WORLD TOP SPORTS STARS: tiger wood top golfer

Eldrick Tont "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. Fomerly the World No. 1, he is the highest-paid professional athlete in the world, having earned an estimated $90.5 million from winnings and endorsements in 2010.

Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time.[8] He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 16 World Golf Championships, and has won at least one of those events each of the 11 years they have been in existence.

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 Player of the Year a record ten times,[9] the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons.

On December 11, 2009, Woods announced he would take an indefinite leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by over a dozen women, through many worldwide media sources.[10][11] Woods returned to competition for the 2010 Masters on April 8, 2010,[12] after a break lasting 20 weeks.

In July 2010, Forbes announced Tiger Woods as the richest sportsman in the world, earning a reported $105m according to them and $90.5m according to Sports Illustrated.[13]

On the 31st October 2010, Woods lost the world number 1 ranking to Lee Westwood.[14]
Contents
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* 1 Background and family
* 2 Early life and amateur golf career
* 3 College golfing career
* 4 Professional career
o 4.1 1996–98: early years and first major win
o 4.2 1999–2002: slams
o 4.3 2003–04: Swing adjustments
o 4.4 2005–07: resurgence
o 4.5 Death of father
o 4.6 Returns to top form
o 4.7 2008: injury-shortened season
o 4.8 2009: returning to the PGA Tour
o 4.9 2010
* 5 Playing style
* 6 Equipment
* 7 Other ventures and aspects
o 7.1 Charity and youth projects
o 7.2 Writings
o 7.3 Golf course design
o 7.4 Endorsements
o 7.5 Honors
o 7.6 Politics
o 7.7 Cut streak
o 7.8 Tiger-proofing
o 7.9 Ryder Cup performance
* 8 Career achievements
o 8.1 Major championships
+ 8.1.1 Wins (14)
+ 8.1.2 Results timeline
o 8.2 World Golf Championships
+ 8.2.1 Wins (16)
+ 8.2.2 Results timeline
o 8.3 PGA Tour career summary
* 9 Personal life
o 9.1 Marriage
o 9.2 Marital infidelity and career break
o 9.3 Other
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 Further reading
* 13 External links

Background and family

Woods was born in Cypress, California, to Earl (1932–2006) and Kultida (Tida) Woods (born 1944). 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 lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War veteran, was of mixed African American, Chinese, and Native American ancestry. Kultida (née Punsawad), originally from Thailand, is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry. This makes Woods himself half Asian (one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Thai), one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch.[15] He refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian, and Asian).[16]

From childhood he was raised as a Buddhist and actively practised this faith from childhood until well into his adult career.[17] He has attributed his deviations and infidelity to his losing track of Buddhism. He said that "Buddhism teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."[18]

At birth, Woods was given 'Eldrick' and 'Tont' as first and middle names. His middle name, Tont (Thai: ต้น), is a traditional Thai name.[19] He got his nickname from a Vietnamese soldier friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong,[20] to whom his father had also given the Tiger nickname. He became generally known by that name and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior and amateur golf, he was simply known as 'Tiger' Woods.

tiger wood