He bent golf to his will, then spent two decades proving he couldn't do the same with himself.
At a glance
- Known for
- 15 major championships, 82 PGA Tour wins, turning golf into mainstream entertainment
- Before fame
- Putted against Bob Hope on national television at age two
- Off-screen
- Seven spine surgeries and an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion
Rise to Fame
Augusta National didn't allow Black golfers until 1975, the year Woods was born. In 1997, he won the Masters by 12 strokes at age 21, setting 27 records at the course in a single week. He shot four over par on his opening nine holes, then played the final 63 in 22 under. The margin wasn't a fluke. It was a preview.
His father Earl, one of the earliest African American college baseball players at Kansas State, had put a golf club in his hands before he could walk and got him on The Mike Douglas Show at two. By five, he'd appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC. Three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles made him the most anticipated prospect golf had seen. Nike signed him for $40 million before he'd won a professional tournament. The bet paid off before the ink dried.
In the Spotlight
The body is a catalog of wreckage: seven spine surgeries, a 2021 car crash that shattered his right leg, a ruptured Achilles in 2025. He turned 50 in December and hasn't played a PGA Tour event since the 2024 British Open.
Then March 2026 happened. Another single-car crash, another arrest. Police found pills in his pocket. He's stepped away from golf indefinitely and left the country for treatment. The 2026 Masters ran without him or Phil Mickelson for the first time since 1994.
The business side doesn't care about the body. Forbes puts his net worth at $1.5 billion. He ended a 27-year Nike deal and launched Sun Day Red with TaylorMade. Roughly 90% of his career earnings came from endorsements, not prize money. The golfer is broken. The brand is bulletproof.
Side Notes
The prodigy wasn't discovered. He was engineered. Earl Woods decided before his son could walk that he'd produce the greatest golfer alive. Professional coaches by age five. The plan worked exactly as designed, which makes everything after feel less like a fall and more like a machine running without maintenance.
The racial identity question cuts just as deep. He coined 'Cablinasian' as a kid because African American felt too narrow for his full mix of Thai, Chinese, Caucasian, African American, and Native American heritage. Parts of the Black community took it as a rejection. He didn't care. He's never been interested in representing anyone but himself, which is both his most honest quality and the reason the goodwill runs out faster each time.