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| Tiger Woods |
| Eye of the "Tiger" |
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Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, now 24 years of age, has had a remarkable start since becoming a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996. He has won 22 tournaments, 16 of those on the PGA TOUR, including the 1999 PGA Championship and the 1997 Masters Tournament. At the age of 21 years, three months and 14 days, Woods was the youngest Masters champion ever. He also was the first major championship winner of African or Asian heritage. With his career start, Woods has set records for the most victories for his age and for his years as a professional. His 21 professional victories at age 23 exceed the career start of Horton Smith, who had 15 career victories in 1931 at age 23. He had eight PGA TOUR victories and 11 overall in 1999, which were the most in one year at such a young age since Smith had eight PGA TOUR victories in 1929 at age 21. Smith had 10 victories in his first three years as a professional, through 1929. Jack Nicklaus had 12 PGA TOUR career victories and 15 overall in his first three years as a professional, through 1964. Woods' two professional major championships and three U.S. Amateur titles brought his total to five major championships at age 23, the same total as Nicklaus at that age. Nicklaus had three professional major victories and two U.S. Amateur titles. Woods was the first to have as many as eight PGA TOUR victories in one year since Johnny Miller won eight in 1974. His total has been equalled only six times and exceeded only five times. He won four consecutive PGA TOUR events to end 1999, and started 2000 with a fifth straight PGA TOUR victory in the Mercedes Championships. There have been only two longer winning streaks, Byron Nelson's 11 consecutive wins in 1945 and Ben Hogan's six in a row in 1948. His 11 worldwide victories in 1999 represented a total not achieved since the primes of Nelson, Hogan and Sam Snead in the 1945-50 period. His PGA TOUR earnings of $6,616,585 in 1999 were more than double the previous record total for one year. His dominance was such that Woods won an astounding 52 percent of all the prize money he could have won. He finished $2,974,679 ahead of runnerup David Duval with 81.7 percent more than Duval, the highest margin since Nelson in 1945 (87.2 percent) and Hogan in 1946 (85 percent). No other leading money winner of the 1990s led by as much as 20 percent. He had 16 top-10 finishes in 21 starts on the PGA TOUR and missed no 36-hole cuts, extending his streak to 39 consecutive events. In addition to the 1999 PGA Championship, Woods won the Buick Invitational, Memorial Tournament, Motorola Western Open, WGC NEC Invitational, National Car Rental Classic, Tour Championship and WGC American Express Championship on the PGA TOUR, the Deutsche Bank - SAP Open on the PGA European Tour, and the World Cup individual and team titles (with Mark O'Meara). Including an 11th victory in the PGA Grand Slam, his 1999 worldwide earnings were $7,681,625. Woods' career earnings to date are $14,641,832 including $11,837,129 on the PGA TOUR. Among the honors received, Woods was chosen by The Associated Press as the Male Athlete of the Year for the second time in three years. He became only the seventh man - and the second golfer - to earn the award twice since it was begun in 1931. The others were Byron Nelson, Don Budge, Sandy Koufax, Carl Lewis, Joe Montana and Michael Jordan, who won three times. He was selected as Player of the Year by the PGA TOUR (Jack Nicklaus Award), PGA of America and Golf Writers Association of America, awards which he also received in 1997. His adjusted scoring average in 1999 of 68.43 strokes was the lowest ever and earned the Byron Nelson Award on the PGA TOUR and the Vardon Trophy from the PGA of America. He achieved the highest points average (20.61) in the history of the Official World Golf Ranking and the largest margin ever over his closest rival (7.46 points), leading David Duval by that amount on November 7. His 750 points earned in 1999 were also a record. In 1998, Woods won three tournaments including the BellSouth Classic on the PGA TOUR. Woods started the year with a victory in the Johnnie Walker Classic, a PGA European Tour event in Thailand, when he rallied with 65 in the final round after starting tied for 18th place, eight strokes behind Ernie Els, whom he beat with a birdie on the second playoff hole. Woods had been 11 strokes behind Els after two rounds. Late in the year, Woods won the PGA Grand Slam. His worldwide earnings for 1998 were $2,927,006 including the three victories and four finishes in second place or tied for second. He was runner-up to Mark O'Meara in the Cisco World Match Play Championship and was second to Nick Price after a five-hole playoff in the Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge. He had 13 top-10 finishes in 20 starts on the PGA TOUR, including second in the Mercedes Championships and Nissan Open, and had official earnings of $1,841,117 for fourth place. In the 1997 Masters, Woods had a record score of 270, 18 under par at Augusta National Golf Club, and won by a record margin of 12 strokes. Among the many Masters records Woods broke (see attached Chronology) were the score of 271 set by Nicklaus in 1965 and equaled by Raymond Floyd in 1976. The previous record margin was nine strokes, set by Nicklaus in 1965. Twelve strokes was the largest margin in a major championship in the 20th century, and exceeded only by the 13-stroke victory by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 British Open and matched by the 12-stroke victory by his son, Young Tom Morris, in 1870. The Associated Press chose Woods as the 1997 Male Athlete of the Year. He was only the fifth golfer selected, following Gene Sarazen (1935), Byron Nelson (1944-45), Ben Hogan (1953) and Lee Trevino (1971). Woods was also selected for the 1997 ESPY Male Athlete of the Year Award (tied with Ken Griffey, Jr.) and received 1997 Player of the Year honors from the PGA TOUR (Jack Nicklaus Award), PGA of America, and Golf Writers Association of America. He achieved No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking for the most rapid progression ever to that lofty position. On June 15, 1997, in his 42nd week as a professional, Woods became the youngest-ever No. 1 golfer at age 21 years, 24 weeks. The previous youngest was Bernhard Langer, age 29 years, 31 weeks in 1986. The second-fastest rise from amateur status in the world rankings was by Jose Maria Olazabal, who needed 177 weeks to reach the top 10 but has never been No. 1. In 1997, Woods won the PGA TOUR season-opening Mercedes Championships over Tom Lehman with a spectacular playoff birdie, a six-iron shot on the par-three seventh hole that drew perfectly to the flag, landing two feet to the right of the hole and spinning back to within inches. He next won the Asian Honda Classic in Thailand by 10 strokes, then the Masters. In his first start after the Masters, Woods won the GTE Byron Nelson Classic and he later won the Motorola Western Open, for a total of five victories for the year. He finished 1997 with a record for PGA TOUR earnings in a single year of $2,066,833. His worldwide earnings were $2,440,831. Woods compiled one of the most impressive amateur records in golf history, winning six USGA national championships plus the NCAA title, before turning professional on August 27, 1996, eight months past his 20th birthday. He concluded his amateur career by winning an unprecedented third consecutive U.S. Amateur Championship with a record 18 consecutive match-play victories. Upon joining the PGA TOUR, Woods played in eight official events in 1996, earning $790,594 and finishing 25th on the money list. He won the Las Vegas Invitational and Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic. He was the first player since Robert Gamez in 1990 to win two tournaments in his first year, and the first since Curtis Strange in 1982 to record five consecutive top-five finishes. He won $940,420 worldwide in 11 tournaments. Sports Illustrated selected Woods as 1996 Sportsman of the Year. In 1991, at age 15, Woods was the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. He became the first to win that title twice in 1992 and won for a third time in 1993. At age 18, in 1994, he was the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur, rallying from six holes behind with the greatest comeback in the history of the event. He won the U.S. Amateur for the second time in 1995 and for the third time in 1996. He is the only player in USGA history to have won both the Junior Amateur and Amateur titles. In two years at Stanford University, Woods won 10 collegiate events, including seven of his last nine tournaments, concluding with the NCAA crown which featured a course-record 67 at The Honors Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His other amateur titles included the 1994 Western Amateur. He is the son of Earl Woods, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and his wife, Kultida, a native of Thailand. He was nicknamed "Tiger" after a Vietnamese soldier and friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong, to whom his father had also given that nickname. Born on December 30, 1975, Woods grew up in Cypress, California, 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles. He was not out of the crib before he took an interest in golf, at age 6 months, watching as his father hit golf balls into a net and imitating his swing. He appeared on the "Mike Douglas Show" at age 2, putting with Bob Hope. He shot 48 for nine holes at age 3 and was featured in Golf Digest at age 5. Woods won Optimist International Junior tournaments six times at ages 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15, and also won the Insurance Youth Golf Classic at age 14, when he was the youngest ever to win that title. He won his first U.S. Junior Amateur the next year, 1991, and had seven additional victories. Seven more titles, including two U.S. Junior Amateurs, followed in 1992 and 1993. He played in his first professional tournament in 1992, at age 16, the Nissan Los Angeles Open and in three more PGA TOUR events in 1993. He made the 36-hole cut and tied for 34th place in the 1994 Johnnie Walker Asian Classic in Thailand, and had three additional PGA TOUR appearances. He made history in the 1994 U.S. Amateur at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, defeating Trip Kuehne, 1-up, in the 36-hole final after trailing by as many as six holes. He was four under par on the last 12 holes, and still three holes behind with nine remaining. His six other victories in 1994 included the Western Amateur and his first collegiate event at Stanford. He was on the winning United States team in the World Amateur Team Championships. He was selected as 1994 Man of the Year by Golf World. Woods won the 1995 U.S. Amateur, 2-up, over Buddy Marucci at Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island. He was a finalist for the Sullivan Award, presented to the nation's most outstanding amateur athlete, and a member of the United States team for the Walker Cup Match. He played in his first major championships in 1995, making the 36-hole cuts in the Masters and the British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland, but had to withdraw from the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York, because of an injured wrist. Woods also made the 36-hole cut in the Motorola Western Open and Scottish Open. In his second year at Stanford, Woods had eight victories in 14 tournaments and finished lower than third only twice. He was chosen for the Fred Haskins and Jack Nicklaus College Player of the Year awards. He played in three more major championships in 1996, making the cuts in two of them. After missing the 36-hole cut in the Masters, Woods played in the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills and had the lead through 13 holes of the first round. He made the cut and finished tied for 82nd. Woods recovered from a 75 in the first round of the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, England, with rounds of 66-70-70 for a total of 281 that tied the British Open record for an amateur. His 66 in the second round equaled the lowest ever by an amateur. Woods won the 1996 U.S. Amateur on the 38th hole over Steve Scott at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Cornelius, Oregon, after being five holes down after the first round of the 36-hole final match. Two down with three holes remaining, Woods birdied the 16th and 17th holes to draw even. Before Woods, two golfers had won two consecutive U.S. Amateurs then lost in the final in their attempt to win three titles, Jerome Travers in 1914 and Bob Jones in 1926.
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