Open wins, three Open Championship wins, and three U. Masters wins. While he may have had some challenges on the course, his personal life was running smoothly. Woods married his longtime girlfriend Elin Nordegren, a Swedish model, in October Returning to dominate the sport, he won six championships in and was voted the PGA Tour Player of Year for the seventh time in nine years.
Woods experienced a great personal loss in , when his father died in May after battling prostate cancer. Woods remarked on his website at the time, "My dad was my best friend and greatest role model, and I will miss him deeply. The next season was marked by many wins personally and professionally. His wife gave birth to the couple's first child, Sam Alexis Woods, on June 18, Woods won the U.
Open on June 16, , in a hole playoff, overcoming sporadic pain in his left knee from arthroscopic surgery performed on April Woods shot a par 4 on the first and only hole of sudden death while American Rocco Mediate, 45, settled for a bogey. The sudden death duel at Torrey Pines in San Diego followed an hole playoff, which saw the two finish at par. In that playoff, Woods led Mediate by three shots after the first 10 holes. Mediate then birdied three of the next five holes and took the lead.
But on the final hole, Woods birdied while Mediate shot par, forcing the sudden death playoff. Open championship and 14th major title, just four behind the all-time record held by Jack Nicklaus.
Two days later, Woods announced he would miss the rest of the season because his left knee required more reconstructive surgery. He also revealed he had suffered a double stress fracture in his left tibia two weeks before the U. Open tournament, ignoring doctors' advice to take six weeks off to let it heal. Woods and his wife announced September 2, , that they were expecting their second child in late winter.
I can't begin to tell you how rewarding it is being a dad and spending time with her and Elin. Woods played against South African golfer Tim Clark, losing 4 to 2 in his first tournament since his injury.
In June , Woods competed again in the U. After putting a four-over-par in the first round, Woods quickly fell out of contention for the win. Although Woods' comeback had not been as auspicious as he'd hoped, he remained No. But after losing the PGA title to Yang Yong-eun, Woods finished the year without a single major win — the first time he had done so since While his life on the green seemed lackluster, his personal life was in an even more serious tailspin. In late November, reports surfaced about a tryst between Woods and nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel.
Both parties denied a relationship, despite photographic evidence that seemed to indicate otherwise. On November 27, as the story gained traction, media outlets announced that Woods had collided into a fire hydrant outside his home at in the morning. Reports said that Woods' wife had broken the back window of the golfer's SUV with a golf club in order to get him out of the locked car. The golfer's injuries were not serious, and he was quickly released.
The accident aroused suspicions with fans and the media, who instantly pushed for a statement from Woods. But the golfer remained silent on the matter, and mysteriously dropped out of his charity golf tournament, the Chevron World Challenge.
He then announced that he would not be attending any other tournaments in As the silence grew, so did reports of other Woods mistresses. On December 2, , Woods offered an apology to his fans and family, expressing regret for unnamed "transgressions.
Woods was said to have offered his wife a renegotiation of their prenuptial agreement in order to compel her to stick by him, but reports soon surfaced that Nordgren had purchased a home in Sweden with her sister. Photographers then spotted the former model without her wedding ring. Open, the British Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters—and the greatest performance by a professional golfer in more than a century.
It also made him the youngest golfer by two years to win the Masters and the first person of Asian or African heritage to win a major. The only child of an African American father and a Thai mother, Woods was encouraged from infancy by his father for a career in golf.
At age eight, Woods won his first junior world championship, and in , at age 15, he became the youngest player ever to win the U. Junior Amateur Championship. He also captured the and Junior Amateur titles, and in accepted a scholarship to attend Stanford University.
That year, he came from six holes behind to win the first of his three consecutive U. Amateur championships. He was 18 years old and the youngest Amateur champion in history.
In , Woods played the Masters, his first professional major championship. Woods finished 41st in his first Masters appearance. In , he won the collegiate title. By this time, he was already attracting considerable media attention and attracting throngs of new fans to the sport.
After claiming his third U. Amateur title, Woods left college and turned professional in August He also had a reputation for mental toughness and was a superb putter and chipper. By June , Woods was ranked number one in the world. In June , he won his first U. Open title, shooting a record under-par to finish 15 strokes ahead of his nearest competitors. Woods and Love finished regulation tied at under Woods and Love entered a sudden-death playoff, but Love found a greenside bunker on the first extra hole and failed to get up-and-down.
That gave Tiger two putts for the win, and Woods claimed his first professional victory. The victory earned Woods a berth in the Masters — which he dominated to earn his first win in a major — and a two-year membership to the PGA Tour. That guaranteed that Woods wouldn't have to go through Q-School to earn tour membership.
In , Woods told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he still has the giant check presented to him during the trophy presentation — it is hanging on a wall in one of Woods' offices. I like the way he thinks. We were all trying to prolong the inevitable. We knew he was going to win. I just didn't want it to be today. Everybody better watch out: He's going to be a force.
Woods averaged yards off the tee during the tournament, which was 13 yards longer than the next-longest player for the week, and nearly 40 yards longer than the field average. He played in four tournaments prior to his first win, and he finished higher in each successive event:. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
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