Just when Tiger Woods thought it was safe to go back in the water, the sharks are circling once more. As he prepares to head up Magnolia Lane, a joint favourite to win his fifth Masters in only his sixth full tournament since returning from back surgery, an exhaustive biography has not so much cut him open as gutted him, filleted him, and fried him in oil.

The 512-page book, by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian, is presently doing for Woods what Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury did for Donald Trump’s White House. It is also eliciting a similar sequence of reactions. Upon its publication this week, there was much praise for its copious research, for the fact that its 250-plus interviews brought freshness...