Childhood Life

I picked up a golf club for the first time when I was 6 months old. It was like it was meant to be. My father shaved down a golf club to fit my size. I had the dynamics and strength of an experienced golfer. As I grew older, I was beating ten year-old kids at the age of 4. I had eyes on me ever since I was a young child. People knew that I would grow up to be great. I was now the age of 7 or 8, and I was playing in junior tournaments. My parents had to make sacrifices to shell out money for me to travel and enter to these tournaments, and they would not receive any money back because I was still a minor. I could not earn money until I entered the pros, which was many years later. My parents were always good to me, and made sure I was safe and received everything I needed for my golfing career. It’s not every day your child has the talent that I did, so as a parent you have to do all you can to pursue their talent and help them become the best they can be, and that’s what they did.

Career

I was the youngest player to ever turn professional, and I made the most money as a rookie. I was getting the sponsors as soon as I made that decision to turn pro. Not only did I help break the age barrier, I helped break the race barrier too. I was one of the first African-American golfers on the tour. Lots of courses around where I lived did not let my father and I golf on their courses because of the color of our skin. It was hard to search for golf courses that would let us on their course. As soon as I turned pro, and people saw how great of a golfer I was, they would love to have me on their golf course. I won my first Masters golf tournament in 1997, which was my second year as a pro. I have accumulated 14 total major golf tournaments over my years as a pro, which is second all time. The one golfer that has more major wins than me is Jack Nicklaus. I have been ranked number one in the world for several years, but I have had trouble recently. I have not won a Major Tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open. I have also recently had troubles with my personal life, and put a pause on my career. I lost some of my sponsors, but now I am back on track for the world’s best golfer.

Family Life

My name is Eldrick Woods. My name is unique because it starts with the first letter of my father’s name, Earl, and ends with the first letter of my mother’s name, Kultida. I received my nick name at a young age from my father. He got this nick name from a soldier named Nguyen Phong, his nick name was “Tiger”. My father fought in the Vietnam War with this man, and his life was saved by Phong. Nguyen Phong became a hero to my father, and he repaid him by naming me “Tiger”. I am of many different backgrounds. My mother is mostly Asian, and my father is African-American, Native American, and Caucasian. I have remained close to all of these backgrounds over the years. When I was younger, my mother taught my Buddhism. This became very important to me. My mother was a stay at home mother, and my father was a soldier in the Vietnam war, where he met Nguyen Phong. My father didn’t just give me support morally, he served as my coach for a long time as a child. He taught me how to play the game and helped me become the golfer that I am today. He recently passed away during the PGA Tour season, which gave me troubles in my game because I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

My Injuries

I have had a few serious injuries in my career, and a few of them have threatened to end my career. One of them was an ACL injury in my left knee half way through the 2008 season. I had torn my ACL, and I have been playing with it for the last 10 months. Although this was a major injury, it was just a hiccup in my career. I came back to a season that had its ups and downs. I had won 6 events on the PGA Tour, but none of them happened to be a Major tournament. Even though I could not tie the rope on the Major tournaments, I still had one of the greatest comebacks in sports. I have had other injuries that have bothered my game in some way, but nothing has removed me from play like my torn ACL did. Only one other injury has compared to it, and that was my back bothering. I could not seem to fix it, but it has been bothering my game off and on for a while. Although this injury seemed to be bad, it has never removed me from play like my knee did. I am very fortunate for never having a career ending injury.