Full Name: Eldrick Tont Woods
Date of Birth: December 30th, 1975
Place of Birth: Cypress, California
Nationality: American
Height: 6ft 1in
Turned Professional: 1996
Photo of Tiger Woods by Keith Allison
"Tiger" Woods is one of the most successful players in golf history. He became World Number One in June 1997 and dominated the sport for most of the 2000’s. In 2010, he temporarily left the tour due to much-publicised personal problems, eventually dropping to 58 in the rankings before winning the World Challenge in December 2011. He has since been rebuilding his career and is currently ranked Number Two.
Woods was a child prodigy, making numerous television appearances before the age of seven. He won the Junior World Championships six times and first broke 70 on a regulation golf course at the age of twelve. In 1994, he became the youngest-ever winner of the US Amateur Championship at the TPC at Sawgrass in Florida. He successfully defended his title the following year and became the first golfer to win the title for three consecutive seasons in 1996. He also won the Silver Medal as leading amateur at The Open Championship and turned professional shortly afterwards.
In 1997, Woods won his first major when taking the US Masters at Augusta by a remarkable twelve shots, becoming the tournament's youngest-ever winner in the process. Although 1998 proved less successful, Woods enjoyed eight victories in the 1999 season including the PGA Championship, defeating Sergio Garcia by a single stroke.
In 2000, Woods won six consecutive tournaments, the longest winning run for more than fifty years. In the 2000 U.S. Open, he devastated the field with a 15-stroke winning margin, breaking a host of records. His eight-stroke victory in the British Open meant that he was the youngest golfer in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam. He retained his US PGA title with a playoff victory over Bob May. He won nine of the twenty PGA Tour events he contested and broke the record for lowest scoring average in tour history.
In 2001, Woods continued his domination of the majors with a two-stroke victory in the Masters, making him the first player ever to hold all four majors at the same time. Woods' victory in the 2001 Masters Tournament made him the first player to hold all four major professional golf titles at the same time. He won the Masters and the US Open in 2002 before finally relinquishing his grip on the majors, having to wait until the Masters of 2005 before he returned to winning ways. During this period he was overtaken by Vijay Singh in the World Rankings, ending a record streak of 264 weeks.
Woods returned to the top in 2005, winning six official PGA Tour money events. He also won his second British Open, defeating Colin Montgomerie by five strokes. Woods won the opening two events on the PGA Tour in 2006 but his season was interrupted by the death of his father. He returned to win a third British Open and a third PGA, ending the year with six consecutive victories.
In 2007, Woods added a fourth PGA title and in 2008 he won a third US Open in a playoff to collect his sixteenth major championship. His US Open victory was achieved despite a serious knee injury that required surgery shortly after the event and caused him to miss the rest of the campaign. He failed to win a major in 2009 and golf was forced to take a back seat after the huge media storm that engulfed his personal life. He eventually returned in 2010, finishing in a tie for fourth at the US Masters but he could not recapture his form and did not win a single tournament for the first time since turning professional.
He again performed well at the 2011 Masters Tournament but leg problems caused him to miss several summer events. His world ranking dropped to an all-time low of 58 before finally breaking his losing streak at the Chevron World Challenge in December. In 2012, Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational to gain his first success on the PGA Tour since 2009. He equalled the record for PGA Tour victories when he won the Memorial Tournament in June, and surpassed Jack Nicklaus with a 74th Tour victory at the AT&T National.
