Biography of TIger Woods.

Biography:

Eldrick Woods, also known as “Tiger Woods” was born on the 30th of December,1975. He happens to be a professional golfer from America whose achievements until today place him amongst the most successful athletes of all times. He is currently the world’s best golfer and is also considered as one of the highest earning sportsman of the world. His estimated worth, which includes his endorsements and winnings come up to $100 million. According to the Golf Digest, Woods is on his way on becoming the world’s first billionaire athlete by the year 2010.

Early Days

Eldrick Woods was born in Cypress, California. His father’s name was Earl Woods and mother was Kutilda Woods. His mother was from the Thai origin and his dad was a retired US army lieutenant colonel. He often calls himself as an ethnic make up of the Caucasian, Black, American-Indian and Asian origins. Woods is a thorough Buddhist. He has confirmed that his faith in Buddhism was acquired from his late mother and also that it helps him control rigidity and anxiety.

A Vietnamese soldier friend of his father was the first one to give him the name “Tiger”. Thereafter, Woods usually was referred by that name and by the time he won the national popularity in amateur golf was simply called “Tiger Woods”. On his 21st birthday, he officially changed his name from Eldrick Woods to “Tiger Woods”. He grew up in Orange City, California and attended the high school at Western High in Anaheim.

Personal Life

Woods was engaged to a Swedish model called “Elin Nordegren” in November, 2003. They were formerly introduced by the Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik. Elin was working as a nanny for Jesper Parnevik, prior to meeting Tiger Woods during an Open Championship in 2001. On October 5th, 2004, they got married at the Sandy Lane resort on the Caribbean island of Barbados. They currently reside at the Isleworth, a community in Windermere also in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida. Besides, they also possess homes in Jackson, California, Sweden and Wyoming. In January 2006, the couple purchased a $39 million property in Jupiter Island, Florida. They intend to make this as their permanent residence. This island also has homes of famous golf stars Gary Player, Greg Norman and Nick Price. Celebrities like Celine Dion and Alan Jackson also reside here.

In June, 2007, Elin gave birth to their first biological child, a daughter named Sam Alexis Woods, in Orlando, Florida. Ironically, the birth happened on the day after Woods tied second in the 2007 US Open Championship. Tiger personally named his daughter because of his late father who thought he looked like Sam.

Amateur Career

Eldrick Woods was a child prodigy who started playing golf at the age of 2. Hence in the year 1978, he starred in the famous Mike Douglas show against the comedian Bob Hope. At a very young age of 3 years, Woods shot a 48 over 9 holes at the Navy Club in his hometown Cypress, California. After that at the age of 5 he appeared in the Golf Digest and in the ABC’s “That’s Incredible”. In 1984, he made his first appearance at the Junior World Golf Championships. He played this tournament six times which include his four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991. At the age of 15, he became he became the youngest ever US 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 while he was still at the Western High School in Anaheim.

Professional Career

Tiger Woods became the professional golf sportsman in the year 1996 and thereafter signed several endorsements from Nike to Titleist. He was on his way to making millions out of these endorsements and also collecting the winnings. He played his first round of professional golf tying for 60th place, but went on to win the other two events in the next three months to be selected for the Tour Championship. For his efforts, Tiger Woods was pronounced the Sports Illustrated 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Rookie of the Year. It was then that he began his well-known tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments, which is a link to his college days at Stanford and a color he firmly believes symbolizes aggression and assertiveness.

During the same time next year, Tiger Woods won his first golf major. He became the youngest Masters winner by a record margin of 12 strokes. He happened to be one the first winners of the Masters from an African-American or Asian-American descent. There a total of 20 Masters records on his name and he has tied six of them. He also won another PGA tour during the same time that year. In June, close to 42 weeks of him playing professional golf, he rose from the 42nd rank to the World’s number one spot. This is one of the fastest ascents to the World’s number one ranking. Thus, due to all this he was named the PGA player of the year and by far the first golfer to win that award.

Rough Patches

It is pretty obvious that the expectations from such a player is always going to be high, however, Woods seemed to lose his form in the year 1997. This form gave him only one win in the PGA tour. The critics slammed him with their comments but his fine strokes in the very famous Memorial tournament were an answer to them. Woods, along with his coach Butch Harmon assured that they were working and hoping to do better in the future. In 1999, Memorial tournament happened and it marked the beginning of his dominance in the golfing world. In 1999, he won the PGA tour event and also finished the season successfully with eight wins. This was a feat which was never achieved in the past 25 century.

Thence, he was then awarded the prestigious PGA Tour player of the Year award and also received the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the second time in the span of 3 years.