoir Follow the Roar, chronicling his journey around the globe as he followed Tiger Woods for every hole of an entire season.

His latest project is the satiric novel Don't Mess with Travis, now out from Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press.

Don't Mess with Travis has been heralded by Kirkus, Booklist, The Dallas Morning News, Steve Forbes and Breitbart.com, who called it "one of the year's best and arguably the most stinging work of political satire since Christopher Buckley's Boomsday."

Smiley continues to write for television and film, having written for network sitcoms as well as for Fox News Channel’s Half Hour News Hour.

He is currently writing a pilot for Disney XD and developing a half-hour comedy for AMC, along with having a movie deep in development with producer/director McG.