50 facts about Tiger Woods: was the youngest Masters champion ever, at the age of 21 years

Learn 50 facts about golfer Tiger Woods.

1. His full name is Eldrick (Tiger) Woods.

2. Became a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996.

3. He has won 105 tournaments, 79 of those on the PGA TOUR, including the 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005 Masters Tournaments, 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007 PGA Championships, 2000, 2002, and 2008 U.S. Open Championships, and 2000, 2005 and 2006 Open Championships.

4. With his second Masters victory in 2001, Tiger became the first ever to hold all four professional major championships at the same time.

5. In winning the 2000 British Open, Woods became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam of professional major championships and only the fifth ever to do so, following Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.

6. Tiger also was the youngest Masters champion ever, at the age of 21 years, three months and 14 days, and was the first major championship winner of African or Asian heritage.

7. Woods holds or shares the record for the low score in relation to par in three of the four major championships.

8. In the Masters, Woods broke the record margin of nine strokes set by Nicklaus in 1965.

9. Tiger won the Open Championship by eight strokes, the largest margin since J. H. Taylor in 1913.

10. He is the career victories leader among active players on the PGA TOUR, and is the career money list leader.

11. In 2012, he passed Jack Nicklaus for second in PGA TOUR career victories (74), trailing only Sam Snead (82).

12. Tiger increased his record total on the PGA TOUR career money list to $109,504,139 through 2013, and had won $132,349,133 worldwide.

13. Established in 1996, the Tiger Woods Foundation believes every child deserves a shot at college. Designed to break through a culture of low expectations, the TWF college-access programs reach underserved youth in all stages of academic life.

14. Woods announced the creation of Tiger Woods Design, a golf-course design company, in 2006 to utilize Tiger's worldwide experience, his limitless pursuit of excellence and his love of golf to create a unique collection of amazing golf courses.

15. He is the son of Earl Woods, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and his wife, Kultida, a native of Thailand.

16. He was nicknamed Tiger after a Vietnamese soldier and friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong, to whom his father had also given that nickname.

17. Born on Dec. 30, 1975, Woods grew up in Cypress, Calif., 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles He was not out of the crib before he took an interest in golf, at age 6 months, watching as his father hit golf balls into a net and imitating his swing.

18. He appeared on the Mike Douglas Show at age 2, putting with Bob Hope.

19. He shot 48 for nine holes at age 3 and was featured in Golf Digest at age 5.

20. He won the Optimist International Junior tournament six times at ages 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

21. Tiger played in his first professional tournament in 1992, at age 16, at the Nissan Los Angeles Open and in three more PGA TOUR events in 1993.

22. He made the 36-hole cut and tied for 34th place in the 1994 Johnnie Walker Asian Classic in Thailand and had three additional PGA TOUR appearances.

23. He entered Stanford University in 1994 and in two years, he won 10 collegiate events, concluding with the NCAA title.

24. His other amateur victories included the 1994 Western Amateur.

25. He played his first major championships in 1995, making the 36-hole cuts in The Masters and the British Open, but had to withdraw from the U.S. Open because of an injured wrist.

26. Among the honors received as an amateur, Woods was Golf Digest Player of the Year in 1991 and 1992, Golf World Player of the Year in 1992 and 1993, Golfweek National Amateur of the Year in 1992, Golf World Man of the Year in 1994, and he was chosen for the Fred Haskins and Jack Nicklaus College Player of the Year awards in 1996.

27. Woods compiled one of the most impressive amateur records in golf history, winning six USGA national championships, plus the NCAA title, before turning professional on Aug. 27, 1996.

28. He concluded his amateur career by winning an unprecedented third consecutive U.S. Amateur title, finishing with a record 18 consecutive match-play victories.

29. Woods won the U.S. Junior Amateur three times and was the first to win that title more than once.

30. He was the youngest ever to win the U.S. Junior Amateur (age 15 in 1991) and the youngest ever to win the U.S. Amateur (age 18 in 1994).

31. With his U.S. Open victory, Tiger became the first ever to hold that title along with the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur titles.

32. The week after winning his third U.S. Amateur title, Woods played his first tournament as a professional in the Greater Milwaukee Open.

33. Starting 1997 in spectacular fashion, Tiger won the season-opening Mercedes Championships with a birdie in a playoff over Tom Lehman with a six-iron shot that drew perfectly to the flag, landing two feet right of the hole and spinning back to within inches.

34. He achieved No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking for the most rapid progression ever to that position. On June 15, 1997, in his 42nd week as a professional, Woods became the youngest-ever No. 1 golfer at age 21 years, 24 weeks.

35. He began 2007 with his seventh consecutive PGA TOUR victory and ended the year with a total of seven official wins including a second-consecutive PGA Championship, a first-place finish on the TOUR money list, a seventh career Vardon Trophy and a win at the Target World Challenge.

36. In 2008, he won four of six PGA TOUR events including his 14th major at the U.S. Open -- his last event of the year before season-ending knee surgery -- plus the Dubai Desert Classic and finished second on the TOUR money list in just six starts.

37. At his major win at Torrey Pines, Woods sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force an eventual 19-hole playoff (tied at even-par 71 after 18 holes) the following day. He later revealed that he had played the tournament with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and a double stress fracture in the same leg.

38. Woods was limited to just nine events during the 2013-14 season because of a recurring back injury and a subsequent successful microdiscectomy for a pinched nerve.

39. Sports Illustrated selected Woods as the 1996 and 2000 Sportsman of the Year, as he became the first to win the award more than once.

40. L'Equipe (France) selected him as the 2000 World Champion of Champions.

41. The Associated Press chose Woods as the Male Athlete of the Year for 1997, 1999 and 2000. He and Michael Jordan are the only athletes to win that award three times.

42. He was chosen ESPY Male Athlete of the Year in 1997 (tied with Ken Griffey Jr.), 1999, 2000 and 2001.

43. In 2008, BusinessWeek chose Woods No. 1 in The Power 100 for the most influential people in sports.

44. In 2009, he was selected AP Athlete of the Decade.

45. He was also inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame.

46. Woods was selected as the 1997, 1999, 2000-2003, 2005-2007, 2009 and 2013 Player of the Year by the PGA TOUR (Jack Nicklaus Award), the PGA of America and the Golf Writers Association of America in 1997, 1999, 2000-2003, 2005-2007 and 2009.

47. In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish former model and daughter of former minister of migration Barbro Holmberg and radio journalist Thomas Nordegren.

48. They were introduced during The Open Championship in 2001 by Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as an au pair. They married on October 5, 2004, at the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados, and lived at Isleworth, a community in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, Florida.

49. Woods and Nordegren's first child, a daughter named Sam Alexis Woods, was born in 2007. Their son, Charlie Axel Woods, was born in 2009.

50. Woods and Nordegren divorced in 2010.

Source: tigerwoods.com, Wikipedia.org