PLAYER PROFILE · PGA TOUR
Tiger Woods is the most transformative golfer of the modern era — a 15-time major champion whose dominance between 1997 and 2008 rewrote what the sport believed was possible, and whose 2019 Masters remains one of the greatest comebacks in the history of professional sport.
| Full name | Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods |
|---|---|
| Born | 30 December 1975, Cypress, California, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Turned pro | 1996 |
| Primary tour | PGA Tour |
| Height | 6′ 1″ (1.85 m) |
| Major championships | 15 |
| PGA Tour wins | 82 (tied all-time record) |
| Weeks at World No. 1 | 683 (all-time record) |
| Equipment | TaylorMade clubs, Bridgestone ball, Sun Day Red apparel |
Early Life & Amateur Career
Woods was a prodigy in the most literal sense. Coached from infancy by his father, Earl, he appeared on national television swinging a club before he was three, and by his teenage years he was the most decorated junior golfer the United States had ever produced. He won three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur titles and then three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles between 1994 and 1996 — a sextuple no one had come close to before. He spent two years at Stanford, won the individual NCAA championship, and then, in the late summer of 1996, turned professional with a two-word Nike advertisement, “Hello, world,” that announced an era.
The Dominance
What followed had no precedent. Woods won the 1997 Masters by twelve strokes at the age of 21, the largest margin in the tournament’s history, and reordered the sport around himself. Across the next decade he held all four major trophies simultaneously — the so-called “Tiger Slam” of 2000–2001 — spent a record 683 weeks at World No. 1, and won 79 of his eventual 82 PGA Tour titles. He did not merely beat his contemporaries; he intimidated them, and forced a generation of players to remake their bodies and their games in response. The modern, athletic, gym-built professional golfer is, in a real sense, his invention.
Injury, Scandal & the Comeback
The second act was harder. A very public personal scandal in 2009 cost Woods his marriage and many of his endorsements, and a cascade of back and knee injuries — four back surgeries among them — repeatedly reduced him to a spectator. By 2017 he was ranked outside the world’s top thousand and openly unsure whether he would play again. Then, in April 2019, he won the Masters for a fifth time, fourteen years after his previous green jacket and eleven after his last major, and the scenes on the eighteenth green at Augusta — Woods roaring, embracing his own children in the spot where his father had once embraced him — became the defining image of golf’s modern age.
Playing Style
At his peak Woods combined raw power with a short game and a putting stroke that were, by common consent, the finest of his time. But his signature was mental: an ability to will the ball into the hole on the final nine holes of a major that opponents found genuinely unnerving. The fist-pump, the red shirt on Sunday, the surgeon’s touch from greenside rough — these were the grammar of a competitor who treated closing out a tournament as a separate and superior skill.
Off the Course
Woods is among the most commercially significant athletes who has ever lived, credited with helping turn professional golf into a mainstream television property and with driving purses to levels his predecessors could not have imagined. His design firm, TGR Design, has built acclaimed courses around the world; his 2024 launch of the Sun Day Red apparel brand, after 27 years with Nike, marked a new chapter as an owner rather than an endorser. He continues to shape the sport as much from the boardroom as the fairway.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many majors has Tiger Woods won?
Tiger Woods has won 15 major championships — five Masters (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019), three U.S. Opens (2000, 2002, 2008), three Open Championships (2000, 2005, 2006) and four PGA Championships (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007). Only Jack Nicklaus, with 18, has won more.
How old is Tiger Woods and where was he born?
Tiger Woods was born on 30 December 1975 in Cypress, California, making him one of the elder statesmen of the modern game. He turned professional in 1996 at the age of 20.
What is Tiger Woods’ net worth?
Forbes has estimated Tiger Woods’ net worth at more than $1 billion, making him one of the wealthiest athletes in history — the product of career earnings, decades of endorsements, course design, and his apparel venture Sun Day Red.
What equipment does Tiger Woods use?
Woods plays TaylorMade clubs and a Bridgestone golf ball, and since 2024 wears his own apparel and footwear brand, Sun Day Red, following the end of his long association with Nike.
Does Tiger Woods still play golf?
Woods now competes only rarely, his schedule limited by a series of back surgeries and the leg injuries sustained in a 2021 car accident. He remains one of the most influential figures in the sport as a designer, businessman and ambassador.