Interesting Facts About Tiger Woods
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.
00:03 He has transcended the sport since he turned pro in 1996 and is probably the most recognisable face
00:09 for non-golf fans. Despite this we think there's lots of interesting facts that you may not know
00:14 about Tiger Woods so let's get stuck in. His full name is Eldrick Taunt Woods. Eldrick because it
00:21 has his father's initial at the start and his mother's initial at the end and Taunt is a
00:26 traditional Thai name. His father was in the army and named his son Tiger because his fellow soldier
00:31 and friend Colonel Vuong Dang Fong was also known as Tiger. Sticking with his family and heritage
00:37 Tiger's mum, Katilda, is Thai while his father Earl was African-American. Tiger's interest in
00:43 the game began when watching his father hit golf balls in the garage. Tiger was just six months
00:48 old when he would sit in his high chair and routinely watch Earl hit golf balls. Tiger made
00:52 his first tv appearance on the Mike Douglas show just before his third birthday. Tiger attended
00:58 Stanford University on a golf scholarship however he never graduated from college as he dropped out
01:03 to pursue his professional career. Other famous graduates from Stanford include Tom Watson and
01:08 Nota Begay. 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 Woods broke 80
01:19 for the first time at the age of just eight and at the age of 12 he broke 70 for the first time.
01:24 Tiger Woods is a Buddhist. He told Sports Illustrated in 1996 that "I believe in Buddhism,
01:30 not every aspect but most of it, so I've taken bits and pieces. I don't believe that human
01:35 beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment because humans have flaws." Tiger became the first billion
01:40 dollar athlete. He cracked the one billion dollar career earnings mark way back in 2009.
01:45 Going some way to help him win this money are his 109 professional wins and 15 major championships.
01:51 His sponsorship deal with Nike is also one of the most lucrative 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. Tiger has broken countless records in his
02:09 career. Probably the most striking is the fact that he spent 683 weeks at number one in the
02:15 official world golf rankings. To put some context to that, this is more than double than Greg Norman
02:20 who has spent the second longest amount of time as men's world number one. Tiger won the US amateur
02:25 and NCAA championship titles both in 1996. Only five men have ever achieved that feat.
02:31 They are Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore and Jack Nicklaus. So there you have it,
02:37 some facts on the greatest golfer of all time, that is Tiger Woods. I hope there were some there
02:42 that you didn't know and you learned a lot about the greatest golfer of all time. For more facts
02:47 and statistics on some of your favourite golfers, head to the tour section on the Golf Monthly website.
02:52 [Music]