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]
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