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

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

00:03He has transcended the sport since he turned pro in 1996 and is probably the most recognisable face

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

00:14about Tiger Woods. So let's get stuck in. His full name is Eldrick Thont Woods. Eldrick because it

00:21has his father's initial at the start and his mother's initial at the end and Thont is a

00:26traditional Thai name. His father was in the army and named his son Tiger because his fellow soldier

00:31and friend Colonel Vuong Dang Fong was also known as Tiger. Sticking with his family and heritage,

00:37Tiger's mum Cotilda is Thai while his father Earl was African-American. Tiger's interest in the game

00:43began when watching his father hit golf balls in the garage. Tiger was just six months old when he

00:48would sit in his high chair and routinely watch Earl hit golf balls. Tiger made his first tv appearance

00:54on the Mike Douglas show just before his third birthday. Tiger attended Stamford University on

01:00a golf scholarship. However, he never graduated from college as he dropped out to pursue his

01:04professional career. Other famous graduates from Stamford include Tom Watson and Nota Begay.

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

01:14and he also spoke to his dog at night to practice confidence speech. Tiger Woods broke 80 for the first

01:19time at the age of just eight and at the age of 12 he broke 70 for the first time. Tiger Woods is a

01:25Buddhist. He told Sports Illustrated in 1996 that, I believe in Buddhism, not every aspect but most of

01:32it. So I've taken bits and pieces. I don't believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment

01:37because humans have flaws. Tiger became the first billion dollar athlete. He cracked the one billion

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

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

01:54the most lucrative deals in the world of sport. Speaking of wins on tour, Tiger is tied third all

01:58time for victories on the European tour. This seems like an obvious fact but it becomes more interesting

02:03when you find out that Tiger has never played a full season on the European tour. Tiger has broken

02:08countless records in his career. Probably the most striking is the fact that he spent 683 weeks

02:14at number one in the official world golf rankings. To put some context to that, this is more than

02:19double than Greg Norman who has spent the second longest amount of time as men's world number one.

02:23Tiger won the US amateur and NCAA championship titles both in 1996. Only five men have ever achieved

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

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

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

02:46all time. For more facts and statistics on some of your favourite golfers, head to the tour section

02:51on the Golf Monthly website.

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