Woods, Tiger

Personal data:
NAME:	Eldrick "Tiger" Woods
DATE OF BIRTH:	December 30, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH:	Cypress, California
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:	American professional golfer One of the two highest paid athletes in the world Multiple record holder
NATIONALITY:	United States
PRO SINCE:	1996

Origin

Eldrick Woods was born in Cypress, California and grew up in Los Angeles.
His father, Earl Woods, was a former African American lieutenant colonel in the United States Army but was by then retired.
His ancestors were of Chinese and Native American origin.
Earl Woods served as Chairman of the Tiger Woods Foundation until his death on May 3, 2006.
Kutilda Woods, his mother originally came from Thailand but can also have Chinese and Dutch ancestors.

Precisely because of this diverse background, the non-white younger Americans in particular prefer Tiger Woods and show great interest and sympathy for him and the sport of golf.
He got his nickname before his fame, after his father`s friend who fought with him in Vietnam, Vuong Dang Phong.
Nowadays, Eldrick Woods is only known by his nickname, which is also very practical, since in golf a good player is always called Tiger.
Tiger Woods attended Western High in Anaheim before he began his career as a professional gold medalist, and then did two years of business administration at Stanford University.


Sporting Career

Amateur Career

His talent was discovered at an early age and Tiger Woods received golf lessons at kindergarten age.
Shortly thereafter he was able to complete a 9-hole round in 48 strokes and later at the age of 13 he completed an 18-hole round in just 69 strokes.
He won his first tournaments at the age of 8, his most notable being the Junior World Golf Championship which in 1984 was their youngest age group between 9-10 year olds.

He also won this tournament six more times, four times in a row between 1988 and 1991.
The U.S. Tiger Woods won junior amateur titles 3 times, in 1991, 1992 and 1993.
As a result, he managed to be the only and youngest multiple winner to this day.

Over the next three years, he again made a name for himself with a new series unmatched by anyone before him, winning the U.S. Men`s amateur title.
Again, Tiger Woods is one of the youngest players and winners of all time.
In 1994 he won the NCAA title when he competed there for Stanford University. Shortly thereafter, he decides to turn pro.


professional career

Tiger Woods begins his professional career in August 1996.
In the same year he manages to win two tournaments on the PGA TOUR and is therefore voted Sportsman of the Year in the USA.

He won his first major tournament, the US Masters, in April 1997 by a margin of 12 shots.
Just one month later he is already listed as number 1 in the world rankings.

However, the second half of the year didn`t go too well for him, his form was not at its best and he only won one tournament the following year.
That`s why he worked hard on his swing with famed trainer Butcher Harmon.

In 1999, however, he made his comeback, and in June he started an unprecedented winning streak in golf with his first win at the Memorial Tournament.
He won a total of 17 tournaments on the PGA Tour over the next two years and 32 more over the next five years.
He was also number 1 in the world rankings for 264 consecutive weeks and won seven of 11 major tournaments.
The year 2001 marks the only moment in the history of golf and the Grand Slam when Tiger Woods won the Masters to become the first golfer to hold all four major titles at the same time.

After this winning streak, he slumped again in 2003 and 2004, but was still one of the world`s most successful golfers, albeit without his earlier dominance in the game.
His position in the world rankings began to falter, he failed to win a single Major and at times lost his top spot to rival Vijay Singh. Of course, people were very surprised about this and the journalists made one attempt at an explanation after the other. One vacillated between inferior equipment, since he was one of the last to exchange his racquets for a graphite shaft and big-head driver, and his private life, which was changing more and more.
In reality, he was practicing his swing again, but this time with trainer Hank Haney. This all happened in secret at first, since his new momentum was also intended to relieve his knee, which had already been operated on before.

Tiger Woods made his second comeback in 2005 and started off by winning two more major tournaments with the Master and the Open Championship.
He took over the leadership of the world and money rankings of the PGA Tour again. His colleagues also noticed the change and voted Tiger Woods "Player of the Year" on the PGA Tour for the seventh time in nine years.

In 2006 he took a longer break due to the death of his father.
However, he failed for the first time at the US Open, and thus for the second time at the cut of a major tournament.

Unsurprisingly, however, Tiger Woods won the two major tournaments, the PGA Championship and Open Championship, as usual.
The comeback was perfect as he claimed his 50th US PGA Tour win and even surpassed his personal record set in 1999/2000 with his sixth consecutive PGA Tour win.
Only Ben Hogen in 1948 had posted such a winning streak within one season.
Coincidentally, it was also the twelfth victory at the World Golf Championship, which has the same degree of importance as a major tournament.
Tiger Woods won well over half with 23 won WGC tournaments.

The Ryders Cup didn`t go so well, however, and Woods suffered a heavy defeat against Europe, just like in 2004.

He decided towards the end of October to retire from the season early due to lack of fitness and thus missed out on the highly regarded The Tour Championship for the first time.
Nevertheless, he insisted on taking part in the HSBC Championship in Shanhai, which was also part of the 2007 European PGA Tour, and was happy about a 2nd place at the end of the tournament.

At the end of the year, Tiger Woods announced the formation of his company, Tiger Woods Design, which would design and plan future golf courses.

In late November 2006, he won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf for the seventh time and was named AP`s Sportsman of the Year for the fourth time.

In 2007, Tiger Woods was still going strong, winning his seventh straight US PGA tournament.
This record surpassed Byron Nelson`s 11 consecutive wins in 1945.
However, his winning streak ended in defeat in the round of 16 of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
Even at the Masters he could only get a shared 2nd place.


Major Tournament Wins

The Masters 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005

US Open 2000 and 2002

The Open Championship 2000, 2005 and 2006

PGA Championship 1999, 2000 and 2006