Tiger Woods Biography

On December 30th, 1975, Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods was born in the Orange County, California town of Cypress. He was born to an African American, Chinese, and Native American Army officer father named Earl and his Taiwanese, Chinese, and Dutch mother, Kultida (Tida) Woods. He was given the nick name Tiger by his father after an old Army buddy.

Introduction to Golf

His golf career began at the early age of 2, when his father introduced him to the sport. His father would be Tiger's mentor and teacher of his craft throughout most of his life. Through tireless practice, Tiger became a young protege by the age of 3, appearing on the Michael Douglas Show, putting against Bob Hope. Soon after, still at the age of 3, at the Navy Golf Club in Cypress, Tiger shot a 48 through 9 holes. From there, it was nothing but stardom.

Tiger would go on to win the Junior World Golf Championship at the age of eight, in the 9-10 age group. He would win the event six times in total before becoming the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Champion ever at the age of 15.

His amateur awards also included:

• Two time Southern California Amateur player of the year
• 1991's Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year
• 1992's Golf Digest Amateur Player of the year, Golf World player of the year, and Golfweek National Amateur of the year.

In 1993, he won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and still hold the record for the youngest winner ever and only multiple winner ever. A year later, he became the youngest ever to win the U.S. Amateur Championship.

In 1994, while in his Freshman year at Stanford University, Tiger won his first collegiate event, the William H. Tucker invitational. One year later, he defended his U.S. Amateur Champion title, voted a First team All-American and the Pac-10 Player of the year. After two years of college, he dropped out and turned pro.

Professional Career

• 1996: Turned pro in August and signed a $40 million endorsement deal with Nike and a $20 million deal with Titleist (golf balls and equipment). Finished 60th in his first event but won two events to qualify for the the Tour Championship. This led to the title of PGA Tour Rookie of the year and Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year awards.
• 1997: Became the youngest ever to win the Masters and the first African American to do so as well while setting 20 Masters records. Won another three PGA Tour events and rose to number one in the Official World Golf Rankings on June 15th.
• 1998: The second half of 1997 brought on a bit of a slump for Tiger which continued into 1998, where he only won one PGA Tour event.
• 1999: Won 8 events in the season, the first time that had been done in 25 years.  Voted PGA Tour player of the year and the Associated Press Male Athlete of the year.  This year began his 4 year run of dominance.
• 2000:  3, 9, 9, 27.  That is three consecutive major wins, nine PGA tour events, nine U.S. Open records broken or tied, and set or tied 27 Tour records.  He also became the second man ever to win the Triple Crown of Golf by winning the US Open, the British Open, and the Canadian Open.  PGA Tour Player of the year.
  
• 2001:  Won the Masters, again, and was the holder of all four major titles at one time, a never accomplished feat.  Finished the season with five wins.  PGA Tour Player of the year award.
  
• 2002:  Won his second consecutive Masters, only accomplished by two other men in history.  Flirted again with the Grand Slam of Golf but his misstep in the third round of the Open Championship ended those hopes.  PGA Tour Player of the year (fourth consecutive).
• 2003-2004:  A slump ensued that cost Tiger's record of 264 weeks straight as the world's number one golfer.  He did not win a single major in these two years and many questioned his form in his stroke.  Married his wife, Elin Nordegren on October 5th.
  
• 2005:  Returned to form to win the Buick Invitational and return to the rank of number one golfer in the world.  Two weeks later, he was replaced by Vijay Singh.  He would regain that title in April with another win at the Masters.  He would cement his rank as top golfer in the world with a win at the U.S. Open.  Finished the season with six wins.
• 2006:  Shortly after being defeated in the Masters, Tiger's father, Earl, passed away due to prostate cancer on May 3, 2006.  He missed nine weeks to be with family and returned very rusty, missing the cut at Winged Foot for the first time in 39 consecutive tries. Dedicated his Open Championship dominance in his father's memory.  Went on to win the PGA Championship and the Buick Open in dominating fashion, clearly returning to the Tiger of 1999-2002.
• 2007:  Won the Buick Invitational, finished tied for second in the Masters, and went on to win the Wachovia Championship for his 24th career PGA Tour Tournament won.  He finished the season with an adjusted score of 67.79, which matched his own record he set.  Elin gave birth to their first child, Sam Alexis Woods, on June 18th.
  
• 2008:  Won the U.S. Open on June 16 despite playing through the pain in his knee from arthroscopic surgery performed on April 15.  Two days after winning the event, Tiger decided to undergo ACL surgery and miss the remainder of the season.  Announced in September that he and his wife were expecting their second child.
  
• 2009:  After an 8 month stint on the disabled list, Wood's participated in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, only to lose to Tim Clark.  Went on to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his first win of the season.  On August 3rd, Woods won the Buick Open for the fourth victory of the year.
  

There is no doubt that when all is said and done, Tiger Woods will go down as the greatest golfer ever to play the sport.  His impact has reached to all parts of the world and he has been rightly compensated from his performances.  He is expected to become the second athlete to reach the $1 billion earnings mark in 2010.