Tiger Woods is on track to become the world’s first billionaire athlete, earning over $100m, with barely 10 per cent from actual golf earnings. 

The world number one is all but unbeatable, and for a man in his early 30s he will, if he continues, literally strangle the life out of golf and break every major record by some margin.

Born in California, the prodigy grew up in California, was shooting less than 50 over nine holes by his fourth birthday, and won international golf tournaments before he was 15.

'Nike regard Woods as their greatest sporting ambassador alongside Michael Jordan'


In 1992 he played his first professional tournament, and starred in three PGA events the following year.  In 1994 he tied for 34th place in the Johnnie Walker Asian Classic in Thailand.  After entering Stanford University, he won 10 college events, including the prestigious NCAA title.  The same year he represented the United States in the Amateur team championships.

He then participated at his first professional tour major, at the Masters, and was the only amateur to make the cut.  This was after he won his third US Amateur title.

In 1996 he signed his first major endorsements, catapulting him up the list as the highest paid professional athlete in America.  He has earned close to quarter of a billion dollars through his endorsements with Nike.

In 1997 he created history by becoming the fastest player ever to reach the coveted number one position on the official rankings.  It took him less than a year as a professional, and he did it at 21 years of age, the youngest ever by eight years.

The same year saw Tiger take his first Major success, winning the Masters.  He has since won the prestigious title four times.  His second Masters victory saw him become the first man ever to hold all four professional golf championships at the same time.  Among active players on the tour, no other man has won as many career titles, and no man has higher total earnings.

He has won 86 tournaments, with 64 of those coming in the PGA tour.  He was the youngest man and the fastest to ever achieve at least 50 PGA tours.  No other man in history has held the number one ranking for as many straight weeks or for as many weeks in total.  PGA Player of the year an amazing nine times, a record – as well as winning countless sports man of the year awards.  He is the only person to win the coveted Sports Illustrated sportsman of the year more than once.

This dominance has been beneficial from a sponsorship perspective.  Nike regard him as their greatest sporting ambassador alongside Michael Jordan. While golf participation in the United States has been at record levels partly due to Woods, this is where it ends.

He has ruled the game to a point that where if he does not feature in a major golfing tournament, attendance and viewing numbers drop massively.  He is simply boring in a game which is a sport, and sport needs competition.

The hope for the competition lovers of the world of golf is that there are more young golfers now  with 22-year-old Anthony Kim the latest sensation and hopefully as Woods ages, the game will begin to even up.