TIGER

It is well known that Tiger Woods is one of the best golfers of all time. However, most people do not understand how good he is at golf. Never has someone dominated a sport as Tiger has in golf. In his young career, he has broken almost all records on his way to the top. As famous as he is, most people do not even know if Tiger is his real name.
Eldrick Tont Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California. He is the only child of a Earl (African-American) and Kultilda (Thai). His father was a Vietnam war veteran. He got the nickname Tiger from his father’s friend he had served with in Vietnam, who his father had given the nickname to. Tiger’s father taught him to golf and continued to be a significant influence. He was a child prodigy that started golfing at the age of two. When he was just three, he shot a 48 through nine holes (just to put that in perspective, most avid golfers do not break 50 until they have been playing for a few years) at the Navy Golf Club. This was around the same time he gained national recognition for his golfing ability. He defeated the comedian Bob Hope, who was also an avid golfer, in a putting competition on a talk show. At the age of five, he was featured on a popular tv show That’s Incredible and in the magazine Golf Digest.
A key part of being successful in golf is being able to remain focused and maintain your composure. To teach him this, his father would make loud noises and create distractions. His mother passed on her religion of Buddhism to Tiger, to make sure that golf would not ruin his happiness. Woods was just fifteen years old when he won the US Amateur Golf Championship, the youngest ever to accomplish such a feat. He won that event three straight years, the only time a player had won multiple times. He won a slur of awards between 1990 and 1992 (he was 15-17 during this time) including Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year Award.
In 1994, Tiger Woods received a full golf scholarship to Stanford University. That same year, he was the youngest ever to win the US Amateur Championship. In 1995, at the age of 20, he qualified for the Masters (one of the four major championships in golf). He tied for 41st, as he was the only amateur to make the cut. In 1996, he became the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles and won the NCAA individual golf championship. Two years of college was enough for Tiger. In August of 1996, he dropped out to pursue his professional career. When he turned 21, he changed his legal name to Tiger, as everyone had called him this for most of his life.
That same August, he became a professional golfer. He was rewarded shortly after, when he received $40 million endorsement from Nike and $20 million endorsement from Titleist. He won two events in his first three months. Tiger was named Sports Illustrated’s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and also the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. His career took off from there. At the age of 21, he won The Masters, the youngest ever to do so. He won by an unbelievable margin of twelve strokes. Besides being the youngest ever to win the event, he was the first person of African or Asian descent to win. Tiger won the event in dramatic fashion, breaking 20 records at The Masters.
That year, he won three other championships. In less then a year as a professional, he was rated the number one golfer in the world. Tiger was by far, the youngest ever to do this. The previous youngest was 29 years old. Tiger was named PGA Player of the Year, the only player to accomplish this following their rookie season. Even though he was at the top, Tigers dominance continued. His best golf was yet to come.
In June of 1999, Tiger began one of the greatest winning streaks of all time when he won the Memorial Tournament. He won eight events that year, something that had not been done in over 25 years. He won his last four consecutive outings, including the PGA Championship. Once again, he was voted the PGA Tour Player of the Year. He also was voted the Male Athlete of the Year by Associated Press. After everything Tiger accomplished in 1999, 2000 was a year for the ages. He started off the year with his 5th consecutive win. In his next event, a comeback would be necessary to keep the streak alive. Tiger was down seven strokes with seven holes left. That was not enough of a lead, as Tiger won the event by two strokes, making a historic come from behind win. Later that year, in the United States Open Championship (the second of the four major championships), Tiger dominated the field. Sports Illustrated called it "the greatest performance in golf history." Tiger won three major championships that year as he was named the 2000 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. He is the only person to ever receive that award twice.
Tiger started the 2001 season off with a bang. He won the Masters, making him the only person in golf history to be the holder off all four major championship titles at the same time.
In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model. During the 2003 and 2004 season, he remained competitive, but did not dominate as he used to. That ended in 2005 when Tiger was in top form again. On May 3, 2006, Tiger’s father passed away due to prostate cancer. In late July of 2006 at the US Open, Tiger won in a dominant way, dedicating the victory to his father. He continued to play at the highest level until 2008, when he had arthroscopic knee surgery in April. However, he wanted to compete in the 2008 US Open. Doing this would require him to play with a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL). Tiger would put off the ACL surgery until after the Open in early June.
Tiger got off to a slow start, but remained a few strokes behind after the first three rounds. On the 18th hole on the final day, Tiger sunk a birdie (one under par) putt to tie him for the lead. This forced a playoff the following day with Rocco Mediate. Eighteen holes were not enough to break the tie, so a tiebreaker hole was played. Tiger won the playoff hole in an Epic victory. Days after winning, he announced that surgery would be necessary to repair his torn ACL. He had been playing for at least ten months with the torn ligament. He also had a double stress fracture in his tibia (shin bone).
Throughout his career, Tiger Woods has had one of the best careers out of all athletes in the world. He is 33 years old now and has two children. He was the highest paid professional athlete in 2008. It’s estimated that he earned $110 million between winnings and endorsements. His career winnings total close to $100 million, a PGA record, from his 88 tournament victories. Jack Nicklaus (one of the greatest golfers of all time) said, “ There isn’t a flaw in his golf or his makeup. He will win more majors than Arnold Palmer and me combined. Somebody is going to dust my records. It might as well be Tiger because he’s such a great kid. He has the finest, fundamentally sound golf swing I’ve ever seen”. Besides everything Tiger has done on the golf course, he has also done a substantial amount of charity work. Someday, he will undoubtedly be the greatest golfer of all time.