00:00 Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers the game has ever produced. He has transcended
00:04 the sport since he turned pro in 1996 and is probably the most recognisable face for
00:09 non-golf fans. Despite this, we think there's lots of interesting facts that you may not
00:14 know about Tiger Woods, so let's get stuck in.
00:17 His full name is Eldrick Taunt Woods. Eldrick because it has his father's initial at the
00:22 start and his mother's initial at the end, and Taunt is a traditional Thai name. His
00:28 father was in the army and named his son Tiger because his fellow soldier and friend, Colonel
00:32 Vuong Dang Phong, was also known as Tiger. Sticking with his family and heritage, Tiger's
00:37 mum, Khatilda, is Thai, while his father, Earl, was African American.
00:42 Tiger's interest in the game began when watching his father hit golf balls in the garage. Tiger
00:47 was just six months old when he would sit in his highchair and routinely watch Earl
00:50 hit golf balls. Tiger made his first TV appearance on the Mike Douglas show just before his third
00:56 birthday. Tiger attended Stanford University on a golf scholarship, however he never graduated
01:02 from college as he dropped out to pursue his professional career. Other famous graduates
01:06 from Stanford include Tom Watson and Nota Begay.
01:09 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
01:18 Woods broke 80 for the first time at the age of just 8, and at the age of 12, he broke
01:22 70 for the first time. Tiger Woods is a Buddhist. He told Sports Illustrated in 1996 that "I
01:29 believe in Buddhism, not every aspect, but most of it. So I've taken bits and pieces.
01:33 I don't believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment because humans have
01:38 flaws."
01:39 Tiger became the first billion dollar athlete. He cracked the $1 billion career earnings
01:42 mark way back in 2009. Going some way to help him win this money are his 109 professional
01:48 wins and 15 major championships. His sponsorship deal with Nike is also one of the most lucrative
01:54 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.
02:07 Tiger has broken countless records in his career. Probably the most striking is the
02:11 fact that he has spent 683 weeks at number one in the official World Golf rankings. To
02:17 put some context to that, this is more than double than Greg Norman, who has spent the
02:20 second longest amount of time as Men's World Number One.
02:24 Tiger won the US Amateur and NCAA Championship titles both in 1996. Only five men have ever
02:30 achieved that feat. They are Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore and Jack Nicklaus.
02:36 So there you have it, some facts on the greatest golfer of all time, that is Tiger Woods. I
02:41 hope there were some there that you didn't know and you learned a lot about the greatest
02:45 golfer of all time.
02:46 For more facts and statistics on some of your favourite golfers, head to the Tour section
02:51 on the Golf Monthly website.
02:52 [music]
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