Tiger Woods

Full name: Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods.
Nickname: Tiger
Born: December 30, 1975,in Cypress, California, as the only child of an African-American Army officer father(Earl Woods) and a Thai mother(Barbara Woods).

His father began calling Woods by the nickname "Tiger" in honor of a fellow soldier and friend who had the same moniker.
From childhood he was raised as a Buddhist and actively practised this faith from childhood
until well into his adult career.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."

Woods learned to play golf as a child. His father, Earl, served as his teacher and mentor. Around the age of eight, Woods had become extremely proficient at the game, showing off his skills on such television shows as Good Morning America.























Career: Tiger woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008, having earned an estimated $110 million from winnings and endorsements. He studied at Stanford University, and won a number of amateur U.S. golf titles before turning professional in 1996.

First major win 1996–98: Tiger Woods became a professional in 1996(August), and signed endorsement deals worth $40 million from Nike, Inc. and $20 million from Titleist. He played his first round of professional golf at the Greater Milwaukee Open, tying for 60th place, but went on to win two events in the next three months to qualify for the Tour Championship. The following April, Woods won his first major, The Masters, with a record score of 18 under par, by a record margin of 12 strokes, becoming the youngest Masters winner and the first African American to do so. He set a total of 20 Masters records and tied six others. He won another three PGA Tour events that year, and on June 15, 1997, in only his 42nd week as a professional, rose to number one in the Official World Golf Rankings, the fastest-ever ascent to world No. 1.He was named PGA Player of the Year, the first golfer to win the award the year following his rookie season.







Achievements:
* PGA Tour wins (71)
* European Tour wins (38)
* Japan Golf Tour wins (2)
* Asian Tour wins (1)
* PGA Tour of Australasia wins (1)
* Other professional wins (15)
* Amateur wins (21)










Championships:

Year Championship Holes Wnining Score Margin
1997 Masters Tournament 9 shot lead −18 (70–66–65–69=270) 12 strokes
1999 PGA Championship Tied for lead −11 (70–67–68–72=277) 1 stroke
2000 U.S. Open 1 0 shot lead −12 (65–69–71–67=272) 15 strokes
2000 The Open Championship 6 shot lead −19 (67–66–67–69=269) 8 strokes
2000 PGA Championship 1 shot lead −18 (66–67–70–67=270) Playoff
2001 Masters Tournament 1 shot lead −16 (70–66–68–68=272) 2 strokes
2002 Masters Tournament Tied for lead −12 (70–69–66–71=276) 3 strokes
2002 U.S. Open 4 shot lead −3 (67–68–70–72=277) 3 strokes
2005 Masters Tournament 3 shot lead −12 (74–66–65–71=276) Playoff
2005 The Open Championship 2 shot lead −14 (66–67–71–70=274) 5 strokes
2006 The Open Championship 1 shot lead −18 (67–65–71–67=270) 2 strokes
2006 PGA Championship Tied for lead −18 (69–68–65–68=270) 5 strokes
2007 PGA Championship 3 shot lead −8 (71–63–69–69=272) 2 strokes
2008 U.S. Open 1 shot lead −1 (72–68–70–73=283) Playoff







PGA Tour career summary:

Year Wins(Majors)
1996 2
1997 4(1)
1998 1
1999 8(1)
2000 9(3)
2001 5(1)
2002 5(2)
2003 5
2004 1
2005 6(2)
2006 8(2)
2007 7(1)
2008 4(1)
2009 6
2010 0
Career* 71(14)
*Before=June 20, 2010.

Others:
Writings: Tiger Woods has written a golf instruction column for Golf Digest magazine since 1997,and in 2001 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.