Tiger Woods is one of the most famous professional athletes in history. We’re sure you’ve heard about how he’s had a successful career as a golfer, but have you ever wondered how much he earns while playing?
When you think about other sports, you easily come up with the answer since it isn’t difficult to guess a soccer player’s salary or earnings. However, golf is a bit off for most people, except those who truly enjoy the sport.
Therefore, even when people have heard about Woods, they aren’t quite clear of how much he can earn from just “hitting a small ball.”
This is why we decided to help you learn some things about this golfer’s career and net worth and how much he has earned on and off the field.
Who Is Tiger Woods? – Childhood & College Career
Eldrick Tont Woods, or better known as Tiger Woods, was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California, USA.
His father, Earl Woods, was a retired U.S. Army officer that took part in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, his mother, Kultida Woods, was born in Thailand and met Earl when serving in the country in 1968.
Eldrick is their only child. However, he has two half-brothers, Earl J. and Kevin, and one half-sister named Royce. All of them from his father’s first marriage.
Due to the diversity of his parents’ ethnicity and ancestors, Tiger has always identified himself as Cabilnasian, which is a combination of Caucasian, black, and American Indian.
Tiger’s history with gold started at the age of two when his father introduced him to the sport. Since Earl was a single-digit handicap amateur yet, someone who loved the sport, he was excited to have his son play with him in the future.
Since his father had privileges at the Navy golf course in Los Alamitos, Woods was able to play and train during his early years and tried other golf courses thanks to his father’s encouragement.
Not long after starting playing, Tiger began to make history. In 1978, he put against comedian Bob Hope during a television appearance on “The Mike Douglas Show.” He shot a 48 over nine holes when he was only three years old.
When he turned five, he was featured in “Golf Digest” as well as on ABC’s T.V. show “That’s Incredible!”
Following these appearances, Tiger won the Under Age 10 section in the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition played at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress when he was six.
At the Junior World Golf Championships, he won the 9-10 age group. Tiger won the Junior World Championships six more times, four of them being consecutive from 1988 to 1991.
By the time Woods turned 11, he had won his father for the first time, and since then, Earl was unable to win any of the matches against his son. This gave him the lead of something he already believed: Tiger had more talent for the sport than he ever imagined.
Woods was just 15 years old and a student at Western High School, Anaheim, when he became the youngest U.S. Junior Amateur champion.
In 1990 and 1991, he was the Southern California Amateur Player Award Winner, and in the latter year, he was named the 1991 “Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player Of The Year.”
Defending his title in 1992, Woods became the U.S.’s first two-time champion in the Junior Amateur Championship. In the same year, he also played in the Nissan Los Angeles Open on the PGA Tour.
In 1993, he won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and remained as the event’s only triple winner since then.
The following year, he made sure to broke another record after being the youngest champion in the U. S. Amateur Championship, which he held until 2008.
From here, the already golf star kept adding titles and wins to his records, leading him to be heavily recruited from the top college golf teams.
Among all the offers, he chose the Stanford University team that were the reigning NCAA champions in 1994.
After enrolling in college, he won his first collegiate event, the 40th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational. In 1995, he was able to defend his U.S. Amateur title at the Newport Country Club, Rhode Island. He was also voted Pac-10 Player and NCAA First Team All American and Stanford’s Male Freshman of the Year.
The golfer, then 19, participated in his first major PGA Tour event, the 1995 Masters.
He was tied for 41st as the only amateur to reach the cut. Two years later, he would win it by 12 strokes.
In 1996, Woods became the first American golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles and the NCAA individual golf championship.
Dropping College & Turning Pro
After all his success in college for two years straight, Woods decided to drop it and dedicate all his time to becoming a pro. Despite the odds a 20 years old boy could face, he took the big step.
This is why he became an official professional golfer in August 1996.
Success didn’t take too long to appear as he signed advertising deals with Titleist and Nike, which were among the most lucrative endorsement deals in golf history, almost immediately.
Woods was named Sports Illustrated’s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.
Then, he won his first major, the Masters, by 12 strokes on April 13, 1997. This was a record-breaking performance that saw him become the tournament’s youngest-ever winner at only 21.
Two months later, he established the record for the fastest ascent from No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings. In 1999, Woods ended with eight wins, including the PGA Championship.
Woods’ best moments in his career take place between 2000 and 2010.
He was the top-ranker golfer globally from 1999 to 2004 and repeated this significant achievement from 2005 to 2010. The only difference between 2004 and 2005 lies in the few months from September 2004 and June 2005 that he didn’t top the rank.
The best part is yet to come: he won 13 major championships in golf during that time.
His next decade as a pro was marked by his recovery from personal injuries and problems. Woods was ranked 58th in the world in November 2011, before climbing back to No.1 in March 2013 and May 2014.
Injuries forced him to undergo four back operations between 2014 and 2017. He only participated in one tournament from August 2015 to January 2018, which saw him drop off from the top 1,000 players worldwide.
However, he started to improve his game and won his first tournament in five years, in September 2018. He also won the 2019 Masters, his first major since 2011, at the Tour Championship.
Having reached this point, you are probably wondering, why do people refer to him as “Tiger”?
His nickname is an honor to his father’s friend Colonel Vuong Dang Phong, who was known by it while he was alive.
Eldrick “Tiger” Woods’ Best Achievements & Titles
- Five-times winner in the Master’s Tournament (major championship).
- Four-times PGA Championship winner (major).
- Three-times U. S. Open winner (major championship).
- Three-times The Open Championship winner.
- World Golf Hall of Fame (2021).
- PGA Tour Rookie of the Year (1996).
- 11 times PGA Player of the Year.
- 11 times PGA Tour Player of the Year.
- Ten times PGA Tour leading money winner.
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2019).
- 82 PGA Tour wins.
- 41 European Tour wins.
Becoming a Millionaire: How Much Does Tiger Earn?
According to Forbes, Woods has a net worth of $60 million, $200k from on-the-field earnings, and $59.8 from off-the-field deals like endorsements, businesses, and partnerships.
However, when you have such an athlete with decades doing what he is best at, playing the sport, you would expect him to earn much more, and you’re not wrong.
These earnings are based on 2020 statistics, which means his net worth reached this sum for January 2021.
But how much has he truly earned over the years?
During his first year as a professional, he earned $900k on course while $12.2 million were made from endorsements and off-course deals.
These earnings kept increasing, reaching the $100 million mark in total revenues for 2007 (or $122.7 million, to be more specific).
In 2007, $22 million were from on-the-field earnings that included prize winnings, while $99.8 million were only from endorsements and sponsors.
Although he remained strong until 2010, his last decade in the sport was filled with injuries, leading him to lose sponsors, endorsements, and, of course, not participate in championships.
This led to variations in his net worth from 2011 to this date, 2021. Currently, Woods is getting most of his endorsements back following his 2019 Masters win.
After a car wreck early this year (February 2021), he has been suffering from leg and foot injuries. For this reason, his net worth does sit at $60 million at the moment of this article.
However, who continues to endorse Woods?
Despite being in bed, Tiger hit a hole-in-one in March 2021 with the video game franchise in charge of “PGA Tour 2k.”
TaylorMade and the golfer also have a set of irons released in 2019, being the first signature club for him, followed by his first public golf course in Missouri, which opened the following year.
Bridgestone, Nike, GOLFTV, Monster Energy, Centinel Spine, and other brands continue to endorse and sponsor the champion despite reducing the payments based on his inactivity during the last few years.
But if we consider how much he has earned over the years with endorsements only, you will notice that he did reach the billionaire mark since he turned pro. After all, when you consider all his earning, off-the-field income brought him $1.6 billion since 1996.
Changing Lives Since 1996
Unlike most athletes, Woods didn’t lose time after becoming a professional and winning his millions.
In 1996, he and his father decided to establish the Tiger Woods (TGR) Foundation in order to provide help and support to improve the education, health, and welfare of children in America.
Although the foundation focuses on all children, its primary goal is to help students who are not privileged with money or enough recourses to persecute a career and future.
Besides investing most of his donations and part of his net worth in the foundation, he also supports other charities like Caddy for a Cure, Shriners Hospitals for Children, and Rainforest Foundation Fund.
One of the reasons Tiger is loved by many is for how much he is willing to give to others. He might not be the perfect human (which we know is impossible), but he makes sure to give to others that truly need help.
Most of his efforts are for children in America and even other countries. However, there have been reports of the golf star donating for other purposes, like the Rainforest Fund and organizations that fight for a better planet.
5 Heartening Quotes by Tiger Woods
- “Money and fame made me believe I was entitled. I was wrong and foolish.”
- “I wake up every day, and I can’t wait to go to work, and that’s a gift. Not too many people have the opportunity to feel that way.”
- “As a child, the family that I had and the love I had from my two parents allowed me to go ahead and be more aggressive, to search and to take risks knowing that, if I failed, I could always come home to a family of love and support.”
- “If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person’s life in a positive light, and that’s what I want to do. That’s what it’s all about.”
- “In therapy, I have learned the importance of keeping spiritual life and professional life balanced. I need to regain my balance.”
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