Tiger Woods | |
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Woods in 2014
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Personal information | |
Full name | Eldrick Tont Woods |
Nickname | Tiger |
Born |
Cypress, California |
December 30, 1975
Height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) |
Weight | 185 lb (84 kg) |
Nationality | United States |
Residence | Jupiter Island, Florida |
Spouse | Elin Nordegren (2004–2010) |
Children | Sam Alexis, Charlie Axel |
Career | |
College |
Stanford University (did not graduate) |
Turned professional | 1996 |
Current tour(s) | PGA Tour (joined 1996) |
Professional wins | 106 |
Number of wins by tour | |
PGA Tour | 79 (2nd all time) |
European Tour | 40 (3rd all time) |
Japan Golf Tour | 2 |
Asian Tour | 1 |
PGA Tour of Australasia | 1 |
Other | 16 |
Best results in major championships (wins: 14) |
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Masters Tournament | Won: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 |
U.S. Open | Won: 2000, 2002, 2008 |
The Open Championship | Won: 2000, 2005, 2006 |
PGA Championship | Won: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007 |
Achievements and awards | |
PGA Tour Rookie of the Year |
1996 |
PGA Player of the Year | 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013 |
PGA Tour Player of the Year |
1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013 |
PGA Tour leading money winner |
1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013 |
Vardon Trophy | 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013 |
Byron Nelson Award | 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 |
FedEx Cup Champion | 2007, 2009 |
(For a full list of awards, see here) |
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time. He has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years.
Following an outstanding amateur and two-year college golf career, Woods turned professional at age 20 in late summer 1996. By April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters, in a record-breaking performance, winning the tournament by 12 strokes and pocketing $486,000. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as World Number One.
From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his troubled marriage after he admitted infidelity, but he and his wife Elin Nordegren eventually divorced. His many alleged extramarital indiscretions were revealed by several women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of golf form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011. He ended a career-high winless streak of 107 weeks when he triumphed in the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25, 2013, he ascended to the No.1 ranking once again, holding the top spot until May 2014. Woods had back surgery in April 2014 and September 2015 and has struggled since to regain his dominant form. By March 29, 2015, Woods had fallen to #104, outside of the top 100 for the first time since 1996. In May 2016, Woods dropped out of the world top 500 for the first time in his professional career.
Woods has broken numerous golf records. He has been World Number One for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any golfer. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record eleven times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons. He has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second-highest of any player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 79 PGA Tour events, second all time behind Sam Snead, who had 82 wins. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer (after Nicklaus) to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 18 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999. Woods and Rory McIlroy are the only golfers to win both The Silver Medal and The Gold Medal at The Open Championship.