Tiger Woods: biography

Tiger Woods is an American golfer whose achievements so far rank him as one of the most successful golfers ever. Currently coming back from a lay off from golf due to personal reasons, Tiger is now looking to gain back his world number 1 status.

Beginnings

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods was born in Cypress, California on 30 December 1975 to African American and Thai parents. Tiger was a nickname given to him by his father Earl who named him after a Vietnamese soldier friend. He was introduced to golf before he turned two and at 3 years old shot a 48 on the back 9 on the Cypress Navy golf course. In 1984 at 9 years old he entered and won the Junior World Golf Championships in the youngest age group and went on to win the same competition 6 times in different age categories. While at Western High School at 15 he became the youngest winner of the US Amateur Championship, a title he won two more times. After a successful college career at Stanford University Tiger eventually joined the ranks of the professional golfers in 1996.

Career

In 1996 Tiger entered the world of professional golf and immediately signed sponsorship deals with Nike and Titleist netting him $60 million dollars. His first competition was played at the Greater Milwaukee Open where he tied for 60th. In the following 3 months he won two events which qualified him for the Tour Championship. In 1997 Tiger entered his first major as a professional at the Masters in Augusta. He went on to win with a record score of 18 under par beating his closest rival by 12 shots. That same year he won a further 3 PGA tour events and in less than a year (42 weeks) as a professional rose to the number 1 spot in the world rankings. In 1998 he had a quiet season but then continued where he had left off in 1997 a year later in winning the PGA Championship. Since then he has gone onto win a further 3 PGA's, 3 Masters, 3 US Opens and 3 British Open Championships. In 2008 Woods won the US Open battling through injury and proceeded to have surgery on a knee problem just two days later which kept him out of golf for the rest of the season. In 2010 he had a turbulent season as infidelities came to light and his marriage broke down. He took time out for several months but has since returned.

Achievements

71 PGA Tour Wins
38 European Tour Wins
14 Major Wins
2 Japan Wins
1 Asian Win
1 PGA Tour of Australasia Win