Tiger Woods is known as one of the most important golfers of the decade, perhaps even the most important. His was born on December 30 of 1975, in California. He is considered the 2nd golf player in the world with the biggest amount of majors won in the history of golf.
He managed to get five titles associated with the Augusta Masters, one in 1997, the second in 2001, and the following year he also got the third one (2002). The fourth was in 2005 and in this same year he managed to get the second prize at the US Open, and finally last year he got his fifth prize at the Augusta Masters (2019). Also, between the years 2000 and 2006 he achieved the 1st and 3rd prize of the US Open.
In the PGA Championship, he obtained 4 awards, the 1st in 1999, the second the following year (2000), the 3rd in 2006 and the last the following year (2007). Not forgetting to mention the victories throughout his career, achieving more than 15 victories in this championship to date.
He is the only player, along with Rory Mclqlroy, who has managed to win the FedEx Cup twice, in 2007 and 2009. And like all these titles that we mentioned, he has innumerable.
How did it all start?
His love for this sport began at the early age of 3 years old. One of the players he most admired, and for whom he began to have a huge interest was Nicklaus Bear, being to date his most important rival in the history of the sport.
His name began to be known long before he was 20 years old, when he managed to win an Amateur Open 3 times in a row in the USA. In 1996 he decided to enter golf professionally, achieving with this decision to win 2 professional tournaments in less than 5 months.
The year 1997 was the one when everything began to be much more real for the young golfer, when he managed to win the famous Masters at the well-known Augusta National Golf Club, and he was only 21 years old at the time. Getting at that early age an indisputable majority of points and achieving a wide difference in strokes in his game, he managed to open his path with greater force in this sport.
His dream of reaching the famous Nicklaus is still alive. But we cannot forget that golf has changed throughout its history, and we should also emphasize the age difference between Nicklaus and Woods. Before Woods entered the radar of the best, with only 25 years old Nicklaus had a total of 18 victories while Woods in only 14 years managed to accumulate a total of 14 victories. In the world of golf, it is considered a success, but we cannot forget that it is still missing to achieve its dream of not only reaching but also being able to overpass Nicklaus.
His journey in the world of golf has had its tense moments, hard work, and a lot of effort. But he has always had his goals set since the early age of 3, giving him that important impulse that every player who loves, not only a sport but also to achieve dreams, need.
According to important analysts, Tiger has 10 years left to try to match or surpass his all time hero, but it is worth noting the fact that only one golfer in the last 58 years has won five majors after reaching 35, and that i‘s Nicklaus. On the other hand, Tiger is still active and a career that seems to have left time.
After analyzing the figures of both golfers, the question remains as to who is the best golfer of all times. It is very likely that if Tiger had continued in the same line of sporting achievements that began in 1997 and was interrupted in 2009, the Californian would have surpassed the titles and victories of the Golden Bear in the PGA Tour over time and it is possible that also regarding majors. Unfortunately, with all the inconveniences he had that year with his family, we will never know.
The influence of Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods is considered as one of the most influential athletes in the world of sport (golf). In just his first grand prize and which promoted him, he managed to generate 486 thousand net dollars. Without forgetting to take into account the contracts and the following tournaments or prizes obtained throughout his sports‘ career, in 2005 he was considered by Forbes magazine the highest-paid athlete with an amount valued at 87 million dollars.
Everything was going perfect, but in that same year, the family scandal broke in 2009. His earnings on the American Tour could have been a career record if he had started the season a little earlier or if he had participated in one or two more tournaments, since it was about 360,000 euros, much more than what he made in his most profitable year (2007) when he earned 10,867.05 dollars.
The 10,508,163 that he obtained in 2009 in prizes on the PGA Tour raised his earnings on that circuit, which he joined as a professional in 1996, to a total of $ 92,862,539, just a tenth of what he has supposedly earned until now, adding up your advertising revenue and other items, making in total about a billion dollars, which turns Tiger the highest-paid athlete in history. Unfortunately, he is also the one who has probably paid the most for the divorce.
However, in 2010, after his return to competition, Tiger had the worst streak of his career and ended the year without a single win. The year 2011 was an equally tough season for the Californian, although at the end of the year, in December, he finally experienced a joy. Anyway, the Tiger does not throw the towel, and he has assured that he wants to continue competing at the highest level and that he does it to win. He won’t settle for second places and his ultimate goal is to break Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors won.