The Swinger - Tapa dura

The most famous athlete on the planet is a bit off his game.

Maybe you heard?

His name, as we all know, is Herbert X. “Tree” Tremont, and he’s the richest and most celebrated athlete of our time—a multicultural golfing icon with fifty-three Tour wins, thirteen major victories, a smoking hot wife, and two adorable kids. Tree’s carefully cultivated image of country club values has made him so beloved by corporate America that he is the first celebrity in history to endorse Cokeand Pepsi. The world kneels at his feet.

As it turns out, so do a good many agreeable young women. When a reporter uncovers evidence that Tree’s sexual appetites are as prodigious as his tee shots, his public and private lives collide, producing the juiciest scandal in sports history.

In this high-spirited romp that recalls the hilarious work of Dan Jenkins and Rick Reilly, two veteranSports Illustrated writers have some wicked fun with recent events as they take us inside “Treeworld” and the secret society of elite golf. It’s a wild ride that whisks us between the ropes and the sheets of the PGA Tour, cracks open Tree’s cloistered inner circle, and propels us around the world in high style . . . from Tree’s top-secret compound in Florida to the wine cellar of Augusta National for an illicit tryst on Masters Sunday . . . from the deck of his $61 million yacht to the plush interior of his favorite private plane (he owns a few) . . . from the secluded beaches of Maui to an exclusive Southampton estate.

As the scandal spirals out of control and Tree is forced underground, we get to know his entourage: Andrew Finkelman, his famously brusque manager who left IGM to manage Tree alone; Turner Darlington, the bizarre and charismatic founder and CEO of Tree’s main sponsor, Arrow Golf; Tree’s wife, Belinda, a hot-blooded Italian former bikini-model who doesn’t play golf but swings a mean fireplace tool; and a healthy number of the hundreds of women whose liaisons with Tree are brought to light as the plot unfolds.

Bursting with inside observations and anecdotes about pro golf and life on Tour, The Swinger is a fast, funny, and gleefully outrageous novel that illuminates the life of the modern world-class, life-by-the-tail athlete. It is also a meditation on love, sex, marriage, friendship, celebrity, and the media. It is written with a smile, not with disdain for athletes like Tree, but with empathy and affection. It ends with the hope that Tree’s transformation, redemption, and return to greatness may be just around the corner.

Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck are senior writers at Sports Illustrated.