Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods was born with the name Eldrick Woods on December 30, 1975, in Orlando, Florida. Early on, Tiger's parents, Earl and Kultilda Woods, introduced their only child to the sport he has come to dominate, giving him a sawed-off putter to practice with as soon as he could stand up on his own. At the age of 8, he won the first of six Optimist International Junior World Titles. After perhaps the most remarkable amateur career ever—he won the U.S. Junior Amateur Championships in 1991, 1992, and 1993, and the U.S. Amateur title in 1994, 1995, and 1996—and two years at Stanford University, where he won the NCAA title, Woods turned pro in the summer of 1996.
His potential seemed unlimited, especially when he won 2 titles and finished in the top 10 five times out of his first 8 Professional Golf Association tour events. In 1997, at the age of 21, Woods became the youngest player ever to win the Masters (by the largest margin in a major championship in this century), and the first person of African or Asian descent to win a major golf championship. That year, his first full year on the tour, Woods was chosen as the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year and ESPN Male Athlete of the Year and became the youngest player ever to hold the No. 1 ranking in professional golf.

Nothing—not even an unbelievably lucrative endorsement portfolio—foretold what would happen in 1999, when Woods's success reached heights never before imagined. With his victory at the American Express Championship on November 7, in Valderrama, Spain, Woods became the first golfer in 25 years to win 8 PGA tour events in one season (including the PGA Championships). He also shattered the previous single season winnings record by nearly $3 million, making him the first player ever to break the $6 million mark with $6.6 million.

True to form, Woods only got better in 2000, when he capped off an impressive first half of the year by winning his third major, the 2000 U.S. Open, in Pebble Beach,... [continues]

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