When talking about the greatest to ever play the game of golf, a few names are always in the conversation. Such names include Jack Nicklaus, who has won a record of 18 majors, or Sam Snead, who held the record for most PGA wins in history, for most Arnold Palmer comes to mind because of his wide popularity on and off the course. To me, only one player is in the contention for the Greatest of All Time, and his name is Tiger Woods.
Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California to Earl and Kultida Woods. Tiger was the lone child conceived by Earl and Kultida, as Earl was previously married to a woman named Barbara, with whom he had 3 children. The oldest was named Earl Woods Jr. after his father, the next born was another boy named Kevin in 1957, and Royce followed after in 1961. Earl and Barbara were an unhappy couple all along and often fought, but Earl stayed in the marriage for the sake of his children.
Earl was in the military and often gone from home, but when he arrived home from his second tour in Vietnam in 1970, he decided to play it out for a year before the couple got a divorce on August 13, 1971. Kultida was a receptionist at a military base in Bangkok, where Earl was stationed on tour. This led to Earl asking Kultida on a date, to which she agreed to go. In 1973 the couple got married in New York. Not long after in 1974 Earl retired from the military, and was ready to start building a family, one that he would be there for this time.
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“ Ok, let me say I’m extremely satisfy with the result while it was a last minute thing. I really enjoy the effort put in. ”
Earl at the age of 42, was challenged to a golf match on his army base. This was his first time playing golf, but quickly fell in love with the game, and started to practice. This love quickly fell down the tree to Tiger. After meticulously watching his father, Tiger at only 10 months old, decided to swing a golf club for the first time and was an exact duplicate of his father’s swing. Earl then ran through the house screaming, “We have a genius on our hands”. By the time young Tiger was 4, he was able to play a full nine holes. He and his father often played on military courses, that Earl had access to due to being a veteran. Earl states “One day before his first birthday, he shot a 48 on 9 holes”. That is 12 over par on most courses and would be a decent score for most occasional adult players. Tiger continued to hone in on his golf skills all the way through his childhood.
At 13 years old Tiger played in a Pro-Am, where he got to play with professional golfer John Daly. Daly was shocked when Tiger was actually beating him by 2 shots through the first nine holes. Daly did wind up defeating the 13-year old phenom by 2 strokes with a final score of 70. Tiger continued to compete in tournaments, winning several, until he found himself in the U.S. Amateur Championship at age 15. Though Tiger qualified for the Championship, he was unable to capitalize on the situation and lost his first round of head-to-heads. This was the story for the next couple of years as well, but in 1994, Tiger won his very first U.S. Amateur Championship. Woods overcame a huge deficit coming into his final round of the Championship, but with a birdie on the 17th hole at TPC- Sawgrass, Tiger took the lead and gave a huge fist pump with his right arm starting his famous trademark for years to come.
Tiger continued to win the tournament in 1995 as well as 1996. Winning 3 straight Championships, unanimously makes Tiger the greatest amateur golfer to ever play the game. These historic wins gave Tiger an automatic berth into the Master’s tournament, which would be his first chance to play in a major PGA event. Before Tiger was off to Augusta, to play in the Masters, he was practicing all day, every day leading up to the event. It was said that the last practice round Tiger shot before getting on the plane, was a 59. Mark O’Meara, a former PGA Tour player who played with Tiger that day said “I lost about 65 bucks that day, I lost every hole but 1, it’s amazing really”.
Augusta National Golf Course is the home of the Master’s tournament and one of only four major tournaments in the season. The Masters is a huge deal, and the youngest player to ever win a U.S. Ametuer was warming up to play his very first Major at only 21. At tee-off, Tiger became only the fourth African-American player to ever compete at the Master’s tournament. Woods opened his first of four rounds with an even-par 72, and quickly followed up on Friday for a second-round 72. Unfortunately, over the weekend Tiger had some difficulties and scored a 77 and a 72. These are often where a player has to make a surge up the leaderboards if they want to win. By the end of the tournament, Tiger finished in 41st place, fifteen shots behind the winner, Ben Crenshaw.
Shortly after, Tiger announced that he would be leaving the Ametuer league, and turning pro. This was a big step for Tiger and his future career. Before even playing his first tournament as an official professional, Woods signed an endorsement deal with Nike and Titleist. These two deals alone were worth up to sixty million dollars over five years. After starting the 1997 season off with a victory at the opening Mercedes-Benz tournament, Tiger made his way to the Masters and became the youngest player to ever win the coveted title, as well as first African-American to ever win. Before Tiger started the tournament on Thursday morning, his father Earl told him, “Son, this will be one of the hardest rounds you’ll ever play, but also the most rewarding”. This win sent Tiger on a rampage of wins on tour. For the next several years Tiger won several major tournaments along with dozens of tour wins.
Just as Tiger was at the top of the mountain, a string of unfortunate events occurred in Tiger’s personal life. Wood’s first started to have back pains, which heavily affected his golf game. Tiger would fall down to his knees after hitting a single shot. Even while experiencing this terrible pain, Tiger still managed to win the tournament he was playing that day, which is an outstanding display of his skill on the course. Off the course, Tiger was accused of having an extramarital affair in 2009. Woods denied the allegations at first but then apologized in public for unfaithfulness. This led to further problems, one of which was also in 2009 when Tiger was driving under the influence, and crashed his car into a fire hydrant. This led to Tiger officially taking a break from competing in golf. This was a very rough time for Tiger and led many to question if we would ever be the same.
Tiger now had to figure out what adjustments he needed to make to be the dominant golfer once was. He was given a plethora of surgeries for his back and started to train again. When Tiger officially came back to competing, it was a rough stretch for him, but he finally found his groove. Tiger started winning tournaments and showing promise for the future. He even won the 2019 Masters tournament. At the beginning of the 2020 season, Tiger is tied for the most wins on tour for a career and looks forward to becoming the sole possessor of that title. Now that we are all aware of Tiger’s dominance, and incredible willpower to keep pushing through all of his inconveniences, one question still stands. Who is the greatest golfer of all time? Though there will never be a unanimous answer to this question, personally I feel by overcoming every challenge in front of him, Tiger Woods has shown his worthiness of this title.
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