Endorsed by
Nike (just like Michael Jordan) and one of the greatest golfers
the sport and world has ever seen, Tiger Woods has achieved
what many golfers haven't achieved in their lifetime, and
he is only 25 years old!
Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, has
had an unprecedented career since becoming a professional
golfer in the late summer of 1996. He has won 37 tournaments,
28 of those on the PGA TOUR, including the 1997 and 2001 Masters
Tournaments, 1999 and 2000 PGA Championships, 2000 U.S. Open
Championship, and 2000 British Open Championship. With his
second Masters victory in 2001, Tiger became the first ever
to hold all four professional major championships at the same
time. He is the career victories leader among active players
on the PGA TOUR, and is the career money list leader.
Woods won 11 tournaments in
2000, nine on the PGA TOUR, one on the PGA European Tour and
the PGA Grand Slam. In addition, Woods and David Duval won
the World Cup team title for the United States. He earned
$9,188,321 on the PGA TOUR ($11,034,530 worldwide) and broke
the PGA TOUR record of $6,616,585 which he set in 1999.
Tiger increased his record
total on the PGA TOUR career money list to $20,503,450 through
2000, and had won $25,024,412 worldwide.
His nine PGA TOUR victories
in 2000 equaled the fifth highest total ever and were the
most since Sam Snead won 11 in 1950. He had eight PGA TOUR
victories in 1999, and 11 victories worldwide while winning
$7,681,625.
In 2000, Woods matched the
record of Ben Hogan in 1953 in winning three professional
major championships in the same year. Hogan won the Masters,
U.S. Open and British Open. Tiger also became the first since
Denny Shute in 1936-37 to win the PGA Championship in consecutive
years.
In winning the British Open,
Woods became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam
of professional major championships and only the fifth ever
to do so, following Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Jack
Nicklaus. Tiger also was the youngest Masters champion ever,
at the age of 21 years, three months and 14 days, and was
the first major championship winner of African or Asian heritage.
Woods holds or shares the
record for the low score in relation to par in each of the
four major championships. His records are 270 (18 under par)
in the Masters, 272 (12 under par) in the U.S. Open, 269 (19
under par) in the British Open, and he shares the record of
270 (18 under par) with Bob May in the 2000 PGA Championship,
which Tiger won by one stroke in a three-hole playoff.
The U.S. Open and Masters
victories came by record margins, 15 strokes and 12 strokes
respectively, and the U.S. Open triumph swept aside the 13-stroke
major championship standard which had stood for 138 years,
established by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 British Open. The
record margin for the U.S. Open had been 11 strokes by Willie
Smith in 1899. In the Masters, Woods broke the record margin
of nine strokes set by Nicklaus in 1965. Tiger won the British
Open by eight strokes, the largest margin since J. H. Taylor
in 1913.
The best previous start on
the PGA TOUR was by Horton Smith, who had eight PGA TOUR victories
in 1929 at age 21 and 15 career victories in 1931 at age 23.
By winning eight PGA TOUR titles and 11 overall in 1999, Woods
had posted career totals of 15 PGA TOUR victories and 21 overall
at age 23. The comparable figures for Nicklaus, through age
24 in 1964, were 12 PGA TOUR victories and 17 overall. Nicklaus
had been a professional golfer for three years, one year less
than Tiger.
Woods' five professional major
championships and three U.S. Amateur titles bring his total
to eight major championships through age 24, three more than
Nicklaus at that age. Nicklaus had three professional major
victories and two U.S. Amateur titles.
Woods compiled one of the
most impressive amateur records in golf history, winning six
USGA national championships, plus the NCAA title, before turning
professional on August 27, 1996. He concluded his amateur
career by winning an unprecedented third consecutive U.S.
Amateur title, finishing with a record 18 consecutive match-play
victories.
An achievement which ranks
with any of his professional records, Woods won the U.S. Junior
Amateur three times and was the first to win that title more
than once. He was the youngest ever to win the U.S. Junior
Amateur (age 15 in 1991) and the youngest ever to win the
U.S. Amateur (age 18 in 1994). With his U.S. Open victory,
Tiger became the first ever to hold that title along with
the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur titles.
He is the son of Earl Woods,
a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and his wife,
Kultida, a native of Thailand. He was nicknamed Tiger after
a Vietnamese soldier and friend of his father, Vuong Dang
Phong, to whom his father had also given that nickname.
Born on December 30, 1975,
Woods grew up in Cypress, California, 35 miles southeast of
Los Angeles. He was not out of the crib before he took an
interest in golf, at age 6 months, watching as his father
hit golf balls into a net and imitating his swing. He appeared
on the Mike Douglas Show at age 2, putting with Bob Hope.
He shot 48 for nine holes at age 3 and was featured in Golf
Digest at age 5. He won the Optimist International Junior
tournament six times at ages 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15.
Tiger played in his first
professional tournament in 1992, at age 16, the Nissan Los
Angeles Open and in three more PGA TOUR events in 1993. He
made the 36-hole cut and tied for 34th place in the 1994 Johnnie
Walker Asian Classic in Thailand, and had three additional
PGA TOUR appearances. He entered Stanford University in 1994
and in two years he won 10 collegiate events, concluding with
the NCAA title. His other amateur victories included the 1994
Western Amateur. He represented the United States in the 1994
World Amateur Team Championships in France and the 1995 Walker
Cup Match in Wales.
He played his first major
championships in 1995, making the 36-hole cuts in the Masters
and the British Open, but had to withdraw from the U.S. Open
because of an injured wrist. Tiger also made the cuts in the
Motorola Western Open and Scottish Open. He played in three
more major championships in 1996, making the cuts in two.
After missing the cut in the Masters, he led the U.S. Open
after 13 holes of the first round before finishing tied for
82nd place. Tiger posted a 281 total to tie the record for
an amateur in the British Open, and his 66 in the second round
equaled the lowest ever by an amateur. He tied for 22nd place.
Among the honors received
as an amateur, Woods was Golf Digest Player of the Year in
1991 and 1992, Golf World Player of the Year in 1992 and 1993,
Golfweek National Amateur of the Year in 1992, Golf World
Man of the Year in 1994, and he was chosen for the Fred Haskins
and Jack Nicklaus College Player of the Year awards in 1996.
The week after winning his
third U.S. Amateur title, Woods played his first tournament
as a professional in the Greater Milwaukee Open. It was one
of only seven events left in 1996 for him to finish among
the top 125 money winners and earn a player's card for the
PGA TOUR.
The result was an achievement
of which Tiger remains very proud. He won two tournaments
and placed among the top 30 money winners qualifying for the
Tour Championship. He finished 25th with $790,594 and won
$940,420 for the year worldwide in 11 tournaments. He was
the first rookie since 1990 to win twice and the first player
since 1982 to have five consecutive top-five finishes.
Starting 1997 in spectacular
fashion, Tiger won the season-opening Mercedes Championships
with a birdie in a playoff over Tom Lehman with a six-iron
shot that drew perfectly to the flag, landing two feet right
of the hole and spinning back to within inches. Including
the Masters, Woods won four PGA TOUR events in 1997, plus
one overseas, and was the leading money winner (Arnold Palmer
Award) with a then-record $2,066,833. He won $2,440,831 worldwide
in 25 events.
He achieved No. 1 on the Official
World Golf Ranking for the most rapid progression ever to
that position. On June 15, 1997, in his 42nd week as a professional,
Woods became the youngest-ever No. 1 golfer at age 21 years,
24 weeks. The previous youngest was Bernhard Langer, age 29
years, 31 weeks in 1986.
In 1998 Woods won one event
on the PGA TOUR, and three times overall. He was fourth on
the money list with $1,841,117 and earned $2,927,006 worldwide
in 26 events. His most dramatic triumph was over Ernie Els
in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand. Tiger rallied with
65 in the final round after starting tied for 18th place,
eight strokes behind Els, whom he beat with a birdie on the
second playoff hole. He had been 11 strokes behind Els after
two rounds.
In his third full season as
a professional, 1999, Woods won eight times on the PGA TOUR,
including the PGA Championship, and earned $6,616,585. He
had a margin of $2,974,679 over runnerup David Duval, a figure
greater than the previous single-year PGA TOUR record.
His dominance was such that
Woods won 52 percent of all the prize money he could have
won. He won 81.7 percent more than the runnerup, the highest
margin since Byron Nelson in 1945 (87.2 percent) and Hogan
in 1946 (85 percent). He was the first to have as many as
eight PGA TOUR victories in one year since Johnny Miller won
eight in 1974.
Tiger won four consecutive
PGA TOUR events to end 1999 and started 2000 with two more
victories for a total of six in succession. He had to come
from behind for the fifth and sixth victories. He played the
last three holes in four under par at the Mercedes Championships,
then defeated Els in a playoff with a 40-foot birdie putt.
He trailed Matt Gogel by seven strokes with seven holes left
in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, then played
the last four holes in four under par to win by two strokes.
There has been only one longer winning streak, Nelson's 11
consecutive wins in 1945.
Sports Illustrated selected
Woods as the 1996 and 2000 Sportsman of the Year. He was the
first to win that award more than once. L’Equipe (France)
selected him as 2000 World Champion of Champions. The Associated
Press chose Woods as the Male Athlete of the Year for 1997,
1999 and 2000. He and Michael Jordan are the only athletes
to win that award three times. He was selected as Reuters
2000 Sportsman of the Year.
He was chosen as ESPY Male
Athlete of the Year in 1997 (tied with Ken Griffey, Jr.),
1999 and 2000. The founding members of the World Sports Academy,
in voting for the Laureus Sports Awards, also selected Tiger
as 1999 World Sportsman of the Year.
Woods was selected as 1997,
1999 and 2000 Player of the Year by the PGA TOUR (Jack Nicklaus
Award), the PGA of America, and the Golf Writers Association
of America. His adjusted scoring average in 2000 of 67.79
strokes was the lowest ever – breaking his record of
68.43 in 1999 – and earned the Byron Nelson Award on
the PGA TOUR and the Vardon Trophy from the PGA of America.
He also had an actual scoring average in 2000 of 68.17 strokes,
breaking Nelson’s record of 68.33 strokes in 1945.
, TopPics4u.com
- All rights reserved. 