Tiger Woods - Biography, Achievements and Quotes

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No. 1, he was the highest-paid athlete in the world according to Forbes for several years.
Woods turned professional in 1996, and by April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters in a record-breaking performance. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as world number one. From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011. He snapped a career-long winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. As of February 3, 2013, he is ranked No. 2, after winning the Farmers Insurance Open for the 7th time.
Woods has broken numerous golf records. He has been world number one for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any other golfer. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons. He has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 75 PGA Tour events, 2nd all time behind Sam Snead. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 16 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999.

Achievements & Facts about Tiger Woods

• He is a Buddhist
• He appeared on The Mike Douglas Show on TV in 1978. An immensely popular video among all his fans, it captures an incredibly cute two year old tiger putting against comedian Bob Hope.
• Officially known as "The Open Championship" or simply, "The Open."
• The oldest of the four majors in professional golf. The first Open was won by Willie Park Sr. in 1860 at the Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland.
• The event takes place on one of nine links courses in Scotland or England.
• He attended Stanford University for two years.
• Tiger had nine cheeseburgers served when he hosted his first Masters dinner.
• His favorite movie is "Caddyshack.'' He also loves "48 Hours'' and all James Bonds movies, especially the older one's starring Sean Connery as 007.
• Tiger's favorite Musicians include: U2, Boyz II Men and Janet Jackson.
• His perfect day is to surf, ski, play golf, and go spear-fishing in the same day!
• Tiger’s first name, Eldrick, was designed to be a combination of his parents’ names, so that he would always be surrounded by his parents. The ‘E’ is for Earl and the ‘K’ is for Kultida.
• The Golf Champion Trophy (Claret Jug - seen above) replaced the Challenge Belt in 1873,
• However, Tom Morris Junior's name was already engraved as the 1872 winner when the Jug was presented to Tom Kidd in 1873.
• Bobby Jones claimed The Open title three times as an amateur in 1926, 1927, and 1930.
• In 1979 at Royal Lytham, Seve Ballesteros (below) drove his ball into a car park, went on to birdie the hole and then won the event!
• Tiger wakes up every morning at 5am.
• Tiger was the first person of African or Asian heritage to win a major championship.
• Tiger majored in Economics at Stanford.
• Tiger never graduated from Stanford. He dropped out halfway through in order to pursue his professional golfing career.
• In an interview, Tiger said he would most want to have dinner with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
• Old Tom Morris is still the oldest winner of the oldest major championship, when he won the 1867 Open at 46 years and 99 days old.
• Jack Nicklaus had a record 59 rounds under par at The Open.
• Three-time champion (1959, 1968, 1974) Gary Player (below) played in a record 47 Opens.
• Tiger has four red Nike Golf polo shirts in his closet and he has won 37 tournaments wearing only one of them.
• Tiger and his dad used to do a trick at the golf clinics they put on for kids. His father Earl would stand in front of him and keep coming closer as Tiger hit golf balls over his dads head. Finally Earl would end up just a few feet away, at which point Tiger would hit a shot that went almost straight up and landed on his father's head!
• Tiger told Oprah that he identifies as “caublinasian,” which is a combination of Caucasian, black, Indian, and Asian).
• Tiger’s driver hits the ball at an average speed of 125 miles per hour. Most professional golfers swing at 80 miles per hour.
• After winning his first Master’s, Tiger hugged Lee Elder, an older black golfer, and thanked him for making Tiger’s own success possible.
• Tiger launched his official website in 1997. He was one of the first professional athletes to have a website. He also currently has official Facebook and Twitter accounts.
• His first job was as a cart boy.
• Woods experienced a great personal loss in 2006. His father died in May after battling prostate cancer. Woods remarked on his website at the time, "My dad was my best friend and greatest role model, and I will miss him deeply." Despite his grief, Woods returned to golf and won several events, including the PGA championship and the British Open.
• The next season was marked by many wins personally and professionally. His wife gave birth to the couple's first child, Sam Alexis Woods, on June 18, 2007. After taking some time off to welcome his daughter, he won the World Golf Championship and US PGA Championship in August 2007.
• The next month, Woods' winning ways continued, garnering the top spot at the BMW Championship and The Tour Championship. He was named Player of the Year by the other participants in the PGA Tour and won his eighth Arnold Palmer Award for being the lead money earner on the tour.
• Tiger wood has an illustrious track record. He turned professional in 1996 and though he was already well-known in golf circles, he received global recognition when he won the U.S. Masters in 1997. Not only did he set a record score of 270, he became the youngest man to win it at the age of 21. Over the course of the following few years, he won four US PGA titles, three U.S. Open wins, three Open Championship wins, and three U.S. Masters wins. Consistent in his wins, he took home five trophies in 2003, including the Buick Invitational and the Western Open. 
• While many were ready to write him off when he experienced a slump in 2004, his spectacular comeback with six championship wins in 2005 silenced them. Since then, he has maintained his position as golf's golden boy, overcoming injuries, stress fractures and knee surgery. His latest victory was the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March 2009.
• Tiger Woods was born Eldrick Tont Woods on December 30, 1975. The pet name 'Tiger' was borrowed from a Vietnamese soldier and friend of his father. Little did his parents realize that the name would fit like a glove, as their little Tiger would one day rule the greens.
• Tiger's parents are the late Earl Woods and Kultida (Tida) Woods. His father Earl, who retired as a lieutenant colonel from the United States Army, was also a Vietnam War veteran. He met Kultida, a native of Thailand, in Bangkok, and the two married in 1969. 
• Tiger is their only child, but he does have two half-brothers and one half-sister from his father's previous marriage. He grew up in Orange County, California and graduated from Western High School in Anaheim in 1994. He is said to have been a diligent student, achieving high grades in school.

Some Superb Quotes of Tiger woods

• No matter how good you get you can always get better and that's the exciting part”
• One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about it.”
• I think it's an honor to be a role model to one person or maybe more than that. If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person's life in a positive light, and that's what I want to do. That's what it's all about.”
• I'm trying as hard as I can, and sometimes things don't go your way, and that's the way things go.”
• If you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?”
• Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.”
• I get to play golf for a living. What more can you ask for - getting paid for doing what you love.”
• The key in shooting any good round is to give yourself some chances and, tomorrow, if my swinging is feeling any good, I'll have some chances. But, if it's not, then I'll have to give myself those 15 to 20 footers and hope I can make those.”
• My dad has always taught me these words: care and share. That's why we put on clinics. The only thing I can do is try to give back. If it works, it works.”
• I don't know if I even have an aura, man. I just try to win.
• If you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?
• One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about it.
• I think it's an honor to be a role model to one person or maybe more than that. If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person's life in a positive light, and that's what I want to do. That's what it's all about.
• Boy, you could say that of a lot of tournaments, can't you? I've finished close in major championships before, so I had a chance this week and I'll get after it in another week.
• Well I think one of the things as far as golf, one of the things my dad kept instilling in me was the joy of the game. He made it fun for me. A lot of the times I see a lot of the kids, they don't enjoy being out there and that's a shame, you're supposed to enjoy the game.
• Days when you just don't have it, you don't mail it in, you don't pack it in, you give it everything you've got. You grind it out, I don't care what kind of game you have, you somehow try and find a way to get it done...That's part of my attitude and belief, that you should always have the switch on. You can't turn it on and off.
• You can play from the wrong position for a long time with good hands, but eventually it's going to catch up with you.
• I think the golf swing is all about rotation, all about trying to keep the club on plane.