The sPower Lecture
In their 2018 biography Tiger Woods, authors Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian write that “in 2009, Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, a transcendental star of almost unfathomable fame and fortunate living what appeared to be the perfect life. Married to a Swedish beauty and the father of two young children, he was the winner of fourteen major golf championships and earning more than 100 million dollars annually. But it was all a carefully crafted illusion. As it turned out, Woods had been living a double life for years – one that unraveled in the aftermath of a Thanksgiving night car crash that exposed his serial infidelity hat sent his personal and professional lives over a cliff.”
Their book, based on hundreds of interviews with people from every facet of Woods’s life, and extensive and careful research, the authors have uncovered new and surprising details about the man behind the myth. The resulting biography—upon which Benedict’s presentation is based—presents a sweeping, revealing, and defining biography of an American icon.
Speaker: Jeff Benedict
Jeff Benedict is a New York Times bestselling author of fifteen non-fiction books, a special features writer for Sports Illustrated, and a television and film producer. He has also written for the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and his stories have been the basis for segments on 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, 20/20, 48 Hours, Good Morning America, Dateline, NFL Network, HBO Real Sports, and Discovery Channel. He is the founder and director of Institute for Writing and Mass Media at Southern Virginia University.
Jeff is executive producer for the 2018 movie "Little Pink House" - starring Oscar-nominated Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn, with music by David Crosby. It's based on Jeff's book by the same title. Jeff is also a producer on "The System," a
television drama that's being developed by Starz and is based on his 2013 national bestseller by the same title.
In 2013 Jeff wrote a memoir for an Islamic fundamentalist-turned Christian titled My Name Used to be Muhammad. It was a Book of the Year finalist. Jeff also wrote Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young's bestselling autobiography QB: My Life Behind the Spiral. The book was the basis of "Steve Young: A Football Life," a documentary that Jeff helped write and produce for NFL Films. Jeff’s most recent book is Tiger Woods, the biography of the golfer whom many consider to be the best who ever lived.