Tiger Woods, born on December 30th 1975 in the town of Cypress, California, is considered by most - including the majority of his peer golfers - as one of the greatest golfers of all time. His impact on the game, if judged only by his play, would allow him this title. But it is what this still-young phenomenon has done to the society of golf, and to the society who before Woods cared nothing for golf, that has made him deserving of such accolades.
Tiger Woods - who was born a less apt "Eldrick" Woods - may have been born for golf. His father, Earl Woods, fought during the Vietnam War and a retired from U.S. Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Brave on the battlefield and brave on the links, Earl's passions were typical of his generation: God, country, family and golf. Wishing to share his love of the links with his beloved family, he introduced his son Eldrick to the game at a very early age.
Young "Tiger" Woods (as he was soon named) was just as quickly noted a child prodigy, and before the age of six he had appeared on the Mike Douglas Show with his father and later demonstrated his golf skills during a television appearance with Bob Hope. In 1984 he won the 9-10 year old boys' event at the Junior World Golf Championship. He was only eight at the time, but the 9-10 age group was the youngest in those days. Clearly age was not at all a factor is Tiger's quality of play. He went on to win the U.S. Junior Amateur title in 1991, 1992 and 1993 and he remains the youngest ever winner and the only multiple winner of this event. He followed this with three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles over the next three years. With his first U.S. Amateur win in 1994, (the year that he graduated high school,) he became the youngest man ever to win that event. From high school he matriculated to Stanford University and there won one NCAA individual championship. Woods decided to leave Stanford after only two years as he felt that he was ready to succeed as a professional.
In August of 1996 Tiger Woods became a professional golfer. He won two events in three months of the 1996 season. The following April he won The Masters by a record margin of 12 shots. In the summer of 1997 Woods went to number one in the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time.
Tiger Woods formed a close friendship with leading PGA Tour professional Mark O'Meara, who was almost twenty years his senior. O'Meara acted as a mentor to Woods for a time, and the two men won the World Cup together. The inspiration of working closely with a brilliant young talent was widely regarded as a catalyst for O'Meara's own career year in 1998, when he won the only two majors of his career. Despite suggestions that the other players would only be competing for second place from now on, Woods' form began to fade in the second half of 1997, and in 1998 he only won once on the PGA Tour. At this time he was working on modifications to his swing to adapt to the maturation of his physique, and to address concerns that the extremely vigourous and elastic swing he had used in his youth might cause long term back problems and truncate his career. Woods was careful to avoid using this as an excuse and instead responded to questions about his wavering form with reminders that he was still very young, and was hoping to do better in the future. This was a young man who clearly knew how to demonstrate maturity.
