Tiger Woods: Up Close and Personal

Trivia question: Who is the youngest winner in the famed Master's tournament in the world of golf, had the widest margin of victory and the most par second nine in the same tournament, is the highest paid athlete earning an estimated $ 85 million dollars, and has been named athlete of the year and sportsman of the year for several years in several magazines and media organizations?

Yep, you guessed it right: Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods is today's most successful, sensational, multi-awarded champion in the world of golf and is considered as golf's newest "global icon" He is such a golf sensation that nobody can ever say that he has never heard of Tiger Woods. Even people who are not into golf may not know the ins and outs of the game, but they know who Tiger Woods is.

Born in December 30, 1975 in Cypress California, Tiger's real name is "Eldrick Woods." His father is Earl Woods, a retired U.S Army Lieutenant Colonel of mixed African-American-Chinse and Native American Ancestry. His mother is Kultida Woods originally from Thailand who herself is of Thai-Chinese and Dutch Ancestry, making Eldrick a "Cablinasian" (A mix of Caucasian, Black, American-Indian and Asian) a term he coined himself. With this mix of multi-racial heritage, He is credited with promoting the minorities and young people in the United States to get interested in the game of golf. He is the only child of Earl and Kultida's marriage but he has two half brothers and one half-sister from Earl Wood's first wife.

Eldrick was nicknamed "Tiger" after a Vietnamese friend that his father served with in Vietnam. He became generally known by that name by the time he became very well known in amateur golf.

Coached by his father, Tiger began playing golf at the age of 2. He was a child prodigy in the game of golf. He was the youngest champion in the 9 to 10 boy's event of the Junior World of Golf championships considering that he was only 8 years old at that time. He won the Junior World Championship six times with four consecutive wins. He was 15 years old when he became the U.S Junior Amateur Champion making him the youngest in history.

To date he remains the youngest and only multiple winner of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, and remains the event's youngest-ever and only multiple winner. He also remains to be the youngest ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship. While in college, at Stanford University, Tiger continued to play golf and emerged a champion in several tournaments. At age 20, he became the first golfer in history to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles. Because of his talent for the game, He left college after two years to become a professional golfer.

Tiger, became a professional golfer in August of 1996 and signed millions of dollars worth of endorsement deals with Nike and Titleist. He continued to win major tournaments. Tiger's winning streak is considered the only time in the modern era that a player has been the holder of all four major championship titles at the same time. This is known today as "Tiger's slam." Despite this success, Tiger experienced certain "slumps" in his career. Although there were tournaments that he did not win for the most part of his career Tiger Woods is always seen to dominate the game. Today, Tiger Woods is still playing professional golf and is expected to win several major championships until he decided to retire from playing.

Tiger Woods tied the knot with Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model on October 2004. Their primary residence is a $ 39 million dollar residential property in Orlando Florida. They also have several houses in several states and in Sweden.

On May of 2006, Tiger's father and mentor, Earl Woods, died of prostate cancer at the age of 74. He was the chairman of his son's charitable foundation (the Tiger Woods Foundation)

Despite what others say that Tiger is loosing his edge because he remained virtually unchallenged at the top of the pyramid for so long, The late Earl Woods has this to say about his son: "He doesn't need a challenge, I think that is the worst misconception going, that the No.1 golfer needs a No. 2 golfer to push him. Tiger is pushed by history and by records and by his own goals. He doesn't need anybody pushing him."