12 Things You Didn't Know About Tiger Woods

Golf Monthly

In this video, Dan Parker reveals some of the things you may not have already known about Tiger Woods. He is arguably the greatest golfer of all time and this video will help you get to know the man behind the legend that little bit more.

Transcript

00:00 Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers the game has ever produced. He has transcended

00:04 the sport since he turned pro in 1996 and is probably the most recognisable face for

00:09 non-golf fans. Despite this, we think there's lots of interesting facts that you may not

00:14 know about Tiger Woods, so let's get stuck in.

00:17 His full name is Eldrick Taunt Woods. Eldrick because it has his father's initial at the

00:22 start and his mother's initial at the end, and Taunt is a traditional Thai name. His

00:28 father was in the army and named his son Tiger because his fellow soldier and friend, Colonel

00:32 Vuong Dang Phong, was also known as Tiger. Sticking with his family and heritage, Tiger's

00:37 mum, Khatilda, is Thai, while his father, Earl, was African American.

00:42 Tiger's interest in the game began when watching his father hit golf balls in the garage. Tiger

00:47 was just six months old when he would sit in his highchair and routinely watch Earl

00:50 hit golf balls. Tiger made his first TV appearance on the Mike Douglas show just before his third

00:56 birthday. Tiger attended Stanford University on a golf scholarship, however he never graduated

01:02 from college as he dropped out to pursue his professional career. Other famous graduates

01:06 from Stanford include Tom Watson and Nota Begay.

01:09 Did you know that Tiger had a stutter as a child? To overcome this, he took speech classes

01:13 at school and he also spoke to his dog at night to practice confident speech. Tiger

01:18 Woods broke 80 for the first time at the age of just 8, and at the age of 12, he broke

01:22 70 for the first time. Tiger Woods is a Buddhist. He told Sports Illustrated in 1996 that "I

01:29 believe in Buddhism, not every aspect, but most of it. So I've taken bits and pieces.

01:33 I don't believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment because humans have

01:38 flaws."

01:39 Tiger became the first billion dollar athlete. He cracked the $1 billion career earnings

01:42 mark way back in 2009. Going some way to help him win this money are his 109 professional

01:48 wins and 15 major championships. His sponsorship deal with Nike is also one of the most lucrative

01:54 deals in the world of sport.

01:55 Speaking of wins on tour, Tiger is tied third all time for victories on the European Tour.

02:00 This seems like an obvious fact, but it becomes more interesting when you find out that Tiger

02:04 has never played a full season on the European Tour.

02:07 Tiger has broken countless records in his career. Probably the most striking is the

02:11 fact that he has spent 683 weeks at number one in the official World Golf rankings. To

02:17 put some context to that, this is more than double than Greg Norman, who has spent the

02:20 second longest amount of time as Men's World Number One.

02:24 Tiger won the US Amateur and NCAA Championship titles both in 1996. Only five men have ever

02:30 achieved that feat. They are Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore and Jack Nicklaus.

02:36 So there you have it, some facts on the greatest golfer of all time, that is Tiger Woods. I

02:41 hope there were some there that you didn't know and you learned a lot about the greatest

02:45 golfer of all time.

02:46 For more facts and statistics on some of your favourite golfers, head to the Tour section

02:51 on the Golf Monthly website.

02:52 [music]

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