Tiger Woods facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tiger Woods
Woods at the White House in May 2019
Personal information
Full name	Eldrick Tont Woods
Nickname	Tiger
Born	(1975-12-30) December 30, 1975 (age 48) Cypress, California, U.S.
Height	6 ft 1 in
Weight	185 lb
Nationality	United States
Residence	Jupiter Island, Florida, U.S.
Spouse	Elin Nordegren ​ ​ (m. 2004; div. 2010)​
Children	2
Career
College	Stanford University (two years)
Turned professional	1996
Current tour(s)	PGA Tour (joined 1996)
Professional wins	110
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	82 (Tied-1st all-time)
European Tour	41 (3rd all-time)
Japan Golf Tour	3
Asian Tour	2
PGA Tour of Australasia	3
Other	17
Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 15)
The Masters Tournament	Won: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019
U.S. Open	Won: 2000, 2002, 2008
The Open Championship	Won: 2000, 2005, 2006
PGA Championship	Won: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame	2021
Haskins Award	1996
PGA Tour Rookie of the Year	1996
PGA Tour money list winner	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013
PGA Tour Player of the Year	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013
PGA Player of the Year	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013
Byron Nelson Award	1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Vardon Trophy	1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013
Laureus World Sports Award Sportsman of the Year	2000, 2001
PGA Tour FedEx Cup winner	2007, 2009
Presidential Medal of Freedom	2019

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. Woods is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time and is one of the most famous athletes in modern history. He is an inductee of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Background and family

Woods and his father Earl at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 2004

Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California, to Earl and Kultida "Tida" Woods. He is their only child, though he has two half-brothers and a half-sister from his father's first marriage. Earl was a retired U.S. Army officer and Vietnam War veteran; he was born to African-American parents and was also said to have had European and Native American descent. Kultida (née Punsawad) is originally from Thailand, where Earl met her when he was on a tour of duty there in 1968. She is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry. In 2002, ESPN claimed: "For the record, he is one-quarter Thai, one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Caucasian, one-eighth African American and one-eighth Native American." Tiger has described his ethnic make-up as "Cablinasian" (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian).

Woods's first name, Eldrick, was chosen by his mother because it began with "E" (for Earl) and ended with "K" (for Kultida). His middle name Tont is a traditional Thai name. He was nicknamed Tiger in honor of his father's friend, South Vietnamese Colonel Vuong Dang Phong, who had also been known as Tiger. Woods has a niece, Cheyenne Woods, who played for the Wake Forest University golf team and turned professional in 2012 when she made her pro debut in the LPGA Championship.

Early life and amateur golf career

Woods grew up in Orange County, California. He was a child prodigy who was introduced to golf before the age of two by his athletic father Earl Woods. Earl was a single-digit handicap amateur golfer who also was one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University. Woods told reporters he had wanted to be a baseball player like his father but abandoned that goal after tearing his rotator cuff. His father was a member of the military and had playing privileges at the Navy golf course beside the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, which allowed Tiger to play there. Tiger also played at the par 3 Heartwell golf course in Long Beach, as well as some of the municipals in Long Beach.

In 1978, Woods putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy course. At age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC's That's Incredible! Before turning seven, Woods won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress. 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. He first broke 80 at age eight. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991. Woods's father Earl wrote that Tiger first defeated him at the age of 11 years, with Earl trying his best. He lost to Woods every time from then on. Woods first broke 70 on a regulation golf course at age 12.

When Woods was 13 years old, he played in the 1989 Big I, which was his first major national junior tournament. In the final round, he was paired with pro John Daly, who was then relatively unknown. The event's format placed a professional with each group of juniors who had qualified. Daly birdied three of the last four holes to beat him by only one stroke. As a young teenager, Woods first met Jack Nicklaus in Los Angeles at the Bel-Air Country Club, when Nicklaus was performing a clinic for the club's members. Woods was part of the show, and he impressed Nicklaus and the crowd with his skills and potential. Earl Woods had researched in detail the career accomplishments of Nicklaus and had set his young son the goals of breaking those records.

Woods was 15 years old and a student at Western High School in Anaheim when he became the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion; this was a record that stood until it was broken by Jim Liu in 2010. He was named 1991's Southern California Amateur Player of the Year (for the second consecutive year) and Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year. In 1992, he defended his title at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, becoming the tournament's first two-time winner. He also competed in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los Angeles Open (he missed the 36-hole cut), and was named Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World Player of the Year, and Golfweek National Amateur of the Year.

The following year, Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur; he remains the event's only three-time winner. In 1994, at the TPC at Sawgrass in Florida, he became the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur, a record he held until 2008 when it was broken by Danny Lee. He was a member of the American team at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships (winning), and the 1995 Walker Cup (losing).

Woods graduated from Western High School at age 18 in 1994 and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" among the graduating class. He starred for the high school's golf team under coach Don Crosby. Woods learned to manage his stuttering as a boy, "I would talk to my dog and he would sit there and listen until he fell asleep. I also took a class for two years to help me, and I finally learned to stop."

College golf career

Woods was heavily recruited by college golf powers. He chose Stanford University, the 1994 NCAA champions. He enrolled at Stanford in the fall of 1994 under a golf scholarship and won his first collegiate event, the 40th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational, that September. He selected a major in economics and was nicknamed "Urkel" by college teammate Notah Begay III. In 1995, he successfully defended his U.S. Amateur title at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island 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).

At age 19, Woods participated in his first PGA Tour major, the 1995 Masters, and tied for 41st as the only amateur to make the cut; two years later, he won the tournament by 12 strokes. At age 20 in 1996, he 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, he tied the record for an amateur aggregate score of 281. He left college after two years in order to turn professional in the golf industry. In 1996, Woods moved out of California, stating in 2013 that it was due to the state's high tax rate.

Professional career

Woods in 1997

Woods turned professional at age 20 in August 1996 and immediately signed advertising deals with Nike, Inc. and Titleist that ranked as the most lucrative endorsement contracts in golf history at that time. Woods was named Sports Illustrated's 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. On April 13, 1997, he won his first major, the Masters, in record-breaking fashion and became the tournament's youngest winner at age 21. Two months later, he set the record for the fastest ascent to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. After a lackluster 1998, Woods finished the 1999 season with eight wins, including the PGA Championship, a feat not achieved since Johnny Miller did it in 1974.

Woods was severely myopic; his eyesight had a rating of 11 diopters. In order to correct this problem, he underwent successful laser eye surgery in 1999, and he immediately resumed winning tour events. In 2007, his vision again began to deteriorate, and he underwent laser eye surgery a second time. In 2000, Woods won six consecutive events on the PGA Tour, which was the longest winning streak since Ben Hogan did it in 1948. One of these was the U.S. Open, where he broke or tied nine tournament records in what Sports Illustrated called "the greatest performance in golf history", in which Woods won the tournament by a record 15-stroke margin and earned a check for $800,000. At age 24, he became the youngest golfer to achieve the Career Grand Slam. At the end of 2000, Woods had won nine of the twenty PGA Tour events he entered and had broken the record for lowest scoring average in tour history. He was named the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, the only athlete to be honored twice, and was ranked by Golf Digest magazine as the twelfth-best golfer of all time.

Woods at the 2004 Ryder Cup

When Woods won the 2001 Masters, he became the only player to win four consecutive major professional golf titles, although not in the same calendar year. This achievement came to be known as the "Tiger Slam". Following a stellar 2001 and 2002 in which he continued to dominate the tour, Woods's career hit a slump. He did not win a major in 2003 or 2004. In September 2004, Vijay Singh overtook Woods in the Official World Golf Rankings, ending Woods's record streak of 264 weeks at No. 1.

Woods rebounded in 2005, winning six PGA Tour events and reclaiming the top spot in July after swapping it back and forth with Singh over the first half of the year.

Woods began dominantly in 2006, winning his first two PGA tournaments but failing to capture his fifth Masters championship in April. Following the death of his father in May, Woods took some time off from the tour and appeared rusty upon his return at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club, where he missed the cut. However, he quickly returned to form and ended the year by winning six consecutive tour events. At the season's close, Woods had 54 total wins that included 12 majors; he broke the tour records for both total wins and total majors wins over eleven seasons.

Woods at the 2006 Masters

Woods continued to excel in 2007 and the first part of 2008. In April 2008, he underwent knee surgery and missed the next two months on the tour. Woods returned for the 2008 U.S. Open, where he struggled the first day but ultimately claimed a dramatic sudden death victory over Rocco Mediate that followed an 18-hole playoff, after which Mediate said, "This guy does things that are just not normal by any stretch of the imagination," and Kenny Perry added, "He beat everybody on one leg." Two days later, Woods announced that he would miss the remainder of the season due to additional knee surgery, and that his knee was more severely damaged than previously revealed, prompting even greater praise for his U.S. Open performance. Woods called it "my greatest ever championship." In Woods's absence, television ratings for the remainder of the season suffered a huge decline from 2007.

Woods competing at the third annual Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am (July 1, 2009)

Woods had a much anticipated return to golf in 2009, when he performed well. His comeback included a spectacular performance at the 2009 Presidents Cup, but he failed to win a major, the first year since 2004 that he did not do so. After his personal problems came to light and received massive media coverage at the end of 2009, Woods announced in December that he would be taking an indefinite break from competitive golf.

Woods returned to competition in April at the 2010 Masters, where he finished tied for fourth place. He followed the Masters with poor showings at the Quail Hollow Championship and the Players Championship, where he withdrew in the fourth round, citing injury. Shortly afterward, Hank Haney, Woods's coach since 2003, resigned the position. In August, Woods hired Sean Foley as Haney's replacement. The rest of the season went badly for Woods, who failed to win a single event for the first time since turning professional, while nevertheless finishing the season ranked No. 2 in the world.

Woods at a Chevron World Challenge charity event (2011)

In 2011, Woods's performance continued to suffer; this took its toll on his ranking. After falling to No. 7 in March, he rebounded to No. 5 with a strong showing at the 2011 Masters, where he tied for fourth place. Due to leg injuries incurred at the Masters, he missed several summer stops on the PGA Tour. In July, he fired his longtime caddie Steve Williams (who was shocked by the dismissal), and replaced him on an interim basis with friend Bryon Bell until he hired Joe LaCava. After returning to tournament play in August, Woods continued to falter, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of #58. He rose to No. 50 in mid-November after a third-place finish at the Emirates Australian Open, and broke his winless streak with a victory at December's Chevron World Challenge.

Woods began his 2012 season with two tournaments (the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am) where he started off well but struggled on the final rounds. Following the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, where he was knocked out in the second round by missing a 5-foot putt, Woods revised his putting technique and tied for second at The Honda Classic, with the lowest final-round score in his PGA Tour career. After a short time off due to another leg injury, Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his first win on the PGA Tour since the BMW Championship in September 2009. Following several dismal performances, Woods notched his 73rd PGA Tour win at the Memorial Tournament in June, tying Jack Nicklaus in second place for most PGA Tour victories; a month later, Woods surpassed Nicklaus with a win at the AT&T National, to trail only Sam Snead, who accumulated 82 PGA tour wins.

The year 2013 brought a return of Woods's dominating play. In January, he won the Farmers Insurance Open by four shots for his 75th PGA Tour win. It was the seventh time he won the event. In March, he won the WGC-Cadillac Championship, also for the seventh time, giving him his 17th WGC title and first since 2009. Two weeks later, he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, winning the event for a record-tying 8th time. The win moved him back to the top of the world rankings. To commemorate that achievement, Nike was quick to launch an ad with the tagline "winning takes care of everything".

During the 2013 Masters, Woods faced disqualification after unwittingly admitting in a post-round interview with ESPN that he took an illegal drop on the par-5 15th hole when his third shot bounced off the pin and into the water. After further review of television footage, Woods was assessed a two-stroke penalty for the drop but was not disqualified. He finished tied for fourth in the event. Woods won The Players Championship in May 2013, his second career win at the event, notching his fourth win of the 2013 season. It was the quickest he got to four wins in any season of his professional career.

Woods practicing in a bunker prior to the start of the 2014 Quicken Loans National

Woods had a poor showing at the 2013 U.S. Open as a result of an elbow injury that he sustained at The Players Championship. In finishing at 13-over-par, he recorded his worst score as a professional and finished 12 strokes behind winner Justin Rose. After a prolonged break because of the injury, during which he missed the Greenbrier Classic and his own AT&T National, he returned at the Open Championship at Muirfield. Despite being in contention all week and beginning the final round only two strokes behind Lee Westwood, he struggled with the speed of the greens and could only manage a 3-over-par 74 that left him tied for 6th place, five strokes behind eventual winner Phil Mickelson. Two weeks later, Woods returned to form at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, recording his 5th win of the season and 8th win at the event in its 15-year history. His second-round 61 matched his record score on the PGA Tour and could easily have been a 59 were it not for some short missed birdie putts on the closing holes. This gave him a seven-stroke lead that he held onto for the rest of the tournament. But at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, Woods never was in contention, making 2013 his fifth full season where he did not win a major; he was in contention in only two of the four majors in 2013.

After a slow start to 2014, Woods sustained an injury during the final round of The Honda Classic and was unable to finish the tournament. He withdrew after the 13th hole, citing back pain. He subsequently competed in the WGC-Cadillac Championship but was visibly in pain during much of the last round. He was forced to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the end of March 2014, and after undergoing back surgery, he announced on April 1 that he would miss the Masters for the first time since 1994. Woods returned at the Quicken Loans National in June, however he said that his expectations for the week were low. He struggled with nearly every aspect of his game and missed the cut. He next played at The Open Championship, contested at Hoylake, where Woods had won eight years prior. Woods fired a brilliant 69 in the first round to put himself in contention, but shot 77 on Friday and eventually finished 69th. Despite his back pain, he played at the 2014 PGA Championship where he failed to make the cut. On August 25, 2014, Woods and his swing coach Sean Foley parted ways. In the four years under Foley, he won eight times but no majors. He had previously won eight majors with Harmon and six with Haney. Woods said there was currently no timetable to find a replacement swing coach.

On February 5, 2015, Woods withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open after another back injury. Woods stated on his website that it was unrelated to his previous surgery and he would take a break from golf until his back healed. He returned for the Masters, finishing in a tie for 17th. In the final round, Woods injured his wrist after his club hit a tree root. He later stated that a bone popped out of his wrist, but he adjusted it back into place and finished the round. Woods then missed the cut at the 2015 U.S. Open and Open Championship, the first time Woods missed the cut at consecutive majors, finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard both times. He finished tied for 18th at the Quicken Loans National on August 2. In late August 2015, Woods played quite well at the Wyndham Championship finishing the tournament at 13-under, only four strokes behind the winner, and tied for 10th place. Woods offered only a brief comment on the speculation that he was still recovering from back surgery, saying it was "just my hip" but offering no specifics.

Woods practicing a chip-shot at the 2018 U.S. Open

Woods had back surgery on September 16, 2015. In late March 2016, he announced that he would miss the Masters while he recovered from the surgery; he had also missed the 2014 Masters due to a back problem. "I'm absolutely making progress, and I'm really happy with how far I've come," he explained in a statement. "But I still have no timetable to return to competitive golf." However, he did attend the Masters Champions Dinner on April 5, 2016. For the first time in his career, he missed all four majors in one year due to problems with his back. In October 2016, he told Charlie Rose on PBS that he still wanted to break Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major titles. Woods underwent back surgery in December 2016 and spent the next 15 months off the Tour. He made his return to competitive golf in the Hero World Challenge.

Woods's back problems continued to hinder him in 2017. He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in January and pulled out of a European Tour event in Dubai on February 3. On March 31, Woods announced on his website that he would not be playing in the 2017 Masters Tournament despite being cleared to play by his doctors. Woods said that although he was happy with his rehabilitation, he did not feel "tournament ready." Woods subsequently told friends, "I'm done". On April 20, Woods announced that he had undergone his fourth back surgery since 2014 to alleviate back and leg pain. Recovery time required up to six months, meaning that Woods would spend the rest of the year without playing any professional golf. Woods returned to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He shot rounds of 69–68–75–68 and finished tied for 9th place. His world ranking went from 1,199th to 668th, which was the biggest jump in the world rankings in his career.

On March 11, 2018, he finished one-shot back and tied for second at the Valspar Championship in Florida, his first top-five finish on the PGA Tour since 2013. He then tied for sixth with a score of five under par at the 2018 Open Championship. At the last major of the year, the 2018 PGA Championship, Woods finished second, two shots behind the winner Brooks Koepka. It was his best result in a major since 2009 (second at the 2009 PGA Championship) and moved him up to 26th in the world rankings. His final round of 64 was his best-ever final round in a major.

Woods returned to the winner's circle for the 80th time in his PGA Tour career on September 23, 2018, when he won the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club for the second time and that tournament for the third time. He shot rounds of 65–68–65–71 to win by two strokes over Billy Horschel.

On April 14, 2019, Woods won the Masters, which was his first major championship win in eleven years and his 15th major overall. He finished 13 under par to win by one stroke over Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka. At age 43, he became the second oldest golfer ever to win the Masters, after Jack Nicklaus who was 46 when he triumphed in 1986. In August 2019, Woods announced via social media that he underwent knee surgery to repair minor cartilage damage and that he had an arthroscopic procedure during the Tour Championship. In his statement, Woods also confirmed that he was walking and intends on traveling and playing in Japan in October.

Woods played in his first 2020 PGA Tour event at the Zozo Championship in October 2019, which was the first-ever PGA Tour event played in Japan. Woods, who played a highly publicized skins game earlier in the week at the same course as the Championship, held at least a share of the lead after every round of the rain-delayed tournament, giving him a three stroke victory over Hideki Matsuyama. The win was Woods's 82nd on Tour, tying him with Sam Snead for the most victories all time on the PGA Tour.

In December 2020, Woods had microdiscectomy surgery on his back for the fifth time. The operation was to remove a pressurized disc fragment that was pinching his nerve and causing him pain during the PNC Championship. Woods returned to play in his first professional tournament since his 2021 motor vehicle crash at the 2022 Masters Tournament. He made the cut and finished in 47th place at 13-over par, 23 shots behind the winner Scottie Scheffler.

In August 2022, Woods, Rory McIlroy, Mike McCarley, and the PGA Tour announced the formation of TGL, a six-team virtual golfing league. In November 2023, Woods revealed himself as an co-owner and player for Jupiter Links Golf Club, founded with investments by David Blitzer.

Honors

Woods receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump in May 2019

On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver announced that Woods would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He was inducted December 5, 2007 at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento. In May 2019, following his 2019 Masters Tournament win, Woods was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump.

Wax statue of Woods at Madame Tussauds, London

In 2000 and 2001, Woods was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, becoming the inaugural recipient of the award. In 2000 he received the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, an award given to a non-British sportsperson considered to have made the most substantial contribution to a sport. Domestically, Woods has also been recognized by U.S. publications. He was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, was named "Athlete of the Decade" by the Associated Press in 2009, and is one of only two people to be named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Since his record-breaking win at the 1997 Masters, Woods has been the biggest name in golf and his presence in tournaments has drawn a huge fan following. Some sources have credited him for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new PGA tournament audiences, and for drawing the largest TV ratings in golf history. His recognition as one of the most famous athletes in modern history includes being depicted in a wax sculpture at Madame Tussauds.

Career achievements

Woods has won 82 official PGA Tour events, including 15 majors. He is 14–1 when going into the final round of a major with at least a share of the lead. Multiple golf experts have heralded Woods as "the greatest closer in history". He has the lowest career scoring average and the largest career earnings of any player in PGA Tour history.

Woods's victory at the 2013 Players Championship also marked a win in his 300th PGA Tour start. He also won golf tournaments in his 100th (in 2000) and 200th (in 2006) tour starts.

Woods has spent the most consecutive and cumulative weeks atop the world rankings. He is one of five players (along with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus) to have won all four major championships in his career, known as the Career Grand Slam, and was the youngest to do so. Woods is the only player to have consecutively won all four major championships open to professionals, accomplishing the feat in the 2000–2001 seasons.

• PGA Tour wins (82)
• European Tour wins (41)
• Japan Golf Tour wins (3)
• Asian PGA Tour wins (2)
• PGA Tour of Australasia wins (3)
• Other wins (17)
• Amateur wins (21)

Major championships

Wins (15)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
1997	Masters Tournament	9 shot lead	−18 (70-66-65-69=270)	12 strokes	Tom Kite
1999	PGA Championship	Tied for lead	−11 (70-67-68-72=277)	1 stroke	Sergio García
2000	U.S. Open	10 shot lead	−12 (65-69-71-67=272)	15 strokes	Ernie Els, Miguel Ángel Jiménez
2000	The Open Championship	6 shot lead	−19 (67-66-67-69=269)	8 strokes	Thomas Bjørn, Ernie Els
2000	PGA Championship (2)	1 shot lead	−18 (66-67-70-67=270)	Playoff1	Bob May
2001	Masters Tournament (2)	1 shot lead	−16 (70-66-68-68=272)	2 strokes	David Duval
2002	Masters Tournament (3)	Tied for lead	−12 (70-69-66-71=276)	3 strokes	Retief Goosen
2002	U.S. Open (2)	4 shot lead	−3 (67-68-70-72=277)	3 strokes	Phil Mickelson
2005	Masters Tournament (4)	3 shot lead	−12 (74-66-65-71=276)	Playoff2	Chris DiMarco
2005	The Open Championship (2)	2 shot lead	−14 (66-67-71-70=274)	5 strokes	Colin Montgomerie
2006	The Open Championship (3)	1 shot lead	−18 (67-65-71-67=270)	2 strokes	Chris DiMarco
2006	PGA Championship (3)	Tied for lead	−18 (69-68-65-68=270)	5 strokes	Shaun Micheel
2007	PGA Championship (4)	3 shot lead	−8 (71-63-69-69=272)	2 strokes	Woody Austin
2008	U.S. Open (3)	1 shot lead	−1 (72-68-70-73=283)	Playoff3	Rocco Mediate
2019	Masters Tournament (5)	2 shot deficit	−13 (70-68-67-70=275)	1 stroke	Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele

¹Defeated May in three-hole playoff by 1 stroke: Woods (3–4–5=12), May (4–4–5=13)
²Defeated DiMarco in a sudden-death playoff: Woods (3), DiMarco (4).
³Defeated Mediate with a par on 1st sudden death hole after 18-hole playoff was tied at even par. This was the final time an 18-hole playoff was used in competition.

Results timeline

Results not in chronological order in 2020.

     Win      Top 10      Did not play LA = low amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

• Most consecutive cuts made – 39 (1996 U.S. Open – 2006 Masters)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 8 (1999 U.S. Open – 2001 Masters)

The Players Championship

Wins (2)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
2001	The Players Championship	2 shot deficit	−14 (72-69-66-67=274)	1 stroke	Vijay Singh
2013	The Players Championship (2)	Tied for lead	−13 (67-67-71-70=275)	2 strokes	David Lingmerth, Jeff Maggert, Kevin Streelman

Results timeline

     Win      Top 10      Did not play WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place.

World Golf Championships

Wins (18)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner(s)-up
1999	WGC-NEC Invitational	5 shot lead	−10 (66-71-62-71=270)	1 stroke	Phil Mickelson
1999	WGC-American Express Championship	1 shot deficit	−6 (71-69-70-68=278)	Playoff	Miguel Ángel Jiménez
2000	WGC-NEC Invitational (2)	9 shot lead	−21 (64-61-67-67=259)	11 strokes	Justin Leonard, Phillip Price
2001	WGC-NEC Invitational (3)	2 shot deficit	−12 (66-67-66-69=268)	Playoff	Jim Furyk
2002	WGC-American Express Championship (2)	5 shot lead	−25 (65-65-67-66=263)	1 stroke	Retief Goosen
2003	WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship	n/a	2 and 1		David Toms
2003	WGC-American Express Championship (3)	2 shot lead	−6 (67-66-69-72=274)	2 strokes	Stuart Appleby, Tim Herron, Vijay Singh
2004	WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship (2)	n/a	3 and 2		Davis Love III
2005	WGC-NEC Invitational (4)	Tied for lead	−6 (66-70-67-71=274)	1 stroke	Chris DiMarco
2005	WGC-American Express Championship (4)	2 shot deficit	−10 (67-68-68-67=270)	Playoff	John Daly
2006	WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (5)	1 shot deficit	−10 (67-64-71-68=270)	Playoff	Stewart Cink
2006	WGC-American Express Championship (5)	6 shot lead	−23 (63-64-67-67=261)	8 strokes	Ian Poulter, Adam Scott
2007	WGC-CA Championship (6)	4 shot lead	−10 (71-66-68-73=278)	2 strokes	Brett Wetterich
2007	WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (6)	1 shot deficit	−8 (68-70-69-65=272)	8 strokes	Justin Rose, Rory Sabbatini
2008	WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship (3)	n/a	8 and 7		Stewart Cink
2009	WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (7)	3 shot deficit	−12 (68-70-65-65=268)	4 strokes	Robert Allenby, Pádraig Harrington
2013	WGC-Cadillac Championship (7)	4 shot lead	−19 (66-65-67-71=269)	2 strokes	Steve Stricker
2013	WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (8)	7 shot lead	−15 (66-61-68-70=265)	7 strokes	Keegan Bradley, Henrik Stenson

Results timeline

Results not in chronological order before 2015.

¹Cancelled due to 9/11
     Win      Top 10      Did not play QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
WD = withdrew
NT = No tournament
"T" = tied
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

*As of April 15, 2024

Playing style

Woods practicing before 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan

When Woods first joined the PGA Tour in 1996, his long drives had a large impact on the world of golf, but he did not upgrade his equipment in the following years. He insisted upon the use of True Temper Dynamic Gold steel-shafted clubs and smaller steel clubheads that promoted accuracy over distance. Many opponents caught up to him, and Phil Mickelson even made a joke in 2003 about Woods using "inferior equipment", which did not sit well with Nike, Titleist, or Woods. During 2004, Woods finally upgraded his driver technology to a larger clubhead and graphite shaft, which, coupled with his clubhead speed, again made him one of the tour's longest players off the tee.

Despite his power advantage, Woods has always focused on developing an excellent all-around game. Although in recent years he has typically been near the bottom of the Tour rankings in driving accuracy, his iron play is generally accurate, his recovery and bunker play is very strong, and his putting (especially under pressure) is possibly his greatest asset. He is largely responsible for a shift to higher standards of athleticism amongst professional golfers, and is known for utilizing more hours of practice than most.

From mid-1993 (while he was still an amateur) until 2004, Woods worked almost exclusively with leading swing coach Butch Harmon. From mid-1997, Harmon and Woods fashioned a major redevelopment of Woods's full swing, achieving greater consistency, better distance control, and better kinesiology. The changes began to pay off in 1999. Woods and Harmon eventually parted ways. From March 2004 to 2010, Woods was coached by Hank Haney, who worked on flattening his swing plane. Woods continued to win tournaments with Haney, but his driving accuracy dropped significantly. Haney resigned under questionable circumstances in May 2010 and was replaced by Sean Foley.

Fluff Cowan served as Woods's caddie from the start of his professional career until Woods dismissed him in March 1999. He was replaced by Steve Williams, who became a close friend of Woods and is often credited with helping him with key shots and putts. In June 2011, Woods dismissed Williams after he caddied for Adam Scott in the U.S. Open and replaced him with friend Bryon Bell on an interim basis. Joe LaCava, a former caddie of both Fred Couples and Dustin Johnson, was hired by Woods shortly after and has remained Woods's caddie since then.

Other ventures

TGR Foundation

The TGR Foundation was established in 1996 by Woods and his father Earl as the Tiger Woods Foundation with the primary goal of promoting golf among inner-city children. The foundation has conducted junior golf clinics across the country, and sponsors the Tiger Woods Foundation National Junior Golf Team in the Junior World Golf Championships. As of December 2010, TWF employed approximately 55 people.

The foundation operates the Tiger Woods Learning Center, a $50-million, 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m²) facility in Anaheim, California, providing college-access programs for underserved youth. The TWLC opened in 2006 and features seven classrooms, extensive multi-media facilities and an outdoor golf teaching area. The center has since expanded to four additional campuses: two in Washington, D.C.; one in Philadelphia; and one in Stuart, Florida.

Woods giving a speech at We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial (January 2009)

The foundation benefits from the annual Chevron World Challenge and AT&T National golf tournaments hosted by Woods. In October 2011, the foundation hosted the first Tiger Woods Invitational at Pebble Beach. Other annual fundraisers have included the concert events Block Party, last held in 2009 in Anaheim, and Tiger Jam, last held in 2011 in Las Vegas after a one-year hiatus.

Tiger Woods Design

In November 2006, Woods announced his intention to begin designing golf courses around the world through a new company, Tiger Woods Design. A month later, he announced that the company's first course would be in Dubai as part of a 25.3-million-square-foot development, The Tiger Woods Dubai. The Al Ruwaya Golf Course was initially expected to finish construction in 2009. As of February 2010, only seven holes had been completed; in April 2011, The New York Times reported that the project had been shelved permanently. In 2013, the partnership between Tiger Woods Design and Dubai Holding was dissolved.

Tiger Woods Design has taken on two other courses, neither of which has materialized. In August 2007, Woods announced The Cliffs at High Carolina, a private course in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. After a groundbreaking in November 2008, the project suffered cash flow problems and suspended construction. In 2019 the 800-acre site was sold for $19.3 million and in 2024 550 acres of that were listed for about the same price. While no evidence of Woods' involvement has been found, the listing shows that development plans are still on file. A third course, in Punta Brava, Mexico, was announced in October 2008, but incurred delays due to issues with permits and an environmental impact study. Construction on the Punta Brava course has not yet begun.

Writings

Woods wrote a golf instruction column for Golf Digest magazine from 1997 to February 2011. In 2001, he wrote a best-selling golf instruction book, How I Play Golf, which had the largest print run of any golf book for its first edition, 1.5 million copies. In March 2017, he published a memoir, The 1997 Masters: My Story, co-authored by Lorne Rubenstein, which focuses on his first Masters win. In October 2019, Woods announced he would be writing a memoir book titled Back.

NFT

Tiger Woods' "Iconic Fist Pumps Collection" is his first digital Non-fungible token (NFT) collection that launched on the DraftKings Marketplace in collaboration with Autograph.io on September 28, 2021. Autograph is an NFT platform that was co-founded by Tom Brady that helped launch NFT projects with some of the biggest names in sports, including Usain Bolt, Rafael Nadal, Wayne Gretzky, and Tony Hawk. Woods' first collection offered 10,000 digital pictures of Tiger Woods' iconic moments ranging from $12 to $1,500, and 300 of those NFTs were also accompanied by his official digital signature. The NFTs launched on the Autograph platform grants fans unique access to exclusive content, first dibs on digital collectibles, custom-made merchandise, and access to private in-person events depending on the varying utility of each NFT.

Sun Day Red

Woods partnered with TaylorMade to launch his golf apparel line, dubbed "Sun Day Red". The line was announced on February 12, 2024, and featured Woods' signature red shirt.

Personal life

Woods after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019. From left to right: then girlfriend Erica Herman, mother Kultida Woods, daughter Sam Woods, son Charlie Woods, and Tiger Woods

Relationships and children

In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish former model and daughter of former minister of migration Barbro Holmberg and radio journalist Thomas Nordegren. They were introduced during The Open Championship in 2001 by Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as an au pair. They married on October 5, 2004, at the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados, and lived at Isleworth, a community in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, Florida. In 2006, they purchased a $39-million estate in Jupiter Island, Florida, and began constructing a 10,000-square-foot home; Woods moved there in 2010 following the couple's divorce.

Woods and Nordegren's first child was a daughter born in 2007, whom they named Sam Alexis Woods. Woods chose the name because his own father had always called him Sam. Their son, Charlie Axel Woods, was born in 2009.

Subsequent relationships

On March 18, 2013, Woods announced that he and Olympic gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn were dating. They split up in May 2015. From November 2016 to August 2017, Woods was rumored to be in a relationship with stylist Kristin Smith. Between late 2017 and late 2022, Woods was in a relationship with restaurant manager Erica Herman.

See also

In Spanish: Tiger Woods para niños

• Career Grand Slam Champions
• List of golfers with most European Tour wins
• List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins
• List of golfers with most wins in one PGA Tour event
• List of longest PGA Tour win streaks
• List of men's major championships winning golfers
• List of world number one male golfers
• Most PGA Tour wins in a year