Tiger Woods Biography

BIRTH: December 30, 1975, Cypress, California, U.S.

Tiger Woods Biography : The Greatest Golfer In The World

Tiger Woods is an American professional golfer and one of the highest-paid athletes in the world. He was the first and youngest African American to win the U.S. Masters in 1997.

Tiger Woods, also known as Eldrick Tont Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California to Earl Woods and Kultida. His father started calling Eldrick “Tiger” in honor of a fellow soldier. Tiger was inclined towards golf from a very young age. He started playing when he was only two years old.

When Woods was four, his parents hired a coach for him. At the age of six, he began to participate in junior contests. Tiger won the Under-10 competition at the Navy Golf Course, Cypress. From 1988 to 1991 he took part in many Junior World Golf Championships. Woods won the tournament six times. In 1991, at the age of fifteen, Woods became the youngest champion of the U.S. Junior Amateur championship.

Woods started his professional career in 1996. He immediately signed advertising deals with Nike and Titleist due to his booming success during his college days. In 1997, he made history by winning his first major competition, the Masters Tournament. He became the tournament’s youngest-ever winner at the age of 21. In just two months he was the number one player in the world. This was the fastest any golfer had reached that spot in their career. In 1999, he won the PGA Championship. In the following years he was either winning or finishing in the top ten positions of every match he participated in.

In the year 2000, at the age of 24, Woods won four major golf tournaments; the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, the British Open and British Amateur. He started the new millennium at the top of his career. He achieved six back-to-back wins, the longest winning streak since 1948. Woods became the youngest athlete to achieve the Career Grand Slam. He had won nine PGA tournaments by now. In 2001, Woods won the Masters Tournament. He was the first player to win all four major professional titles at the same time.

The 2003-2004 season was not a great one for Woods’ career. He didn’t win any major games in these two years and thus lost his number one ranking. In 2005, Woods returned to his form. He won two majors and rose to the top of the rankings. The next two years, Woods continued his streak and closed the 2006 season with 54 wins, including the PGA Championship and the British Open.

In 2008, Woods suffered from episodic pain in his left knee due to an arthroscopic surgery from earlier that year. Woods had to take a short break from golfing and missed the rest of the PGA tour season. He returned to the game in 2009 but the season didn’t pan out as planned. He didn’t win a single major event, even losing the PGA title, although he did remain at the number one spot in the world rankings. The year also brought some personal misfortune for Woods. He was involved in a car accident one early morning in November which led to the revelation of his multiple extra-marital affairs. Following this event, many sponsors canceled his contracts, and his ranking naturally dropped.

Woods took an indefinite leave from golfing to spend more time with his family. He made his comeback in 2010 but it was a disappointing season with no tournament wins. The 2012 season was much better for him. He won two tournaments, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament. In 2013, he won the Farmers Insurance Open and WGC Cadillac Championship. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the eighth time and shot to the top of the world rankings.

In 2014, Woods started to experience incessant back pain. He underwent back surgery and struggled well into 2016 to return to the game, missing the entire season. He made a comeback in 2017 that didn’t last long due to another back surgery. He finally won a Tour Championship in September 2018, his first victory in five years.

Woods rose to extraordinary heights with his sheer dedication and hard work. He has been recognized as the “greatest closer in history” with 79 official PGA Tour events victories. He was the youngest among the few players to have won all four professional major championships. He is also the only one to complete the Career Grand Slam in a row. Woods was inducted to the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento in 2007. The Associated Press described him as “Athlete of the Decade” in 2009.

Woods married Elin Nordegren in 2004, with whom he has two children. However, the couple got divorced in 2010.