Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time and as one of the most famous athletes in modern history. Woods is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, holds numerous golf records,
and is an inductee of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Following an outstanding junior, college, and amateur career, Woods turned professional in 1996 at age 20. In April 1997 he won his first major, the 1997 Masters, which he won by 12 strokes in a record-setting performance. He reached number one in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in June 1997, less than a year after turning professional. At the 2000 U.S. Open Woods won by a major record 15 strokes which is regarded by many as the greatest performance in golf history. After winning the 2001 Masters he became the only player to win four consecutive major championships in a one-year period in a feat known as the "Tiger Slam". Woods dominated men's golf throughout the first decade of the 21st century, holding the world's top ranking from August 1999 to September 2004 (264 consecutive weeks) and again from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 consecutive weeks). The following decade was marked by comebacks from personal issues and injuries. He took a self‑imposed hiatus from professional golf from December 2009 to April 2010 to address marital problems. Woods fell to number 58 in the world rankings in November 2011 before returning to the number‑one position between March 2013 and May 2014. Injuries led to four back surgeries between 2014 and 2017, and he competed in only one tournament between August 2015 and January 2018, dropping out of the world's top 1,000 players. After returning to regular competition, he won the Tour Championship in September 2018—his first victory in five years—and the 2019 Masters, his first major in 11 years.
Woods holds numerous golf records. He has spent the most consecutive weeks and the most total weeks as the world's number‑one player. He has been named PGA Player of the Year a record 11 times, and he led the PGA Tour money list in 10 seasons. He has won 15 major golf championships (second only to Jack Nicklaus's 18) and 82 PGA Tour events (tied with Sam Snead for the all-time record). Woods is one of six men to complete the career Grand Slam, along with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Nicklaus, and Rory McIlroy. He is the youngest to do so, and one of two golfers—along with Nicklaus—to achieve the career Grand Slam three times. He was a member of the winning United States team at the 1999 Ryder Cup and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May 2019.
Woods was awarded AP Athlete of the Year four times and AP Athlete of the Decade of the 2000s. He was also awarded Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year three times and the Laureus World Sports Sportsman of the Year twice. Woods was among Times 100 most influential people in the world in 2004, 2009 and 2019, which is tied for the second most selections for a professional athlete. He has been listed by Forbes as the highest paid athlete in the world for a record 11 years, including for 10 straight years from 2002 to 2011. As of April 2026, his net worth was estimated at US$1.5 billion by Forbes.
On February 23, 2021, Woods was hospitalized after a single‑car collision and underwent emergency surgery for compound fractures in his right leg and a shattered ankle. In a November 2021 interview with Golf Digest, he stated that his full‑time professional career was over, though he intended to play a limited schedule. He returned to the PGA Tour at the 2022 Masters. In 2026, Woods was involved in another car crash and reached a plea deal for willful reckless driving.
Background and family
Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. He is the only child of Earl and Kultida "Tida" Woods (). He has two half‑brothers and a half‑sister from his father's first marriage.His Father's Son: Earl and Tiger Woods, by Tom Callahan, 2010; The Wicked Game, by Howard Sounes, 2004 Earl, a retired U.S. Army officer and Vietnam War veteran, was born to African-American parents and was also described as having European, Chinese, and Native American (Cherokee) ancestry."Earl Woods" (obituary). The Daily Telegraph (June 5, 2006). Retrieved June 19, 2012. Kultida was originally from Thailand, where she met Earl during his tour of duty in 1968. She was of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch descent. In 2002, ESPN stated that Woods was "one-quarter Thai, one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Caucasian, one-eighth African American and one-eighth Native American." Woods has described his ethnic background as "Cablinasian, a term he coined from Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian.
His mother chose his first name, Eldrick, because it began with "E" (for Earl) and ended with "K" (for Kultida). His middle name, Tont, is a traditional Thai name. He was nicknamed Tiger in honor of his father's friend, South Vietnamese colonel Vuong Dang Phong, who was also known as "Tiger". Woods's niece, Cheyenne Woods, played collegiate golf at Wake Forest University and turned professional in 2012, making her debut at the LPGA Championship.
Earl died on May 3, 2006. Kultida died on February 4, 2025. Following his mother's death, Woods stated that "without her none of my personal achievements would have been possible."
Early life and amateur golf career Eldrick Tont Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. A child prodigy, he was introduced to golf before the age of two by his father, an accomplished athlete who was a single‑digit‑handicap amateur golfer and one of the earliest African American college baseball players at Kansas State University.Training a Tiger: Raising a Winner in Golf and in Life, by Earl Woods and Pete McDaniel, 1997. Woods later said he had once hoped to become a baseball player like his father but abandoned that goal after tearing his rotator cuff. Because his father was a member of the military, he had playing privileges at the Navy Golf Course adjacent to the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, which allowed Woods to play there. Woods also played at the par-3 Heartwell Golf Course in Long Beach and at several Long beach municipal courses.
In 1978, Woods putted against comedian Bob Hope during a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy course. At age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC's That's Incredible!. Before turning seven, Woods won the Under‑Age‑10 division of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress.Training A Tiger, by Earl Woods and Pete McDaniel, 1997, p. 64. In 1984, at age eight, he won the 9–10 boys' event—the youngest available age group—at the Junior World Golf Championships. He first broke 80 at age eight.The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and the Story of Modern Golf, by Howard Sounes, 2004, William Morrow, New York, , p. 187; originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Nike's Tiger Woods professional career launch advertisement, August 1996. Woods went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive titles from 1988 to 1991. His father later wrote that Woods first defeated him at age 11, with Earl playing his best; Earl never beat Woods again. Training A Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life, by Earl Woods with Pete McDaniel, 1997, HarperCollins, New York, , p. 23; The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and the Story of Modern Golf, by Howard Sounes. Woods first broke 70 on a regulation course at age 12.His Father's Son: Earl and Tiger Woods, by Tom Callahan, 2010
At age 13, Woods played in the 1989 Big I, his first major national junior tournament. In the final round, he was paired with professional golfer John Daly, then relatively unknown. The event's format placed one professional with each group of juniors. Daly birdied three of the last four holes to defeat Woods by a single stroke.Training A Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life, by Earl Woods with Pete McDaniel, 1997, HarperCollins, New York, , p. 180. As a young teenager, Woods met Jack Nicklaus at the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, where Nicklaus was conducting a clinic. Woods participated in the exhibition and impressed Nicklaus and the audience with his skill and potential.Jack Nicklaus: Memories and Mementos from Golf's Golden Bear, by Jack Nicklaus with David Shedloski, 2007, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, , p. 130. His father had extensively studied Nicklaus's records and set those achievements as goals for his son.
At age 15, while attending Western High School in Anaheim, Woods became the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion, a record that stood until Jim Liu broke it in 2010. Woods was named the 1991 Southern California Amateur Player of the Year (for the second consecutive year) and the Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year. In 1992, Woods successfully defended his U.S. Junior Amateur title, becoming the event's first two‑time winner. That year he also competed in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los Angeles Open (he missed the 36-hole cut), and was named Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World Player of the Year, and Golfweek National Amateur of the Year.
Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur the following year, remaining the event's only three‑time champion. In 1994, at TPC Sawgrass in Florida, he became the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur, a record that stood until 2008 when it was broken by Danny Lee.Sounes, p. 277. He represented the U.S. at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships (winning) and the 1995 Walker Cup (losing).
Woods graduated from Western High School in 1994 at age 18 and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by his classmates. He starred on the school's golf team under coach Don Crosby.The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and the Story of Modern Golf, by Howard Sounes, 2004, William Morrow, New York, , information listed on inset photos between pages 168 and 169. As a child, Woods learned to manage a stutter.
This became publicly known when he wrote a letter to a boy who had contemplated suicide, telling him: "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."
College golf career Woods was heavily recruited by college golf powers and chose Stanford University, the reigning NCAA champions. He enrolled at Stanford in the fall of 1994 under a golf scholarship and won his first collegiate event, the 40th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational, that September. He selected a major in economics and was nicknamed "Urkel" by college teammate Notah Begay III. In 1995, he successfully defended his U.S. Amateur title at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island and was voted Pac-10 Player of the Year, NCAA First Team All-American, and Stanford's Male Freshman of the Year (an award that encompasses all sports).