Sports journalist John Feinstein has a knack for finding a good story and telling it with enough technical information to keep the interest of the sports buff, but not so much as to turn off the more casual reader. Even when the reader already knows how everything is going to end, Feinstein still manages to create drama in the telling. He paints careful portraits of all the characters involved so that the reader has real insight into what the events mean for them. He is as much interested in the human being as he is in the athlete.
Moment of Glory, his latest look at the world of professional golf, is no exception. The book deals with the four major tournaments of 2003 and the golfers who struggled in them. Tiger Woods, who had been dominating the sport for several years, had become unhappy with his swing, in spite of the fact that he was winning regularly. He began tampering with his swing, fired his long time coach, and suddenly his game seemed to desert him. For a year or so he became mortal once again, opening a door for some of the other players; a door that some very unlikely players in the majors of 2003 were going to walk through.
After detailing Woods' situation, Feinstein goes on to describe each of the major tournaments beginning with the Master's at Augusta and moving through the US Open and the British Open to the PGA. He emphasizes the importance of the tournaments and the effect that winning them will have on the lives of the players. These major tournaments have the capacity to make a career. They can take a relative unknown and transform him into star, and at least in three of the 2003 tournaments that is exactly what they did.
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