Tiger Woods News

When he saw his son win his first major championship, the 1997 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Earl Woods was 65 and Tiger Woods was 21. The age difference didn’t show. The picture of the moment of victory was simple, but it explained so much.

The son walked off the 18th green and wrapped his arms around the father. They hugged as if there was no tomorrow.

It’s probably a good thing that neither one left anything on the table that day — or any of the other days that Tiger and Earl have shared.

Tiger won his fourth Masters last April, but Earl couldn’t be there to give him a bearhug.

The tournament didn’t end until the first playoff hole, when Tiger coaxed a 15-foot birdie putt down a slope and into the bottom of the cup to edge Chris DiMarco. As the ball disappeared, Tiger wiped his eyes and choked back tears, then dedicated the victory to his father, saying “This one’s for you, Pops.”

Tiger said that every time he had won the Masters, his dad had been there to give him a big hug. But not this time and Tiger missed him. He missed the hug.

Earl was too sick to do anything except watch on television from the house the family had rented for the week.

Last week, Tiger didn’t play at the season-opening Mercedes Championships at Kapalua on the Hawaiian island of Maui and was criticized by a few players and some in the media for skipping it.

For close Tiger-watchers, though, it probably wasn’t much of a surprise. A very private person, Woods would never have said publicly that he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his father, to take advantage of every moment he could.

Earl Woods has become a very private person as well, which is how he has chosen to fight his cancer. This week, between hugs with his son, Earl is resting at the same home in which Tiger grew up, a two-bedroom tract house on a corner lot in Cypress, Calif.

They have a lot of ground to cover and nobody knows how much time to get it done. Earl has had heart attacks and a multiple bypass operation and complications, then cancer, and he’s one tough customer. That’s what you become when you spend 20 years in the military, including a stint in the Green Berets and two tours of duty in Vietnam, the second when he reenlisted at 40.

There is a great deal of Earl in Tiger, which should make both of them proud. They share persistence, attention to detail, drive, ambition, sense of humor and dignity. Tiger often speaks of his father’s “sharing and caring” that he passed on to him. Neither is without his faults, but as with everyone else, it is the big picture by which they ought to be judged.

Even though he is in the background now, it’s easy to remember the Earl who so carefully prepared and guided his son into sports superstardom. When Tiger was an infant, he carried around the house a putter that Earl had sawed off for him.

If Tiger was a prodigy, Earl was going to make sure he had the right training. Earl was convinced from the start and he said so.

Tiger would be the best ever. He would break all of Jack Nicklaus’ records. He would be the first kid of color to dominate golf.

Earl might very well be proven right on every count.

If that were all he had done, Earl Woods would be well ahead in the count. But he didn’t stop there. He also jump-started the Tiger Woods Foundation and got behind Tiger’s concept of a learning center to give back to the community of underprivileged in Orange County.

The official opening of the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim, Calif., is next month. If everything goes right, maybe Earl will feel well enough to be there.

That would be worth a big hug, maybe the biggest bearhug of all. Tiger could glance at the building and he’d know for certain who laid the foundation. Tiger might even say quietly to himself, “This one’s for Pops too.”

Source - Los Angeles Times

Tiger Woods, celebrated his 30th birthday on December 30, 2005 in style - by buying a 10-acre oceanfront estate on Jupiter Island, Florida, for $40-million.

Tiger, a 10-time Major golf champion, topped the sports earning charts in 2004 with $89.4-million in endorsements and prize money.

Woods is expected to tear down the 13-year-old main house on the estate, unnamed real estate agents familiar with the deal told AFP.

“The main house is in very good condition, but I’d think that someone who paid that much would want to put their own stamp on it,” Jupiter area real estate agent Dolly Peters said. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t tear it down.”

The estate includes a main house, two guest houses and a beach house plus two boat docks.

Woods’ 155-foot yacht ‘Privacy’, which the golf star now docks in North Palm Beach, could be docked in one of the deep water docks, sources told the newspaper.

A guest house alone was listed with an asking price of $18-million, but Woods made a winning bid for the whole estate.

Woods and his wife, Swedish model Elin Nordegren, became interested in the area because Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik and his wife Mia live nearby. Nordegren had been a nanny for Parnevik when she met Woods in 2003.

Woods owns a home at Isleworth Country Club near Orlando. Woods also bought land in a golf-course community in Jackson, Wyoming this year.

Source - Golf365.com

American golfing superstar Tiger Woods remained the world’s richest sports earner, following his return to world top place in 2005.

Woods heads the German Financial Times sports earners list for 2005 with 77 million euros.

He wrested back the No.1 ranking he had lost to Vijay Singh and lifted his haul of career majors to 10 by winning a fourth U.S. Masters and a second British Open in crushing style at St Andrews.

Germany’s seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher comes in second with an estimated wage of 58 million euros, followed by American rugby player Michael Vick.

Russian teenage tennis player Maria Sharapova, who is ranked 14th in the list, became the richest female athlete in 2005.

Source - China Broadcast, China

The hairline under his Nike cap is receding, and the aches and pains from years of pounding golf balls are more apparent. It used to be nothing for Tiger Woods to train by running six to 10 miles, then doing it again the next day.

“Now I need another day off,” he said.
Ah, Tiger is getting old.
He turns 30 Friday.
And next month, he will begin his 10th full season on the PGA Tour.
But that hardly suggests any sort of dropoff is imminent. Woods, who is coming off a six-victory season that saw him win two major championships, knows all about golf history.
“If you look at most of the guys’ careers, it looks like their peak years are in their 30s,” Woods said. “Hopefully that will be the case for me. Hopefully my 30s will be better than my 20s. That would be pretty neat to have happen.”
And it would be pretty amazing. Because Woods put together in his 20s a run of excellence that has been surpassed by only six players in PGA Tour history during their entire careers.
Woods’ 46 official wins rank seventh behind Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson and Billy Casper. Woods’ 10 major championships trail only Nicklaus’ 18 on the preceding list. (Walter Hagen, who won 44 times, captured 11 majors.)
Not only did Woods win the Masters and British Open in 2005, he contended at the U.S. Open, where he finished second by two shots to Michael Campbell, and at the PGA Championship, where he tied for fourth, two shots behind Phil Mickelson.
Although Woods pointed out that the competition is better than ever, he hits his 30th birthday as the undisputed No. 1 player in the world.
And because golf is a game that allows players to prosper into their 30s and even their 40s, there is reason to believe his greatness can be sustained.
Nicklaus, who won 30 times before turning 30, enjoyed his greatest stretch after turning 31. From 1971 to 1973, Nicklaus won 19 times, including four majors. Nicklaus also won six majors after turning 35, including three after turning 40. One was the 1986 Masters, when Nicklaus was 46.
“How do you compare what he’s doing, because nobody has ever done what he’s doing,” Nicklaus said this year. “He’s dominated way beyond how anybody’s ever dominated.”
Palmer is one who believes Woods will learn to manage his strength. And he also thinks that getting married and having a family can help rather than hinder Woods as he continues.
“Between now and 35 could be the absolute best years of his life,” Palmer said.
Palmer is proof. Between the age of 30 and 35, he earned 31 of his 62 PGA Tour titles. He also won six of his seven major championships after turning 30.

Source - IndyStar.com

Tiger Woods will take some time off after celebrating his 30th birthday at the end of the month before starting his 2006 season in late January.
The world number one will begin his year at the Buick Invitational in California on 26 January.

Woods, who will miss the season-opener in Hawaii to “recharge his batteries”, turns 30 on 30 December.

“I never thought I’d win 10 majors in my 20s. Hopefully, my best years are still ahead of me,” said the American.

“I don’t feel old but I have been grinding on the PGA Tour for almost 10 years, which is pretty scary.”

Woods took his tally of major wins to 10 last season with victories at the Masters and the Open.

“I played a full schedule this year and never took an extended break,” he said on his official website.

“I need some time to recharge my batteries, let my body heal and hang out with family and friends.”

Source - Pakistan Link