Tiger Woods flourishes in Dubai Desert Classic

Tiger Woods finished up with a final round 71 in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, February 2, to complete his worst start to a season since he turned pro in 1997.

In 18 seasons, the American had always mustered at least a top 20 finish from his first two events. In nine of those years, he managed a win.

This campaign, he followed up his failure to play all four rounds at Torrey Pines last week with a tied 41st finish at the Emirates. “I think this is the worst I have ever seen Woods technically,” opined respected swing coach and Sky Sports analyst, Ewen Murray.

Woods took heart from three successive birdies to finish his week and fact hit a lot more fairways than during his first three rounds.

“I drove the ball great today,” insisted the 38-year-old. “My iron game was not as sharp as I would have liked while on the greens I had seven lip-outs.”

The golf might be off the rails right now but the gravy train is moving as smoothly as ever.

On Monday morning, Woods will make his first trip to India to play a lucrative behind closed doors exhibition at Delhi golf club.

For spending 24 hours in India, Woods, whose trip is being funded by Hero MotoCorp, will receive a reported fee of $2.5m. He was also paid a similar amount for playing in Dubai.

Profile

Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years.

Woods turned professional in 1996, and by April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters in a record-breaking performance, winning the tournament by 12 strokes. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as world number one. From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of golf form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011. He ended a career-long winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25, 2013, he ascended to the No.1 Ranking once again.

Woods has broken numerous golf records. He has been world number one for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any other golfer. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record 11 times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons. He has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 79 PGA Tour events, second all time behind Sam Snead. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 18 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999. Woods is the only golfer to win both The Silver Medal and The Gold Medal at The Open Championship.

Growing up

Woods was born in Cypress, California, to Earl (1932–2006) and Kultida (Tida) Woods (born 1944). He is the only child of their marriage, but does have two half-brothers, Earl Jr. (born 1955) and Kevin (born 1957), and a half-sister, Royce (born 1958) from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife, Barbara Woods Gray. Earl, a retired lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War veteran, was of mostly African American, as well as Caucasian, and possible Native American and Chinese, ancestry.[12] Kultida (née Punsawad), originally from Thailand (where Earl had met her on a tour of duty in 1968), is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry. He refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (asyllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian).

Woods grew up in Orange County, California. He was a child prodigy, introduced to golf before the age of two, by his athletic father Earl, a single-figure handicap amateur golfer who had been one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University. In 1978, Tiger putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes over the Cypress Navy course, and at age five, he appeared in Golf Digest and on ABC’s That’s Incredible. Before turning seven, Tiger won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California. In 1984 at the age of eight, he won the 9–10 boys’ event, the youngest age group available, at the Junior World Golf Championships. He first broke 80 at age eight. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991.

Honours

On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Woods would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He was inducted December 5, 2007 at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.

He has been named “Athlete of the Decade” by the Associated Press in December 2009. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, and is the only person to be named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Since his record-breaking win at the 1997 Masters Tournament, golf’s increased popularity is commonly attributed to Woods’ presence. He is credited by some sources for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new audiences, and for drawing the largest TV audiences in golf history.

Endorsements

Woods has been called the world’s most marketable athlete. Shortly after his 21st birthday in 1996, he began signing endorsement deals with numerous companies, including General Motors, Titleist, General Mills, American Express, Accenture, and Nike, Inc. In 2000, he signed a five-year, $105m contract extension with Nike. It was the largest endorsing deal ever signed by an athlete at that time. Woods’ endorsement has been credited with playing a significant role in taking the Nike Golf brand from a “start-up” golf company earlier in the past decade, to becoming the leading golf apparel company in the world, and a major player in the equipment and golf ball market. Nike Golf is one of the fastest growing brands in the sport, with an estimated $600m in sales. Woods has been described as the “ultimate endorser” for Nike Golf, frequently seen wearing Nike gear during tournaments, and even in advertisements for other products. Woods receives a percentage from the sales of Nike Golf apparel, footwear, golf equipment, golf balls, and has a building named after him at Nike’s headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon.

In 2002, Woods was involved in every aspect of the launch of Buick’s Rendezvous SUV. A company spokesman stated that Buick was happy with the value of Woods’ endorsement, pointing out that more than 130,000 Rendezvous vehicles were sold in 2002 and 2003. “That exceeded our forecasts,” he was quoted as saying, “It has to be in recognition of Tiger.” In February 2004, Buick renewed Woods’ endorsement contract for another five years, in a deal reportedly worth $40m

Net worth

Tiger Woods ranks among the best golfers ever. His net worth has been estimated to be $500m. This makes him the second richest “African American”. Tiger is just behind the television personality Oprah Winfrey. Tiger’s wealth comes from the prize money he has won as a professional golfer and the world’s top ranked player. He has also made considerable wealth from product endorsements and sponsorships. The Forbes magazine confirmed in 2009 that Woods was the first athlete in the world to make more than a billion dollars before taxation.

Luxury properties

After giving away his Orlando home to ex-wife, Tiger Woods is staying all alone in his sprawling 10-acre ocean front estate in Florida, complete with its own backyard golf course. The house was planned and half built with the help of his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren. He reportedly spent $54.5m in building the grand mansion.