Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods
Woods at the White House in May 2019
Personal information
Full name	Eldrick Tont Woods
Nickname	Tiger
Born	(1975-12-30) December 30, 1975 (age 48) Cypress, California, U.S.
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)[1]
Weight	185 lb (84 kg)[1]
Sporting nationality	United States
Residence	Jupiter Island, Florida, U.S.
Spouse	Elin Nordegren ​ ​ (m. 2004; div. 2010)​
Children	2
Career
College	Stanford University (two years)
Turned professional	1996
Current tour(s)	PGA Tour (joined 1996)
Professional wins	110[a]
Highest ranking	1 (June 15, 1997)[2] (683 weeks)
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	82 (Tied-1st all-time)
European Tour	41 (3rd all-time)[b]
Japan Golf Tour	3
Asian Tour	2
PGA Tour of Australasia	3
Other	17
Best results in major championships (wins: 15)
Masters Tournament	Won: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019
PGA Championship	Won: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
U.S. Open	Won: 2000, 2002, 2008
The Open Championship	Won: 2000, 2005, 2006
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 2021 (member page) Haskins Award 1996 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year 1996 PGA Tour money list winner 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013 PGA Tour Player of the Year 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013 PGA Player of the Year 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013 Byron Nelson Award 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 Vardon Trophy 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013 Laureus World Sports Award Sportsman of the Year 2000, 2001 PGA Tour FedEx Cup winner 2007, 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom 2019
(For a full list of awards, see here)

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records.^[4] Woods is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time and is one of the most famous athletes in modern history.^[4] He is an inductee of the World Golf Hall of Fame.^[5]

Following an outstanding junior, college, and amateur golf career, Woods turned professional in 1996 at the age of 20. By the end of April 1997, he had won three PGA Tour events in addition to his first major, the 1997 Masters, which he won by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance. He reached number one in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in June 1997, less than a year after turning pro. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, Woods was the dominant force in golf. He was the top-ranked golfer in the world from August 1999 to September 2004 (264 consecutive weeks) and again from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 consecutive weeks). During this time, he won 13 of golf's major championships.

The next decade of Woods's career was marked by comebacks from personal problems and injuries. He took a self-imposed hiatus from professional golf from December 2009 to early April 2010 in an attempt to resolve marital issues with his wife at the time, Elin. Woods admitted to multiple marital infidelities, and the couple eventually divorced.^[6] He fell to number 58 in the world rankings in November 2011 before ascending again to the number-one ranking between March 2013 and May 2014.^[7][8] However, injuries led him to undergo four back surgeries between 2014 and 2017.^[9] Woods competed in only one tournament between August 2015 and January 2018, and he dropped off the list of the world's top 1,000 golfers.^[10][11] On his return to regular competition, Woods made steady progress to the top of the game, winning his first tournament in five years at the Tour Championship in September 2018 and his first major in 11 years at the 2019 Masters.

Woods has held numerous golf records. He has been the number one player in the world for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any golfer in history. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record 11 times^[12] and has won the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times. Woods has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons. He has won 15 professional major golf championships (trailing only Jack Nicklaus, who leads with 18) and 82 PGA Tour events (tied for first all time with Sam Snead).^[13] Woods leads all active golfers in career major wins and career PGA Tour wins. Woods is the fifth (after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus) player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest to do so. He is also the second golfer out of two (after Nicklaus) to achieve a career Grand Slam three times.^[14]

Woods has won 18 World Golf Championships. He was also part of the American winning team for the 1999 Ryder Cup. In May 2019, Woods was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump, the fourth golfer to receive the honor.^[15]

On February 23, 2021, Woods was hospitalized in serious but stable condition after a single-car collision and underwent emergency surgery to repair compound fractures sustained in his right leg in addition to a shattered ankle.^[16] In an interview with Golf Digest in November 2021, Woods indicated that his full-time career as a professional golfer was over, although he would continue to play "a few events per year".^[17] For the first time since the car crash, he returned to the PGA Tour at the 2022 Masters.

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