Cablinasian
For the showdog, see Tiger Woods (dog).
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. 1, he was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008, having earned an estimated $110 million from winnings and endorsements.
Woods has won fourteen professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player, and 71 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 ten times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine 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.
Since his record-breaking win at the 1997 Masters Tournament, golf's increased popularity is attributed to Woods' presence. He is credited for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new audiences as the first non-white person to win the Masters, and for drawing the largest TV audiences in golf history.
Background and family
Woods was born in Cypress, California to Earl (1932-2006) and Kultida (Tida) Woods (born 1944).
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, Chinese and Native American ancestry. This makes Woods himself half-asian (one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Thai), one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch. He refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian, and Asian).
At birth, Woods was given 'Eldrick' and 'Tont' as first and middle names.
His middle name, Tont, is a traditional Thai name. 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. 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. In January 2006, they purchased a $39 million residential property in Jupiter Island, Florida, which they intend to make their primary residence. 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 owned by Woods on the Jupiter Island estate was destroyed in a fire caused by lightning.
Early in the morning of June 18, 2007, Elin gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter, Sam Alexis Woods, in Orlando. The birth occurred just one day after Woods finished tied for second in the 2007 U.S. (EST) in his SUV, a 2009 Cadillac Escalade, when he collided with a hedge, a fire hydrant, and finally a tree down the street. The Florida Highway Patrol said that the crash was not alcohol-related, but conducted an investigation. Woods was taken to the hospital and treated for minor facial lacerations. He was later cited for careless driving.
The incident was accompanied by reports and speculation about marital difficulties between Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren.
Amid media speculation about the accident, Woods announced that he would not attend his own charity golf tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, or any other remaining tournaments in 2009. The accident fanned interest in a The National Enquirer story that the tabloid had published two days beforehand. The story claimed that Woods had an affair with nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel, a claim she denied. Woods may have alluded to the story in his statement about the accident, saying "the many false, unfounded, and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible".
Despite his statement, interest in the story grew until San Diego cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs publicly claimed, in gossip magazine Us Weekly, that she had a two and a half year affair with Woods, producing voice and text messages that she says Woods left her. According to Grubbs, she first met Woods on April 13, 2007 in Las Vegas, and soon began an affair that ended in October 2009. The same day there were reports that a Las Vegas nightclub promoter had also been seeing him, though she "neither confirmed nor denied an affair". Woods released an apology on the same day the stories were published, expressing regret for "transgressions" and saying "I have let my family down". Woods was not specific about the reason for the apology, but requested privacy.
Other
Woods has said he "believes in Buddhism," though with the clarification, "Not every aspect, but most of it."
When Woods came to Thailand for a tournament in 2000, Thai officials tried to bestow on him royal decorations, and even offered him Thai citizenship, based on his mother being Thai.
From left, Tiger Woods, Mike Douglas, Earl Woods and Bob Hope.
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.
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. He 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.
The following year, Woods won his third consecutive U.S.
Junior Amateur Championship, and remains the event's youngest-ever and only multiple winner. In 1994, he became the youngest ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, a record that stood until 2008 when it was broken by Danny Lee.
He was a member of the American team at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships and 1995 Walker Cup.
Woods enrolled at Stanford University in the fall of 1994, and won his first collegiate event, the 40th Annual William H. 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). 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. In winning the Silver Medal as leading amateur at The Open Championship, he tied the record for an amateur aggregate score of 281. He left college after two years and turned professional.
Professional career
Tiger Woods giving a driving demonstration aboard the USS George Washington.
1996–98: Early years and first major win
With the announcement "Hello world," Tiger Woods became a professional golfer in August 1996, and signed endorsement deals worth $40 million from Nike, Inc.
1. He was named PGA Player of the Year, the first golfer to win the award the year following his rookie season.
While expectations for Woods were high, his form faded in the second half of 1997, and in 1998 he only won one PGA Tour event. He went on to capture his sixth consecutive victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am with a comeback for the ages.
Trailing by seven strokes with seven holes to play, he finished eagle-birdie-par-birdie for a 64 and a two-stroke victory. Open records with his 15-shot win, including Old Tom Morris's record for the largest victory margin ever in a major championship, which had stood since 1862, and became the Tour's all-time career money leader.
He led by a record 10 strokes going into the final round, and Sports Illustrated called it "the greatest performance in golf history." In the 2000 Open Championship at St Andrews, which he won by eight strokes, he set the record for lowest score to par (−19) in any major tournament, and he holds at least a share of that record in all four major championships. Woods played the last twelve holes of regulation seven under par, and won a three-hole playoff with a birdie on the first hole and pars on the next two.
His adjusted scoring average of 67.79 and his actual scoring average of 68.17 were the lowest in PGA Tour history, besting his own record of 68.43 in 1999 and Byron Nelson's average of 68.33 in 1945. He was named the 2000 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, becoming the first and only athlete to be honored twice. Woods was ranked as the twelfth best golfer of all time by Golf Digest magazine just four years after he turned professional.
The following season, Woods continued dominating.
His 2001 Masters Tournament win marked the only time within the era of the modern Grand Slam that any player has been the holder of all four major championship titles at the same time, a feat now known as the "Tiger Slam." It is not viewed as a true Grand Slam, however, because it was not achieved in a calendar year. Open, and resurrected buzz about the calendar Grand Slam, which had eluded him in 2000. All eyes were on Woods at the Open Championship, but his third round score of 81 ended Grand Slam hopes. At the PGA Championship, he nearly repeated his 2000 feat of winning three majors in one year, but bogeys at the thirteenth and fourteenth holes in the final round cost him the championship by one stroke. Nonetheless, he took home the money title, Vardon Trophy, and Player of the Year honors for the fourth year in a row.
2003–04: Swing adjustments
Woods putting at Torrey Pines during a practice round at the 108th U.S.
Open
The next phase of Woods's career saw him remain among the top competitors on the tour, but lose his dominating edge. He did not win a major in 2003 or 2004, falling to second in the PGA Tour money list in 2003 and fourth in 2004.
In September 2004, his record streak of 264 consecutive weeks as the world's top-ranked golfer came to an end at the Deutsche Bank Championship, when Vijay Singh won and overtook Woods in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Many commentators were puzzled by Woods's "slump," offering explanations that ranged from his rift with swing coach Butch Harmon to his marriage. He won the Buick Invitational in January and in March he outplayed Phil Mickelson to win the Ford Championship at Doral and temporarily return to the Official World Golf Rankings number one position (Singh displaced him once again two weeks later). In April, he finally broke his "drought" in the majors by winning the 2005 Masters Tournament in a playoff, which regained him the number one spot in the World Rankings.
He finished the tournament at 18-under-par, equaling the to-par record in the PGA that he shares with Bob May from 2000. In August 2006, he won his 50th professional tournament at the Buick Open—and at the age of thirty years and seven months, he became the youngest golfer to do so. He ended the year by winning six consecutive PGA Tour events, and won the three most prestigious awards given by the PGA Tour (Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Byron Nelson Awards) in the same year for a record seventh time.
At the close of his first eleven seasons, Woods's 54 wins and 12 major wins had surpassed the all time eleven-season PGA Tour total win record of 51 (set by Byron Nelson) and total majors record of 11 (set by Jack Nicklaus). He was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for a record-tying fourth time.
Woods and tennis star Roger Federer, who share a major sponsor, first met at the 2006 U.S.
Since then, they have attended each other's events and have voiced their mutual appreciation for each other's talents.
Woods began 2007 with a two-stroke victory at the Buick Invitational for his third straight win at the event and his seventh consecutive win on the PGA Tour. The victory marked the fifth time he had won his first tournament of the season. He earned his second victory of the year at the WGC-CA Championship for his third consecutive and sixth win overall at the event.
With this victory, he became the first player to have three consecutive victories in five different events.
At the 2007 Masters Tournament, Woods was in the final group on the last day of a major for the thirteenth time in his career, but unlike the previous twelve occasions, he was unable to come away with the win. He finished tied for second two strokes behind winner Zach Johnson.
Tiger woods drives in 2007.
Woods earned his third victory of the season by two strokes at the Wachovia Championship, the 24th different PGA Tour tournament he won. He has collected at least three wins in a season nine times in his 12-year career.
The Masters, for example, did not institute a 36-hole cut until 1957 (which was well after Nelson retired), the PGA Championship was match play until 1958 and it is unclear whether or not three other events in which Nelson competed had 36-hole cuts. Therefore, these analysts remove "no 36-hole cut" events from both cut streak measures, leaving Nelson's consecutive cuts made at 103 (or possibly less) and Woods's at 111.
In the tournaments in which Nelson competed that did not have 36-hole cuts (that is: the Masters, PGA Championship and the possible 3 other tournaments), only the top 20 players received a paycheck even though all players in these events were guaranteed to compete past 36 holes. Hence, in these no-cut events, Nelson still placed in the top 20, so Nelson's 113 cuts made are reflective of his 113 top 20 finishes. Sportswriter Bill Lyon of Knight-Ridder asked in a column, "Isn't Tiger Woods actually bad for golf?" (though Lyon ultimately concluded that he was not). At first, some pundits feared that Woods would drive the spirit of competition out of the game of golf by making existing courses obsolete and relegating opponents to simply competing for second place each week.
A related effect was measured by economist Jennifer Brown of the University of California, Berkeley who found that other golfers played worse when competing against Woods than when he was not in the tournament.
"The $54m Tiger den - but not all neighbours welcome world's best". http:web.archive.org/web/20070429145830/http:www.imgspeakers.com/speakers/tiger_woods.aspx.
http:query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E4DA1E30F933A25757C0A9609C8B63. http:www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/28/SPENUNDV8.DTL.
http:sports.espn.go.com/golf/usopen08/columns/story?columnist=sobel_jason&page=usopenblog4. http:www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMS2i96B-M0-A8_dxYm3pXAexzagD9B96CDO5.