Tiger Woods

3 Pages 868 Words

Eldrick Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California. As soon as he could stand up on his own, Tiger’s parents, Earl and Kiltida, introduced their only child to the game of golf by giving him a sawed-off putter to practice with. He picked the game up fast and was shooting in the high 40's for nine holes before his third birthday. At the age of 8, he won the first of six Optimist International Junior World Titles. He is the only player in USGA history to have won both the Junior Amateur and Amateur titles. He played in his first professional tournament in 1992, at age 16, the Nissan Los Angeles Open. 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. On June 15, 1997, he achieved No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking in his 42nd week as a professional; Woods became the youngest-ever No. 1 golfer at age 21 years, 24 weeks. 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.
Nothing foretold what would happen in 1999, when Woods’ success reached heights never before imagined. In his third full season as a professional, Woods won eight times on the PGA TOUR, including the PGA Championship, and earned $6,616,585. He had a margin of $2,974,679 over runner up David Duval, a figure greater than the previou...