He’s been one of the best golfers in the world since the early nineties, but who are Tiger Woods’ parents?
Tiger Woods’ parents are named Earl and Kultida Woods. He has a deeply mixed ethnicity, with his mother being of Thai, Chinese and Dutch ancestry. His father, on the other hand, is of African American, Chinese and Native American ancestry.
Read on to learn more about Tiger Woods’ parents.
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Tiger Woods is one of the most decorated figures in golfing history. As of 2020, he was joint first for the most PGA tour wins of all time, with an incredible eighty-two. He held this position with Sam Snead, a veteran golfer who passed away in 2002 after a massive, thirty-year career.
Reportedly, Tiger was a golfer as soon as he was old enough to walk. It’s said that he was able to putt effectively from just three years of age, beating adults in contests. The young prodigy even appeared on television, showing off his skill to the world, at just five years old.
You can see one of the oldest surviving video clips of Tiger Woods playing golf, on a television show way back in 1978. This video is on YouTube.
Tiger’s father, Earl, committed to teaching Tiger, coaching him in the ways of golf. He, along with his wife Kultida, gave Tiger everything he’d need to succeed. This included the equipment, the support and the coaching.
Earl adopted a rather unorthodox tactic when training Tiger: he would purposefully distract him. He wanted Tiger to hone his skills through focus and concentration. The tactic paid off, and Tiger won his first youth tournament aged just eight years old.
Family Ties
Earl and Kultida Woods met in Thailand, in 1966. At the time, Earl was serving in the US military, wherein he’d go on to fight in Vietnam. In 1968, Kultida immigrated to the United States, and the pair married in 1969.
In a beautiful love at first sight story, the pair remained happily married for almost forty years, until Earl’s death in 2006. Although Tiger is the only child of the two, Earl was previously married, with three children.
When Tiger was born in 1975, Kultida decided she wanted to instill her values in him. She would take him on trips to Thailand, and teach him the practices of Buddhism. He has claimed that these values and aspects have helped him focus over the years.
Kultida’s influence on Tiger can be seen in other ways. In an article from 2019, one of Tiger’s renowned habits is explored: his trademark red shirt worn at golfing finals. There are some who believe this is an indicator of danger, quite literally as Tiger relentlessly pursues players up the scoreboard.
In reality, this traditional garb can be attributed to his mother. In this article, Tiger is quoted: “I wear red on Sundays because my mom thinks that’s my power color, and you know you should always listen to your mom.”
Whatever the reasoning, it most certainly works. As of 2020, Tiger Woods boasted a net worth of almost $800 million, making him the fourth richest athlete on the planet. In his entire career, his relentless victories had landed him a whopping $1.6 billion.
In 2009, he became the first sports personality to accumulate $1 billion in earnings. However, it isn’t just playing golf that nets Tiger a considerable sum. He’s also been a prime partner with Nike since 1996, earning as much as $50 million a year.
Even after Nike disbanded their golf equipment production, they still continued to sponsor the golf mega star. When Tiger won his first competition in five years, in 2018, Nike uploaded a great commemorative post to Instagram.