Tiger Woods Profile
There are few sports where one name is synonymous with an entire sport's modern history, a by-word that conjures up an instantaneous vision, yet the merest mention of the name Tiger Woods and you're transported into a world of lush, green rolling fairways, tall pine trees and closely cut playing surfaces. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson were old school, yet Tiger Woods was and still very much is, the future. At the same time you might just recall that over-played home video that depicts a very young Eldrick Tont 'Tiger' Woods getting to grips with a small golf club in front of his doting parents which even at that stage gave the viewer an indication as to the infant's future potential. If not that, then Woods was also broadcast as a two-year old child prodigy in 1978 on an American TV chat show, where Tiger putted against comedic legend and keen golfer, Bob Hope.
Woods is of mixed race descent, being one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai, one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American and one-eighth Dutch, which results in him referring to himself as Cablinasian – a syllabic abbreviation garnered from Causican, black, Indian and Asian. He was born on the 30th December 1975 in Cypress, California, USA and now resides in Windermere, Florida with his wife Elin and his two children, Sam and Charlie. In 1996 Tiger with his Father set up the Tiger Woods Foundation
Woods Has Amassed 14 Major Golf Tournament Wins In Career To Date
His career wins to date means he stands shoulder to shoulder with the greatest golfers in the game's history, including Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson and as we write Tiger Woods is currently the world's number one golfer, officially according to accumulative tournament rankings, and was in 2008 the highest paid professional athlete on the planet, taking home an estimated 0 million courtesy of tournament winnings and product/service endorsements. In terms of golf tournament victories, Woods has amassed a back catalogue of fourteen majors to date – the second highest tally in golf's history – along with 71 PGA Tour events, the third biggest haul of all time. That said Tiger has experienced more major and PGA Tour wins than any of his contemporaries still plying their sports trade, and amongst his many record-breaking achievements, he remains the youngest player to hold the grand slam of golf. That is the US Masters , US Open, The British Open and the USPGA at the same time, whilst also committed to the annals of the sport's hitherto rich and illustrious pantheons on the basis of Woods being both the youngest and fastest to win 50 professional tour events.
As well as being awarded the PGA Player of the Year a record nine times, Tiger Woods is also pretty much single-handedly credited with increasing the global appeal of golf like never before, and inspiring a new generation of young golfers to the sport. Again, with Woods' participation in televised golf tournaments assured as and when they're broadcast, equates to massive TV audiences being as good as guaranteed, thanks to his broad-ranging popularity.
Tiger's Fearsome Reputation Went Ahead Of Him When Still An Amateur Golfer
Being golf fans brought up on a steady diet of the then great and good of the game, Nick Faldo, Severiano Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam for example, it was towards the end of their competitive careers – whereby they sadly were no longer challenging for honours and fighting at the top of golf tournament leader-boards week in, week out – that rumours of this wonder-kid from across the pond started to emerge; and that us golfer here in the UK started to take notice. The golf world was buzzing with stories of this amateur phenomenon who had swept to prominence almost overnight in the States and was set to be unleashed on Europe next. The sort of hyperbolic whispers that were commonplace in the sensational arenas of football, motor racing and primary American sports perhaps, yet not in the genteel world of golf. Something was afoot, something new and exciting was around the corner.
Tiger Woods went around a nine hole golf course in just 48 strokes at the Navy Golf Club in Cypress, California, which doesn't sound that remarkable until you learn that he was three years of age at the time. Just two years later he appeared in the pages of Golf Digest and on ABS's 'That's Incredible' show. Then in 1984 he clinched the 9 – 10-year old boys event in the Junior World Golf Championships. Aged eight. A tournament he went on to win on a further five occasions, including four back-to-back victories between 1988 and 1991.
At 15 Tiger Woods became the youngest ever US Junior Amateur champion, and was voted the Golf Digest's Junior Amateur Player of the Year for 1991. the next year Woods took part in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los Angeles Open, and was named the Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World magazine's Player of the Year and GolfWeek's National Amateur of the Year for 1992. two years later he represented his country in the Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur golf Team Championships, and 12 months down the line was a member of the 1995 Walker Cup team.
Tiger Woods Won Amateur Golf's Silver Medal At 1996 British Open Golf Championship
Enrolling at ivy league-renown Stanford University, Tiger studied Economics whilst racking up significant collegiate golf tournaments and fats gaining a reputation for the game amongst his contemporaries. At 19 Woods competed in his first PGA Tour major event, the Masters Tournament, and tied for 41st place in the field; the sole amateur golfer to make the cut. In 1996 he became the first golfer to achieve three US Amateur titles on the bounce, bagged the NCAA individual golf championship and - a result that immediately sealed his arrival on the scene in the eyes of British golf fans – claimed the silver medal as leading amateur in The Open Golf Championship played at Royal Lytham St Annes. Aged 20, Woods equalled the aggregate record for an amateur in the Championship, posting a score of 281, just ten shots more than eventual winner and fellow American, Tom Lehman.
Tiger Woods declared his intention to turn professional barely a month after The Open in August 1996, and with immediate effect his image rights were snapped up by global sportswear giant, Nike in an endorsement package believed to be worth some million – which to this day he remains the face of Nike golf – whilst also banking a rumoured million from golf equipment manufacturer, Titleist. Woods' initial taste of professional golf came with the Greater Milwaukee Open, where he finished back in 60th place, yet proceeded to secure two golf tournament wins thereafter so as to qualify for the Tour Championship. In recognition of his recent progress in the realms of the professional game, modern sportsman's bible – Sports Illustrated – named Woods their 1996 Sportsman of the Year, whilst the Professional Golfers Association acknowledged his achievements by handing him their PGA Tour Rookie of the Year title. Incidentally it was around this time that Woods started a practice which has since become habitual, and a definite quirk of the great man, that being the wearing of a red shirt during final rounds of golf tournaments. He was said to favour this colour back in his college days and from a spiritual viewpoint (Woods is a Buddhist) sees the colour as a symbol of both assertiveness and aggression. Two overwhelming elements that characterise his approach and mentality to the game of golf.
Tiger Woods Won His First Major – 1997 US Masters – By Staggering 12 Shots Over Rivals
In 1997 Tiger Woods systematically began re-writing the modern golf history books, when at the age of 21 he not only won his first Major at the first time of asking, but did it in what can only be described as devastating style. Woods won the US Masters by an unprecedented 12 shots, shattering the tournament's four day scoring record that had previously stood for 32 years. At the same time Woods became the first African American to land the Masters, while he also set 20 new tournament records and tied 6 others. If there were still a few golf fans who hadn't heard the name Tiger Woods, then they were now under no illusions as to just who the new kid on the tee was, and would perhaps have an idea as to just what he could achieve in the game. He repeated his US Masters feat again in 2001, 2002 and 2005, and on each occasion chalking up aggregate scores of at least twelve shots under par. Later that summer – after securing a further three PGA Tour wins – Woods ascended to the position of officially, the world's number one golfer, in only his 42nd week as a professional player.
After his barn-storming introduction to professional golf life, Woods' red hot form dipped for the rest of 1997, and during the following year won only once on the PGA Tour, citing extensive alterations to his swing being the root cause of his lack of consistency after such a break-neck start. However any doubts as to his potential were short-lived as of June 1999, and in the dramatic aftermath of Tiger claiming the Memorial Tournament. An event that marked the beginning of what eventually became the greatest period of sustained dominance in men's golf to date. Winning his last four tournaments in that year – including the PGA Championship – he began 2000 with his fifth win on the trot, in a season that panned out to include bagging three consecutive majors, nine PGA Tour events and either break or equal 27 different golf records as a by-product of a whirlwind passing of time. Firstly he won the US Open Golf by a clear 15 shots from his nearest challenger, whilst becoming the Tour's all-time career money winner. He then went on to the British Open at St. Andrews where he won by eight strokes over his nearest rivals, before returning to America and winning the USPGA at Valhalla Golf Club after a play-off. Statistically-speaking, Tiger Woods finished in the top three places in 14 of the 20 golf tournaments he entered in 2000, and was acknowledged by Golf Digest as being the 12th best golfer the world has ever witnessed a little over four years since relinquishing his amateur status.
Woods Held All Four Golf Grand Slams At Same Time
Woods grabbed the 2001 US Masters in the April, ensuring that he became the first golfer of the modern era to possess all four majors at the same time, an achievement that has now been coined the 'Tiger Slam' by observers of the game. Five PGA Tour events that year – yet not a look-in at the other majors quite surprisingly – was still considered progress, and 12 months from his second Masters victory he chalked up his third (and first back-to-back) win, emulating what only Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo had done prior. During 2003-2004 he was dogged by a perceived slump in form, again he cited swing changes as the reason and promised that he'd return all the stronger. In 2005 Woods scooped both the US Masters and British Open to post his 9th and 10th majors respectively.
In 2006 his father and mentor, Earl passed away after battling cancer, prompting Tiger to take a nine-week break from golfing action to support his family. On his return he missed his first ever midway cut in a major, failing to qualify for the weekend's play in the 2006 US Open, with critics speculating as to whether he would be up for the job of defending his British Open title scheduled for the Royal Liverpool course at Hoylake that July. Playing like a man possessed, Woods showed a master class in golf at Hoylake to finish -18 and one off his best ever major championship best score, and paid an emotional tribute to his father on collecting the famous claret jug which he dedicated to him. A month on and Woods claimed the 2006 USPGA to add to his impressive trophy room.
Throughout 2007 Woods recorded a series of PGA Tour wins and accumulated even more prize money and either equalled or broke existing records associated with each individual tournament and event, yet didn't register another major win despite some aggressive displays. However taking into account his scoring averages per round during the course of the 12 months, Tiger Woods was going around the park from tee to green in regulation and 67.79 strokes, matching the tour record he set himself back in 2000.
Recurring Knee Injury Forced Tiger Woods To Lie Low In 2008
2008 was cut short by injury for Woods, despite starting the season on a roll by winning the Buick Invitational, Dubai Desert Classic, Accenture Matchplay Championship in the first quarter of the year and putting in a good performance at the US Masters where he finished runner-up on his own. However in April he underwent surgery on his troublesome left knee for the third time and subsequently missed two months of the PGA Tour whilst he convalesced. Woods returned in time for the US Open, yet clearly showed signs that he was still in an amount of pain from his repaired knee joint. In spite of this he went on to win the title with commentators noting that 'he beat everybody on one leg'. Although a couple of days later he announced that he was set to undergo anterior cruiciate ligament surgery on the same knee and would therefore miss the rest of the 2008 golf season as a consequence. Retrospectively it emerged that Tiger had been playing for 10 months with a torn ligament in that joint, and on top of that had picked up a double stress fracture during his most recent rehabilitation; moving him to declare that his latest US Open victory was – bearing in mind the information that had just surfaced – his greatest ever championship win, the best of the 14. tellingly the TV viewing figure slipped dramatically for the remainder of the season in Woods' absence compared to the year before.
2009 Sees Tiger Woods Return To World Golf's Number One Position
Returning from injury early in 2009, Tiger Woods notched up his first win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, followed by the Memorial Tournament. However his re-entry into the game was marred by his inability to make the half-way cut at the 2009 British Open at Turnberry, only the second time in his career to date that he's failed to stay the course in a major. Still, Woods started to recapture some of his previous form later in the year as he won the Buick Open, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, BMW Championship, FedEx Cup and playing some spectacular golf latterly in the Presidents Cup and JBWere Masters, all part of the recovery process that enabled him to claim back the world number one spot which he maintains as we write.
Away from the course, Tiger Woods has penned a golf instruction column for Golf Digest, written the best-selling 'How I Play Golf' and set-up his own golf course design company called Tiger Woods Design, and has already had much personal input in the Tiger Woods Dubai course, the Cliffs at High Carolina in the US and the Punta Brava in Mexico. Aside from the aforementioned lucrative sponsorship deals, Woods has contracts in place with American Express, Accenture, Buick, TAG Heuer, Gillette, Electronic Arts and Gatorade amongst others.