Career

Woods was a child prodigy who began to play golf at the age of two. In 1978, he 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 Golf Club in Cypress, California, and at age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC's That's Incredible.[19] 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.[20] He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991.[21][22][23][24][25]

While attending Western High School in Anaheim at the age of 15, Woods became the youngest ever U.S. Junior Amateur Champion, was voted Southern California Amateur Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, and Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year 1991.[26] He successfully defended his title at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, becoming the first multiple winner, competed in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los Angeles Open and was named Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World Player of the Year and Golfweek National Amateur of the Year in 1992.[27][28]

The following year, Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, and remains the event's youngest-ever and only multiple winner.[29] In 1994, he became the youngest ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship. He was a member of the American team at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships and 1995 Walker Cup.[30][31] Later that year, he enrolled at Stanford University, and won his first collegiate event, the William Tucker Invitational. He declared a major in Economics and was nicknamed "Urkel" by his college teammates.[32] In 1995, he defended his U.S. Amateur title, and was voted Pac-10 Player of the Year, NCAA First Team All-American, and Stanford's Male Freshman of the Year (an award that encompasses all sports).[33][34] He participated in his first PGA Tour major, the Masters Tournament, and tied for 41st as the only amateur to make the cut. At age 20 in 1996, he became the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles and won the NCAA individual golf championship.[35] In winning the Silver Medal as leading amateur at The Open Championship, he tied the record for an amateur aggregate score of 281.[36] He left college after two years and turned professional.

Marriage

In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model. They were introduced during The Open Championship in 2001 by Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as an au pair. They married on October 5, 2004 at the Sandy Lane resort on the Caribbean island of Barbados and live at Isleworth, a community in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, Florida. They also have homes in Jackson, Wyoming, California, and Sweden. In January 2006, they purchased a $39 million residential property in Jupiter Island, Florida, which they intend to make their primary residence.^[13] Their Jupiter Island neighbors will include fellow golfers Gary Player, Greg Norman and Nick Price, as well as singers Celine Dion and Alan Jackson. In 2007, a guest house on the Jupiter Island estate was destroyed in a fire caused by lightning.^[14]

Early in the morning of June 18, 2007, Elin gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, Sam Alexis Woods, in Orlando.^[15] The birth occurred just one day after Woods finished tied for second in the 2007 U.S. Open.^[16] Tiger chose to name his daughter Sam because his father said that Tiger looked more like a Sam.

Background and family

Eldrick Tont Woods was born on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California to Earl (1932-2006) and Kultida Woods. He is the only child of their marriage but has two half-brothers, Earl Jr. (born 1955) and Kevin (born 1957), and one half-sister, Royce (born 1958) from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife, Barbara Woods Gray. Earl, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War veteran, was of mixed African American (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent) and Native American (25 percent) ancestry. Kultida (nee Punsawad), originally from Thailand, is of mixed Thai (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent), and Dutch (25 percent) ancestry. This makes Woods himself one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai, one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch.^[9] He refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a portmanteau term he coined from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian, and Asian).^[10]

Woods is a Buddhist. He has said that his faith was acquired from his mother and that it helps control both his stubbornness and impatience.^[11]

At birth, Woods was given "Eldrick" and "Tont" as first and middle names, respectively. His middle name, Tont, is a traditional Thai name.^[12] He got his nickname from a Vietnamese soldier friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong, to whom his father had also given the "Tiger" nickname. Woods became generally known by that name and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior and amateur golf, he was simply known as "Tiger" Woods. Woods grew up in Orange County, California and graduated from Western High School in Anaheim in 1994.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods (born Eldrick Tont Woods,^[1][2][3] December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2007, having earned an estimated $122 million from winnings and endorsements. According to Golf Digest, Woods made $769,440,709 from 1996 to 2007,^[4] and the magazine predicts that by 2010, Woods will become the world's first athlete to pass one billion dollars in earnings.^[5]

Woods has won fourteen professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player, and 65 PGA Tour events, third all time. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour.

Woods has held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record nine times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has tied Jack Nicklaus' record of leading the money list in eight different seasons. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, and is the only person to be named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Woods, who is multiracial, is credited with prompting a major surge of interest in the game of golf. He dramatically increased attendance and TV ratings and generated interest among a multicultural audience in a game that used to be considered insular and elitist.^[6][7]

After winning the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods is sitting out the rest of the 2008 PGA Tour, missing two major championships and the 2008 Ryder Cup, in order to concentrate on the rehabilitation of his injured left knee.