Eldrick (
Tiger) Woods, son of
Earl and Kultida Woods, is considered
one of the greatest golfers of all
time. He became a professional golfer in 1996.
As of mid-2004, he has won 53 tournaments, 41 of those on the PGA Tour, including the 1997, 2001 and 2002 Masters Tournaments, 1999 and 2000 PGA Championships, 2000 and 2002 US Open Championships and 2000 British Open Championship. He is one of only five players (along with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player) in the history of golf to win all four professional major championships in a career.
With his victory in The Masters in 2001, he became the only man to have held all four professional majors at once, although this did not occur in a calendar year, and is therefore not recognized by some as a true "Grand Slam". The achievement has been nicknamed "The Tiger Slam". Before joining the PGA Tour, Woods won three consecutive United States Junior Amateur titles, followed by three consecutive United States Amateur titles. With his first US Amateur win in 1994, he became the youngest man ever to win that event. He won one NCAA individual championship while studying at Stanford University and is the only two-time winner as an individual of Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award (1996, 2000).
Woods' major tournament victories are as follows:
The Masters (1997, 2001, 2002)
US Open (2000, 2002)
The Open Championship (2000)
PGA Championship (1999, 2000)
Woods has an excellent all-around game. He is one of the longer drivers on the tour (12th place in 2003), with a driving distance average of 300.2 so far in 2003. He is also one of the best putters, at 19th place in putts per round so far in 2003. At the 2003 TOUR Championship, he set an all-time record for most consecutive cuts made, with 114. The next player is Ernie Els with 26 consecutive cuts.
Woods, who has African-American, Asian, Native American, and Caucasian ancestors, is credited with prompting a major surge of interest in the game of golf, especially among minorities and younger people in the United States. His father Earl Woods, an African American, is a Vietnam War veteran and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. His mother Kultida Woods is an Asian-American whose parents were immigrants from Thailand.
In 2003, he became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model. They were introduced by Swedish golf star Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as a nanny. They married in a sunset ceremony at the Sandy Lane Hotel and Golf Club on Barbados amid armed security before approximately 200 family and friends on October 5, 2004.
--Wikipedia
