Tiger Woods

Net Worth

$800,000,000

Born in (City)

California

Born in (Country)

Date of Birth

30th December, 1975

Date of Death

Mother

Kultida Woods

Father

Earl Woods

Children

Charlie Axel Woods
Sam Alexis Woods

About

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. Woods is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time and one of the most famous athletes of all time. He has been elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Following an outstanding junior, college, and amateur golf career, Woods turned professional in 1996 at the age of 20. By the end of April 1997, he had won three PGA Tour events in addition to his first major, the 1997 Masters, which he won by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance. He reached number one in the world rankings for the first time in June 1997, less than a year after turning pro. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, Woods was the dominant force in golf. He was the top-ranked golfer in the world from August 1999 to September 2004 (264 consecutive weeks) and again from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 consecutive weeks). During this time, he won 13 of golf's major championships.

Early Life

Woods grew up in Orange County, California. He was a child prodigy who was introduced to golf before the age of two by his athletic father, Earl Woods. Earl was a single-digit handicap amateur golfer who also was one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University. Tiger's father was a member of the military and had playing privileges at the Navy golf course beside the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, which allowed Tiger to play there. Tiger also played at the par 3 Heartwell golf course in Long Beach, as well as some of the municipals in Long Beach. In 1978, Tiger putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy course. At age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC's That's Incredible! Before turning seven, Tiger won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California. In 1984 at the age of eight, he won the 9–10 boys' event, the youngest age group available, at the Junior World Golf Championships. He first broke 80 at age eight. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991. Woods's father Earl wrote that Tiger first defeated him at the age of 11 years, with Earl trying his best. Earl lost to Tiger every time from then on. Woods first broke 70 on a regulation golf course at age 12. When Woods was 13 years old, he played in the 1989 Big I, which was his first major national junior tournament. In the final round, he was paired with pro John Daly, who was then relatively unknown. The event's format placed a professional with each group of juniors who had qualified. Daly birdied three of the last four holes to beat Woods by only one stroke. As a young teenager, Woods first met Jack Nicklaus in Los Angeles at the Bel-Air Country Club, when Nicklaus was performing a clinic for the club's members. Woods was part of the show, and he impressed Nicklaus and the crowd with his skills and potential. Earl Woods had researched in detail the career accomplishments of Nicklaus and had set his young son the goals of breaking those records.

Road to Success

Woods turned pro at age 20 in August 1996 and immediately signed advertising deals with Nike, Inc. and Titleist that ranked as the most lucrative endorsement contracts in golf history at that time. Woods was named Sports Illustrated's 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. On April 13, 1997, he won his first major, the Masters, in record-breaking fashion and became the tournament's youngest winner at age 21. Two months later, he set the record for the fastest ascent to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings. After a lackluster 1998, Woods finished the 1999 season with eight wins, including the PGA Championship, a feat not achieved since Johnny Miller did it in 1974. Woods was severely myopic; his eyesight had a rating of 11 diopters. In order to correct this problem, he underwent successful laser eye surgery in 1999, and he immediately resumed winning tour events. In 2007, his vision again began to deteriorate, and he underwent laser eye surgery a second time. In 2000, Woods won six consecutive events on the PGA Tour, which was the longest winning streak since Ben Hogan did it in 1948. One of these was the U.S. Open, where he broke or tied nine tournament records in what Sports Illustrated called "the greatest performance in golf history", in which Woods won the tournament by a record 15-stroke margin and earned a check for $800,000. At age 24, he became the youngest golfer to achieve the Career Grand Slam. At the end of 2000, Woods had won nine of the twenty PGA Tour events he entered and had broken the record for lowest scoring average in tour history. He was named the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, the only athlete to be honored twice, and was ranked by Golf Digest magazine as the twelfth-best golfer of all time. When Woods won the 2001 Masters, he became the only player to win four consecutive major professional golf titles, although not in the same calendar year. This achievement came to be known as the "Tiger Slam." Following a stellar 2001 and 2002 in which he continued to dominate the tour, Woods's career hit a slump. He did not win a major in 2003 or 2004. In September 2004, Vijay Singh overtook Woods in the Official World Golf Rankings, ending Woods's record streak of 264 weeks at No. 1. Woods rebounded in 2005, winning six PGA Tour events and reclaiming the top spot in July after swapping it back and forth with Singh over the first half of the year. Woods began dominantly in 2006, winning his first two PGA tournaments but failing to capture his fifth Masters championship in April. Following the death of his father in May, Woods took some time off from the tour and appeared rusty upon his return at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he missed the cut. However, he quickly returned to form and ended the year by winning six consecutive tour events. At the season's close, Woods had 54 total wins that included 12 majors; he had broken the tour records for both total wins and total majors wins over eleven seasons.

Challenges

2008 was the first time Tiger Woods dealt with a serious injury in his career. Woods, who said he had been battling knee problems throughout the year, had to undergo reconstructive ACL surgery on his left knee midway through the season. He was forced to miss the rest of the year, including the Open Championship and PGA Championship. Thankfully for him, he had already won the 2008 U.S. Open, so it wasn't all a wash. But Woods' left knee would act up again at the worst time down the line. On Nov. 27, 2009, just two days after reports came out that Woods was being unfaithful to his then-wife Elin Nordegren, Woods crashed his SUV into a tree. Nordegren was reported at the time to have smashed out the back window of the SUV with a golf club, worried about her husband inside the vehicle. Woods suffered facial lacerations and was forced to forgo the rest of the 2009 season, including opting out of his own charity golf tournament: the Chevron World Challenge. But that was the least of his worries considering what followed after the crash. Let's just say I'm surprised Nordegren hasn't smashed out another one of his car windows since. Two days before Woods' car crash, The National Enquirer published a story about an extramarital affair involving Woods and New York City nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel. After Woods' crash, they all came out of the woodwork, multiple women saying they'd slept with Woods while he was married to Elin Nordegren. After a report of having an affair with a cocktail waitress, Woods later admitted his infidelity, and also admitted he had had an affair with his neighbor's 22-year-old daughter. All of this began an apparent mental decline for Woods on the golf course.

Failures

Tiger Woods surprised everyone, even bookies, when he recently conquered the coveted Masters Tournament. It was his first major win since 2008 – the year before personal and physical issues began to plague his illustrious and historic career. "To have the opportunity to come back like this,” he told ESPN, “it is probably one of the biggest wins I've had.'' Woods was not the only one who recognized the unlikely nature of his return to prominence. Even former President Barack Obama tweeted: “To come back and win the Masters after all the highs and lows is a testament to excellence, grit, and determination.” While most business leaders will hopefully never face a downfall as public or as grand as Woods, learning to accept — and overcome — failure is a vital component of success. Only half of small businesses survive beyond five years, and only 20% to 30% of startups deliver their projected return on investment. Even in businesses that succeed, leaders will undoubtedly grapple with countless smaller defeats. Here are three steps for recovering with grace. On May 29, 2017, Woods was arrested near his Jupiter Island, Florida, home by the Jupiter Police Department at about 3:00 am. EDT for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He was asleep in his car, which was stationary in a traffic lane with its engine running. He later stated that he had taken prescription drugs and did not realize how they might interact together.[227] On July 3, 2017, Woods tweeted that he had completed an out-of-state intensive program to tackle an unspecified issue. At his August 9, 2017 arraignment, Woods had his attorney Douglas Duncan submit a not guilty plea for him and agreed to take part in a first-time DUI offender program and attend another arraignment on October 25. At a hearing on October 27, 2017, Woods pleaded guilty to reckless driving. He received a year of probation, was fined $250, and ordered to undergo 50 hours of community service along with regular drug tests. He was not allowed to drink alcohol during the probation, and if he violated the probation he would be sentenced to 90 days in jail with an additional $500 fine.

Achievements

With 79 official PGA Tour events, he had been hailed as the “greatest closer in history”. He was the youngest among the few players to have won all four professional major championships.|He is also the only one to have completed the Career Grand Slam in a row.|He was inducted into at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento in 2007.|The Associated Press named him the “Athlete of the Decade” in December 2009.

Quotes

Winning takes care of everything.
I smile at obstacles.
My will can move mountains.