TIGER WOODS STARTING PLAAYING GOLF PROFESSIONAL

Woods was voted PGA Tour Player of the Year and Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the second time in three years. He completed his 1999 campaign by winning his last four starts - including the PGA Championship - and finished the season with eight wins, a feat not achieved since 1974. In June 1999, Woods won the Memorial Tournament, a victory that touched off one of the greatest sustained periods of dominance in the history of men's golf. He answered critics of his 'slump' and what seemed to be wavering form by maintaining he was undergoing extensive swing changes with his coach, Butch Harmon, and was hoping to do better in the future.

While expectations for Woods were high, his play faded in the second half of 1997, and in 1998 he only won a single PGA Tour event. At the conclusion of the 1997 season, Woods was named PGA Player of the Year, the first time a golfer had won the award in just his second year as a professional. He went on to win another three PGA Tour events that year, and on June 15, 1997, in only his 42nd week as a professional, rose to number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, the fastest-ever ascent to world No. Woods set 20 Masters records in 1997 and tied six others. The landmark victory made Woods the tournament's youngest-ever winner, as well as its first African-American winner (and its first Asian-American winner). The following April, Woods won his first major, The Masters, with a record score of 18-under-par 270, by a record margin of 12 strokes. He began his tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments, which was a link to his college days at Stanford. For his efforts, Woods was named Sports Illustrated's 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

TIGER WOODS STARTING PLAAYING GOLF PROFESSIONAL

He played his first professional golf event at the Greater Milwaukee Open, tying for 60th place, recorded a hole-in-one, and would win two events in the next three months to qualify for the Tour Championship. These endorsement contracts were the highest in golf history up to that point. With the announcement 'Hello, World.' Tiger Woods became a professional golfer in August 1996 and signed endorsement deals worth $40 million from Nike, Inc. Woods giving a driving demonstration aboard the USS George Washington.

Tiger woods starting plaaying golf