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On the Course with...Tiger Woods
Even before Tiger Woods stunned the world with his amazing victory at Augusta, he was impressing the golfing community with his perfect swing and pleasing crowds with his mile-wide smile and enthusiasm for the game. In this book, readers learn the details of Tiger's life and career. Photos.
144 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
2 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
435 books141 followersMatt Christopher is the writer young readers turn to when they're looking for fast-paced, action-packed sports novels. He is the best-selling author of more than one hundred sports books for young readers.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
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February 10, 2014 On the course with tiger woods By Matt Christopher
I have took my time and read this book and honestly I can say that Matt Christopher really took his time and studied the life of Tiger Woods from his birth to his first championship then to one of his best championships . Matt made every moment in Tiger's life so descriptive and at every moment I was astonished by the way he described it . He had a certain way of words to tell the reader what was happening and how it happened, in the book he even added the number of events and championships that Tiger one and there is a lot of them. As I read the book I was surprised on how tiger took a golf club and he stated to hit the ball into the net and he was only six months old it was crazy. Also it was hard to believe at first but he described why and how it happened so I was really convinced on what happened .
I have took my time and read this book and honestly I can say that Matt Christopher really took his time and studied the life of Tiger Woods from his birth to his first championship then to one of his best championships . Matt made every moment in Tiger's life so descriptive and at every moment I was astonished by the way he described it . He had a certain way of words to tell the reader what was happening and how it happened, in the book he even added the number of events and championships that Tiger one and there is a lot of them. As I read the book I was surprised on how tiger took a golf club and he stated to hit the ball into the net and he was only six months old it was crazy. Also it was hard to believe at first but he described why and how it happened so I was really convinced on what happened .
May 15, 2012
This is definitely one of the best biographies I've ever read. Despite not being a fan of golf, I still found this book very interesting. I am however, an athlete.
This book is extremely thorough and talks about everything Tiger Woods. From him being very young to the time the book was made. It shows you why Tiger Woods is such a great golfer. Who doesn't want to know the secret of being a great athlete? It seems like Tiger Woods is such a great golfer because of the young age he started golf at, encouragement from his parents, goals he set for himself, and practice.
To me, this book sets a point of how I will work to achieve my athletic goals and that's why I love this book. I can take many things away from how Tiger Woods worked.
This book is extremely thorough and talks about everything Tiger Woods. From him being very young to the time the book was made. It shows you why Tiger Woods is such a great golfer. Who doesn't want to know the secret of being a great athlete? It seems like Tiger Woods is such a great golfer because of the young age he started golf at, encouragement from his parents, goals he set for himself, and practice.
To me, this book sets a point of how I will work to achieve my athletic goals and that's why I love this book. I can take many things away from how Tiger Woods worked.
September 15, 2010
My review of this book is that it does a good job in explaining how Tiger Woods got involved into golf. Also it explains how he was very close to his father, to him his dad was his bestfriend as well. What i learned from this book is that in order to become successful in life you need the support of your family so they can keep pushing you to do good. This book also explains how Tiger went through many nerves and some of the strategies he used in order to win the 1997 masters tournament. I would really advice people who are interested in golf to read this book, so they can get a inside look and what players go through when they are on the field and off the field.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2012
On the Course with... Tiger Woods really shows how big of a prodigy he is. It shows that since he was born he was swinging a golf club better than me. Then when he wins the Masters it really shows how hard working he is. Even though in the last few years he has been a little off track he still is a true prodigy. I enjoyed this book because it really taught me about how golf became the sport it is today. Also how tiger influenced so many young kids and adults to try the game. Tiger introduced the game of golf to African Americans and the rest of the world. Maybe not for the first time of hearing about the game but the first time they have tried the game of golf.
December 1, 2007
Boy or girl, young or old, readers will love reading about Tiger Woods' inspiring rise to the top of the golf world. Overcoming racism, economic hardship, and personal limitations, Tiger leads the pack at an incredibly young age. My 9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter and I read this together, and we were all equally enthralled and inspired by Tiger's story. It was accessible without being overly simple. We're looking forward to reading more entries in Matt Christopher's biography series.
June 13, 2012
This book is all about Tiger Wood's life. It talk about his personal life and career of golf. It starts at the year 1975-1976 and ends at the year 1997-2000.This book contains stuff about his personal life and his career in golf. It doesn't contain the stuff about about his affair with other women later. I'm not a fan of auto-bios but reading about somebodies life and how they got to be where they are now is amazing.
October 20, 2011
I thought this book was good, because I am a Tiger Woods fan. The details of some of his golf games pulled me in, and made me want to read more. I think it's awesome that he started out when he was two and has become what he is today. All golf fans and Tiger Woods lovers should read this book.
October 2, 2014
I think this book was a good book because I wanted to play golf since a long time and that tough me a lot a bout golf.
May 17, 2010
What a puttz, and a good golfer. Started pretty darn early in life.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews