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Eldrick "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional
golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all
time.
Currently the World No. 1, Woods was the highest paid professional athlete in
2006, having earned an estimated $100 million from winnings and endorsements. In
2006, at the age of 30, he won his eleventh and twelfth professional major golf
championships and has more wins on the PGA Tour than any other active golfer. He is
the only active golfer in the top 10 in career major wins and career PGA Tour
wins.
Among his achievements, Woods has held the number one position in the world
rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks.
He has been awarded PGA Tour Player of the Year a record eight times, and he has
led the money list seven times (one behind Jack Nicklaus' record). He has been
named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year four times, a record he shares with
Lance Armstrong.
Woods, who is multiracial, is credited with prompting a major surge of interest in
the game of golf among minorities and young people in the United States.
 Background
and family
Eldrick 'Tiger' Woods was born on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California to Earl
and Kultida Woods. He is the only child of their marriage but has two
half-brothers, Earl Jr. (born 1955) and Kevin (born 1957), and one half-sister,
Royce (born 1958) from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife,
Barbara Woods Gray. Earl, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War
veteran was of mixed African American (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent) and Native
American (25 percent) ancestry. Kultida (nee Punsawad), originally from Thailand,
is of mixed Thai (50 percent), Chinese (25 percent), and Dutch (25 percent)
ancestry. This makes Woods himself one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai,
one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch. He
affably refers to his ethnic make-up as Cablinasian (a portmanteau of Caucasian,
Black, American-Indian, and Asian), a term he coined himself. In addition, Woods is
also a Buddhist. He has said that his faith he acquired from his mother and that it
helps control both his stubborness and impatience.
Tiger got his nickname from a Vietnamese soldier friend of his father, Vuong Dang
Phong, to whom his father had also given the Tiger nickname. Woods became generally
known by that name and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior
and amateur golf was simply known as "Tiger Woods." He grew up in the Los Angeles
area, attending high school at Western High in Anaheim.
Marriage
In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model. They
were introduced during The Open Championship in 2001 by Swedish golf star Jesper
Parnevik, who had employed her as a nanny. They married on October 5, 2004 in the
Caribbean island of Barbados and live at Isleworth, a community in Windermere, a
suburb of Orlando, Florida. They also have homes in Jackson, Wyoming, California,
and Sweden. In January 2006, Woods and his wife purchased a US$39 million
residential property in Jupiter Island, Florida, which they intend to make their
primary residence. Woods' Jupiter Island neighbors will include fellow golfers Gary
Player, Greg Norman and Nick Price, as well as singers Celine Dion and Alan
Jackson.
Early in the morning of June 18, 2007, Elin gave birth to the couple's first child,
a daughter, Sam Alexis Woods. The birth occurred just one day after Woods finished
tied for second in the 2007 U.S. Open.
Career
Woods was a child prodigy who began to play golf at the age of two. In 1978, he
putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas
Show. At age three, Woods shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy Golf Club in
Cypress, California, and at age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC's
That's Incredible. In 1984 at the age of eight he won the 9–10 boys' event, the
youngest age group available, at the Junior World Golf Championships. Woods went on
to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins
from 1988 to 1991. At the age of 15, he became the youngest ever U.S. Junior
Amateur Champion, was voted Southern California Amateur Player of the Year for the
second consecutive year, and Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year 1991. He
successfully defended his title at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, becoming
the first multiple winner, competed in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los
Angeles Open and was named Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World
Player of the Year and Golfweek National Amateur of the Year in 1992.
The following year, he won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship,
and remains the event's youngest-ever and only multiple winner. In 1994, Woods
became the youngest ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship. He was a member
of the American team at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team
Championships and 1995 Walker Cup.. Later that year, he enrolled at Stanford
University, and won his first collegiate event, the William Tucker Invitational. At
Stanford he majored in Economics and was nicknamed "Urkel" by his college
teammates. In 1995, Woods defended his U.S. Amateur title, and was voted Pac-10
Player of the Year, NCAA First Team All-American, and Stanford's Male Freshman of
the Year (an award that encompasses all sports). He participated in his first PGA
Tour major, The Masters, and tied for 41st as the only amateur to make the cut. At
age 20 in 1996, Woods became the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur
titles and won the NCAA individual golf championship. In winning the Silver Medal
as leading amateur at The Open Championship, Woods tied the record for an amateur
aggregate score of 281. He left college after two years and turned
professional.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Tiger
Woods - Manifesting Generator - Biography
