The international golf sensation Tiger Woods was born Eldrick Tont Woods in 1975 in Cypress, California. Woods grew up a child prodigy, excelling on the golf course as early as two years of age, under the strict tutelage of his father. By the age of five, Tiger had been featured on the ABC series That’s Incredible, and his early competitions as a child brought him multiple Junior World Gold Championships, a title he would win six times, at one point for four years in a row.

As a high school student, Tiger Woods became the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion at the age of fifteen, and it was clear that he would go on to have an unprecedented career in the sport. After graduating from high school, he went on to play for Stanford University, but opted to leave the university after only two years, choosing instead to turn professional in 1996.

Since that time, Tiger Woods has been an unstoppable presence on the golf course. But even more noteworthy than his achievements as a competitor is his status as one of the world’s most marketable and commercially successful athletes. Tiger Woods has, in the course of his career, amassed a fortune in endorsements, far surpassing that of any other athlete in nearly any other sport. His multi-million dollar deals with such companies as Nike, General Motors, American Express, and Titleist brought him to a staggering level of success, until his now infamous incident in late 2009 brought him to the media forefront for a far less desirable reason.

Following an incident involving an altercation with his wife on his home property, it became clear that Woods had for many years been embroiled in a life of excess and infidelity. As a public figure who had been elevated to the status of role model for youth around the globe, the shattering of Tiger’s image was particularly damaging, and resulted in the loss of many of his endorsements. Woods regrouped, however, and after a few years of treatment and therapy, he is once again competing with the same level of proficiency expected of him, and has gone on to rise above his personal challenges and setbacks.

Tiger Woods’ was recognized by the Associated Press as Athlete of the Decade for the millennium’s first ten years, and named by Sports Illustrated as the magazine’s Sportsman of the Year multiple times.  Woods’s legacy extends beyond simply achievements on the course; he is credited with bringing golf to a level of popularity that it had not experienced ever before, and for inspiring young players around the world (especially minorities) to take up the sport.

Tiger Woods is also known for his philanthropic endeavors, most notably his own foundation which was established by his father in the mid 1990’s and which he now oversees. The Tiger Woods Foundation holds golf clinics around the country and sponsors tournaments for young people. It also manages a fifty million dollar facility in Anaheim, known as the Tiger Woods Learning Center, which provides educational support for underprivileged children. 

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