Aaron's Sports History Highlights
Tiger Woods was born in 1975 in Cypress, California. At age 21 he became the youngest player to win the Masters Championship. Woods, whose father is African American and whose mother is Thai, was also both the first African American and the first Asian American to win the Masters. His dramatic success sparked increased interest in golf among young people and people of color.
Woods began playing golf as soon as he could walk, and he was soon touted as a golf prodigy and was featured on several television shows. His father coached him on form, stance, and swing. The elder Woods also focused on developing his son's concentration, and soon young Tiger had learned to block out distractions during his shots. By age 6 he had recorded two holes in one. At age 15 he became the youngest player ever to win the United States Golf Association (USGA) Junior National Championship.
In 1992 he won his third consecutive USGA Junior National Championship and was one of the top players on the U.S. Amateur circuit. For his outstanding golfing at Stanford he was named Pacific-10 Conference player of the year in 1995. Woods also captured three consecutive U.S. Amateur Championships (1994-1996). After the third of these, he turned professional, winning two tournaments on the 1996 Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tour. When Woods won the Masters in 1997, he broke several tournament records, including the lowest score for 72 holes (18 under par at 270) and the widest margin of victory (12 strokes). Both records had been set by Jack Nicklaus (271 and 9 strokes) in 1965.
