Tiger Woods is a 15 time major-champion
April 24, 2019
On Sunday, April 14, Tiger Woods won his fifth Master’s title.
Woods has won 15 majors, second of all time behind Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. He has also won (81) PGA Tour events, second only to Sam Snead (82) and eight ahead of Jack Nicklaus’ (73).
After Woods not winning a Master’s title for a decade, the crowd at Augusta National Golf Club was roaring. The difficulty was telling who was having more fun: the crowd as it shouted welcome back to Woods or Woods as he relished the sounds of the crowd. Afterward, Woods conceded that he felt the ground shaking under him with the cheers of his fans. Woods is one of the five players (along with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus) to have won all four professional major championships in his career, known as the Career Grand Slam and he was the youngest to do so. Woods is the only player to have won all professional major championships in a row, accomplishing the feat in the 2000-2001 season. This monumental defeat was known as the “Tiger Slam.”
Woods has amassed the most career earnings of any player in PGA Tour history. Woods has many sponsors that include Golf TV, Upper Deck, Taylor Made, PGA Tour, Nike, Monster Energy, Kowa, Hero, Full Swing and Bridgestone Golf. After the scandal, a lot of his sponsors dropped him but Nike was quick to come to his side. Woods’ most unlikely sponsor came from Japanese company Bridgestone Golf, which is barely known in the U.S. golf world. Almost every other player is sponsored by Titleist, Taylormade or Callaway balls. Woods signed the deal in 2016 and first played it in a tournament that he sponsors once a year in the Bahamas. In reality, the biggest sponsor Woods has is actually himself. His brand is a little T and W which he normally wears on his signature hat.
The total payout for the tournament is $11.5 million, and Woods took in $2.07 million of the pot, which is 18% of the total prize money. He is now the first Masters Champion to earn over $2 million. Many say that winning that tournament was not Woods last ride, but his comeback season.