Tiger Woods The Making of a Champion

Matt Buyan
C-period
1-1-97

TIGER WOODS THE MAKING OF A CHAMPION
BY: JOHN GARRITY

Eldrick Tiger Woods was born in Brooklyn, NY on December 30, 1975. His parents names are Earl and Kutildra. Earl is a 1/4 American Indian, a 1/4 Chinese and half Black. Kutildra is a 1/4 White, a 1/4 Chinese and half Thai. Both of Earl's parents were dead by the time he was 13. He named his son "Tiger" after his Vietnam War partner Nguyen Phong of the South Vietnamese army. He nicknamed him Tiger for his iron will and bravery. Around 1967 or 1968 they lost contact and never spoke to one another since. Earl hopes that 1 day Nguyen will see his son's name either on TV or in a paper and contact him, so they can reunite. Tiger was first introduced to golf by his father who bought him a junior golf set as a kid. Tiger and his family now live in Cypress, California and he stands a tall 6'4 and weighs a lean 155.

Now about his golfing days. Tiger won the 1991, 1992, and 1993 U.S Junior Amateur championships. When winning his third he brought out a record attendance of over 15,000 spectators. Woods was also the first African-American to win the U.S Juniors. He quotes " when I am up at the tee all I think about is where I want my ball to go". During this whole time Tiger attended Stanford college and maintained straight A's in his sophomore year. He had originally planed to graduate from Stanford before going pro, but when Nike offered him a 42 million dollar deal to wear their clothes for 5 years he couldn't resist. This was not the only reason he decided to go pro. After an excellent finish in the British Open, Tiger felt that he also had enough mental strength to go pro. His parents are very supportive of him and felt fine with this. Wood's first pro win was the Las Vegas invitational. At the Honors Course in Texas he brought out an enormous crowd. Of the 14,694 tickets sold, 14,000 were fans wanting to see their Tiger.

If you were to ever meet Tiger Woods for yourself he would probably be the nicest person you will ever meet. He signs just about every autograph and is never mean to fans. Tiger and his father gave out free golf lessons to caddies and junior golfers. Many of you may no his nickname the "Come Back Kid", he got this name because he was the 1st person to have a six hole deficit on the U.S Amateur championship and win. He also hangs out with some really smart people. One of his friends put a computer together from scrap and the 1st time he turned it on it worked. Golf pays quite well when he finished 60th in his 3rd pro course he received 2,544 dollars.......People often ask Tiger if he wants to be the greatest African-American to play the game and he responds with "No I want to be the greatest to ever play the sport"