00:00Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers the game has ever produced.
00:03He has transcended the sport since he turned pro in 1996 and is probably the most recognisable face
00:09for non-golf fans. Despite this, we think there's lots of interesting facts that you may not know
00:14about Tiger Woods. So let's get stuck in. His full name is Eldrick Thont Woods. Eldrick because it
00:21has his father's initial at the start and his mother's initial at the end and Thont is a
00:26traditional Thai name. His father was in the army and named his son Tiger because his fellow soldier
00:31and friend Colonel Vuong Dang Fong was also known as Tiger. Sticking with his family and heritage,
00:37Tiger's mum, Cotilda, is Thai while his father Earl was African-American. Tiger's interest in the game
00:43began when watching his father hit golf balls in the garage. Tiger was just six months old when he
00:48would sit in his high chair and routinely watch Earl hit golf balls. Tiger made his first TV appearance
00:54on the Mike Douglas show just before his third birthday. Tiger attended Stamford University on
01:00a golf scholarship. However, he never graduated from college as he dropped out to pursue his
01:04professional career. Other famous graduates from Stamford include Tom Watson and Nota Begay.
01:09Did you know that Tiger had a stutter as a child? To overcome this, he took speech classes at school
01:14and he also spoke to his dog at night to practice confidence speech. Tiger Woods broke 80 for the first
01:19time at the age of just eight and at the age of 12 he broke 70 for the first time. Tiger Woods is a
01:25Buddhist. He told Sports Illustrated in 1996 that, I believe in Buddhism, not every aspect but most of
01:32it. So I've taken bits and pieces. I don't believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment
01:37because humans have flaws. Tiger became the first billion dollar athlete. He cracked the one billion
01:42dollar career earnings mark way back in 2009. Going some way to help him win this money are his 109
01:48professional wins and 15 major championships. His sponsorship deal with Nike is also one of
01:54the most lucrative deals in the world of sport. Speaking of wins on tour, Tiger is tied third all
01:58time for victories on the European tour. This seems like an obvious fact but it becomes more interesting
02:03when you find out that Tiger has never played a full season on the European tour. Tiger has broken
02:08countless records in his career. Probably the most striking is the fact that he spent 683 weeks
02:14at number one in the official world golf rankings. To put some context to that, this is more than
02:19double than Greg Norman who has spent the second longest amount of time as men's world number one.
02:23Tiger won the US amateur and NCAA championship titles both in 1996. Only five men have ever achieved
02:30that feat. They are Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore and Jack Nicklaus.
02:36So there you have it, some facts on the greatest golfer of all time that is Tiger Woods.
02:41I hope there were some there that you didn't know and you learned a lot about the greatest golfer of
02:46all time. For more facts and statistics on some of your favourite golfers, head to the tour section
02:51on the Golf Monthly website.
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