Tiger Woods: 42 fun facts about the professional golfer!

Tiger Woods s an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time. He has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years.

Find out intriguing facts about him here!

1. Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods  was born December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California.

2. His parents were Earl and Kultida Woods.

3. He is the only child of their marriage. However, he does have two half-brothers, Earl Jr. and Kevin, and a half-sister, Royce from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife, Barbara Woods Gray.

4. Kultida, originally from Thailand, is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry.

5. Tiger refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian).

6. Woods’ first name, Eldrick, was coined by his mother because it began with “E” (for Earl) and ended with “K” (for Kultida).

7. His middle name Tont is a traditional Thai name.

8. He was nicknamed Tiger in honor of his father’s friend Col. Vuong Dang Phong, who had also been known as Tiger.

9. Woods has a niece, Cheyenne Woods, who played for Wake Forest University’s golf team and turned professional in 2012, making her pro debut in the LPGA Championship.

10. He was a child prodigy, introduced to golf before the age of two, by his athletic father Earl, a single-figure handicap amateur golfer who had been one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University.

11. In 1978, Tiger putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show.

12. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes over the Cypress Navy course, and at age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC’s That’s Incredible.

13. Before turning seven, Tiger won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. Woods overcame difficulties with stuttering as a boy.

17. This was not known until he wrote a letter to a boy who contemplated suicide. Woods wrote, “I know what it’s like to be different and to sometimes not fit in. I also stuttered as a child and 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.”

18. Woods did his schooling from the Western High School in Anaheim and graduated from Western High School in 1994.

19. He enrolled at Stanford in 1994 under a golf scholarship.

20. He did his major in economics, and was nicknamed “Urkel” by college teammate Notah Begay III.

21. On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Woods would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

22. Tiger credits his fine hand and finger control to years of playing video games as a kid. The games also helped him overcome fear of failure.

23. Between the ages of 16 and 17, Tiger grew so quickly that he had to change club lengths twice.

24. After Tiger skipped the 1996 dinner at which he was to receive the award for top college golfer, he personally wrote 200 letters of apology to the guests.

25. At a 2000 tournament in Thailand, Tiger was offered Thai citizenship. He politely turned the offer down.

26. In 2006, Tiger became the youngest golfer to reach 50 victories at the age of 30.

27. Woods owns a 150-foot yacht called Privacy.

28. Tiger was raised as a Buddhist by this Thai mother and he actively practiced it.

29. His eyesight was 11, before having a laser eye surgery in 1999, which gave him 20/15 vision. After which, he won seven of his next 10 events.

30. His favorite movies are Caddyshack, 48 Hours, and all James Bond movies. His favorite musicians are U2, Boyz II Men, and Janet Jackson.

31. In 2004, Woods married Elin Nordegren and had 2 kids, but got divorced in 2010. He has a daughter named Sam Alexis Woods, and son, Charlie Axel Woods.

32. In 2009, it was revealed that he had multiple affairs with several women and more than a dozen mistress.
On December 11, 2009, Woods admitted to infidelity, and apologized to his fans and family.

33. In February 2007, along with Roger Federer and Thierry Henry, Woods became an ambassador for the “Gillette Champions” marketing campaign.

34. In 2009, Forbes confirmed that Woods was indeed the world’s first athlete to earn over a billion dollars in his career (before taxes).

35. He always considered his father as his best friend. He was really affected by his father’s death in 2006 after battling prostate cancer.

36. He always wears red color on the final day of the tournament, as his mother feels that it’s a power color and brings good luck for him.

37. In 1996, he and his father started The Tiger Woods Foundation, to promote golf among inner-city children. In 2010, he donated $3 million to Haitian earthquake relief.

38. He loves to eat McDonalds Cheese Burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, french fries, Taco Bell, and strawberry or vanilla shakes.

39. His net worth is around $640 million, which makes him the second richest “African American”, after Oprah Winfrey. He is the first athlete ever to earn a billion dollars from his sport.

40. Woods also loves to write, as he wrote a column for Golf Digest magazine from 1997 to 2011. In 2001, he wrote a book called “How I Play Golf”, which proved to be the best-selling golf instruction book with around 1.5 million copies sold.

41. His perfect day is to surf, ski, play golf, and go spear-fishing, all in the same day!

42. Tiger had nine cheeseburgers when he hosted his first Masters dinner.