Hollywood loves character-driven stories with a meteoric rise, a dramatic fall and the ultimate redemption. Tinsel Town is going to love HBO’s Tiger Woods documentary, and so will viewers — and it’s only going to take two minutes to hook you.
“Tiger,” from directors Matthew Heineman and Matt Hamachek, has an excellent opening scene. The cold open combines never-before-seen footage from Eldrick “Tiger” Woods’ dad, Earl, speaking glowingly about his boy at the Haskins Collegiate Awards Banquet with a childhood Tiger making sure “daddy” just saw his brilliant iron shot from the fairway. Earl’s audio continues over a signature Woods win at The Masters, and then ultimately, laid on top of police-station footage from Tiger’s 2017 DUI arrest.