Slice it anyhow you want, but there is no denying the fact that Tiger Woods is the face of golf. Although the sport has been for hundreds of years before he arrived on the scene, not as many people were paying attention to it until he made them. Since going pro at 20 in 1996, he has won 81 PGA Tour victories and brought in the highest career earnings, all of which have contributed to Tiger Woods’ net worth.
The golfer has 15 major wins to his name and five masters thanks to his latest victory at the 2019 tournament. Granted that Woods is a superstar prodigy like nothing the world of golf has ever seen, his career has been on the burnout over the last few years due to a string of injuries and his notorious cheating scandal. However, he has been making a glorious comeback and it seems that his reign on the golf course is far from over.
With his resurgence, Tiger Woods’ net worth is set to grow in size as his marketability is on the rise once again and he might soon be able to command as much success from endorsement deals as he did during his peak.
Tiger Wood’s Career Attainments
Born Eldrick Tont Woods on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California the golf legend began learning to play the sport when he was just two years old. He was taught by his father, an amateur golfer and Vietnam War Vet. He was fondly nicknamed Tiger in honor of one of his father’s friends. Woods has three half-siblings from his father’s previous marriage.
Long before Tiger Woods’ net worth came to be what it is, anyone who had eyes and watched him swing a club could tell that he was destined for greatness. By the age of 5, Woods was already displaying advanced skills and was being invited on talk shows to discuss his love for golf.
While in college at Stanford, Woods was crowned NCAA Champion and two-time All American. He went pro at 20 after just two years in college. He also signed a lucrative contract with Nike worth $20 million and the legend began. Woods won one tournament after another and secured his first Masters’ victory in 1997, becoming the youngest and first black player to ever do so.
As his fame on the golf course continued to grow, so did his market value. Brands were tripping over themselves to offer him endorsement contracts, and before long he was making way more money with his name than he was from the prizes he won. Woods has been consistently earning money on and off the golf course, making him one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, and of course, the richest golfer.
Tiger Woods Net Worth and How He Achieved It
Over the course of his decades-long career, Tiger Woods has earned over $1.5 billion dollars. More than 80% of his earnings come from sponsorships, and he earns upwards of $43 million annually from all his professional pursuits. His total PGA tournament career earnings add up to about $118 million.
Early in his career, Woods enjoyed sponsorships from brands like Gatorade, Nike, AT&T, Gillette, Tag Heuer, General Motors, and a host of others. However, he was dropped by all of them except Nike when his cheating scandal and downward career plunge began. He has since picked himself up and his current sponsors include TaylorMade, Monster Energy, Bridgestone, Hero MotorCorp, Upper Deck, Kowa, and Nike. His most recent contract with the latter is said to be worth $200 million.
Tiger Woods’ net worth has also been boosted by other sources of revenue such as his Florida restaurant named The Woods, which was recently embroiled in a legal controversy after the family of a former employee sued the establishment for wrongful death. They claimed that the restaurant had overused the victim, who had a history of addiction and died in a ghastly car crash after leaving the premises one night.
On another front, Tiger Woods also earns a substantial income through his business Tiger Woods Design, through which he books contracts to design and create five-star golf courses all around the world.
With $800 million to his name, Tiger Woods’ net worth is just a few paychecks shy from the billion-dollar mark. If he continues along his earnings path, he is bound to become a billionaire in a few short years.
