Eldrick Woods

Tiger Woods after his swing. (Google)

Eldrick Tont Woods, better known as Tiger Woods was born on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California. He is currently living in Windermere, Florida. Tiger Woods without a doubt makes a great role model and inspiration to everyone around him, both physically and morally. Tiger Woods was an only child growing up. At the age of 2, Woods started playing golf gaining the title of child prodigy. At the age of 8, he won the 9-10 boys’ event, the youngest age group available. At age 15, Tiger made history when he won the U.S. Junior Amateur Champion at the youngest age ever until 2008 when it was broken by Danny Lee. Woods officially became a professional golfer in August of ‘96. Also in that time period, Woods signed endorsement deals with Nike and Titleist gaining well over $60 million total. 1996 proves to be a big year for Tiger as he was named Sportsman of the year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. Woods is known for wearing a red T-shirt in the final rounds of the tournament. Woods believes that the red color symbolize aggression and assertion. Woods rose above the ranks rather quickly being the fastest to make it to number one in the Official World Gulf Rankings. Woods lost his form in 1997 throughout 1998, winning only one PGA Tour event.

One of the biggest events that manifested in Woods' career occurred in 1999 when he had a victory in the Memorial Tournament. That marked the beginning of one of the greatest dominance in the history of golf. Woods was nominated PGA Tour player of the year, an accomplishment he did twice in three years. When he reached the age of 24, he became the youngest golfer to get a Career Gland Slam making him one of the most dominant of his sport of all-time. However, his dominance started to decline in 2004 throughout 2005 as he did not win any major titles. In September, 2004, Woods' amazingly incredible streak of 264 weeks as top golfer came to an end at Deutsche Bank Championship. As anticipated, Woods would not be on a slump for long. In 2005, Woods started to get back on his winning ways by earning a victory at the 2005 Open Championship and two at the World Golf Championship. Many sport journalists assume that Woods' success comes from his new swing form. Woods' success extended when he became the first golfer to win Championships back-to-back in two different occasions and the second professional golfer to win 5 PGA Tour events in eight various seasons. Woods had an injury in 2008. He made his return in 2009 where the press called "one of the most anticipated returns in sports".

Aside from golf, Tiger Woods has accomplished many things, some he even considered more important than the sport he dominants. He has created several charities and youth projects. The first of these charities was created in 1996 by him and his father Earl. This was a children’s project which at first was a golf clinic for the disadvantaged. It later included university scholarships to St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2006, the Tiger Woods Learning Center was opened Anaheim, California predicted to be used by thousands of students from grades 4 -12. The learning center featured seven classrooms with multi-media facilities and a outdoor golf teaching area being the size of 35,000 square feet. Chevron World Challenge was an annual off-season tournament that carried a generous amount of prize money. Woods donated $1.35 first place check to his learning center in 2007. Tiger Jam was a fundraiser program that has raised over $10 million for his foundation. On April 24, 2006 Woods won an auto racing that benefited the Steve William foundation which provided sporting careers for the disadvantaged youth.

If you think that this man could not possibly accomplish more, you are slightly mistaken. Tiger Woods has written a golf instruction column for a magazine called Golf Digest. In 2001, he wrote a golf instruction book that was the best selling of any golf book in the first edition. How I play Golf sold 1.5 million copies. He was named the most remarkable athlete at only the age of 21, shortly after his birthday in 1996. In 2000, he signed an extension with Nike for 5 years for $105 million, the largest deal ever signed by an athlete. In 2007, Gatorade announced that Woods would have his own brand of sports drink called “Gatorade Tiger”. A magazine reported that the deal was for 5 years, with a contract going as much as $100 million. According to a trusty source Golf Digest, from 1996 throughout 2007, Woods has made $769,440,709. It has been predicted that he will become the second athlete to make $1 billion. August 20, 2007, the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that Tiger Woods would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame. The induction took place on December 5, 2007 at the California Museum of History.

Woods U.S Open victory (Rajiv Dhoot)

Tiger Woods has shown that not only is he a phenomenal athlete but he is also a phenomenal inspiration to anyone anywhere. Altogether, Woods has established 6 charitable and youth projects for the disadvantaged. There is no reason to doubt that Eldrick “Tiger” Woods defines the word hero. Tiger played golf at a young age, never giving up and ending up as arguably the best at what he plays, winning an astonishing 71 PGA Tour wins and 14 major championships and reigning as the current number player in the world. He helps others that are in need that do not have the same advantage he did to start up a career in athletics. That is why Eldrick “Tiger” Woods is my hero.