Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods was born on 30 December 1975 in Cypress, California USA, of part-Chinese, and African- and Native- American (father) and Thai (mother) descent. He is one of the the world’s highest earning sportsmen, a professional golfer who was ranked number one in the world for a total of 545 weeks between in 1997 and 2010, and then for another 60 weeks in 2013-14, the most of any golfer, and during which period he won 119 tournaments on the PGA and European tours.
So just how rich is Tiger Woods? Regardless of the fact that Woods’ divorce from ex-wife Elin Nordegren (former Swedish model), cost him $100 million dollars – including $54.5 million in mortgage payment finalised in January 2016 – authoritative sources estimate that Tiger’s net worth is now still over $770 million, accumulated from golf prize money of around $160 million, and the rest from endorsements during a 20 year career, totalling overall more than $1.3 billion.
Tiger Woods Net Worth $770 Million
Encouraged by his father Earl, Tiger became a child golfing prodigy, already at the age of 3 putting against comedian Bob Hope. He was called on TV shows and published in Golf Digest magazine. He won age group events around the world from the age of eight, and being a 15 year-old teenager he became the youngest US Junior Amateur champion. He was educated at Western High School, Anaheim, but golf was his priority, and at 20 (1996), he became the first in golf history to win three consecutive US Amateur titles, while (apparently) studying at Stanford University.
Tiger then turned professional, and immediately signed multi-million dollar contracts with famous companies such as Nike and Titleist. Next year Woods won his first ‘major’, the US Masters, and achieved number one world ranking, the youngest and the fastest to get to that position. The list of his winnings is endless and achievements too many to mention, but apart from aforementioned 79 victories in the USA and Europe – only Sam Snead has won more(82) – he has won two Japan Golf Tour events, an Asian Tour event, one PGA Tour of Australasia event, as well as 21 titles as an amateur. Of particular significance is that Tiger has won 14 ‘major’ titles, second only behind Jack Nicklaus(18), which has included the ‘grand slam’ of golf three times. In addition, he had been awarded PGA Player of the year 11 times and the Byron Nelson award eight times. There can be no doubt that Tiger Woods has earned his net worth.
Woods is considered the most successful player of all times, partly because of his winning record, but also because he is the first and the only golfer to have earned more than a billion dollars. This fortune was made not only by playing golf, but also by signing very lucrative contracts with companies such as Rolex, General Motors, American Express, and Gatorade apart from Titleist and Nike, and becoming an ambassador for Gillette. Moreover, the businesses of Tiger Woods Foundation which promotes golf, and Tiger Woods Design which is involved with golf courses development, are also very profitable. The athlete is a published writer with “How I Play Golf” as well, which has brought him steady income from 1.5 million copies sold. He has also written a column for the magazine “Golf Digest’ – presumably both added to his net worth.
Following his very public divorce from Elin Nordegren who he married in 2004 – they divorced in 2010 and have two children – also involving details of infidelity over the years, Tiger Woods dated Olympic Games skiing gold medallist Lindsey Vonn for a couple of years, but apparently no more. He was raised a Buddhist, and professes to still follow the teachings.
