RebelAzn
Jul 14th, 2008, 07:10 PM
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http://asianweek.com/101196/tigerwoods.html
Earning His Stripes
Tiger Woods emerges victorious in Invitational playoff, captures his first win on the professional golf tour
WOODS: "Actually, I'm 90 percent Oriental, more Thai than anything."
Tiger Woods emerges victorious in Invitational playoff, captures his first win on the professional golf tour
His story is familiar to most people by now. As a 3-year-old, he played golf with Bob Hope on television. When he was 8, he won a world junior championship. By the time he was 18, he had become the youngest player ever to win the U.S. amateur championship. He is also the only player to win both the U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur golf championships three years in a row.
His name is Eldrick Woods. And, like many who've reached a level of fame and fortune, he's now better known by a single moniker: Tiger.
Last weekend, Woods won the Las Vegas Invitational-his first win as a professional. And it happened in only his fifth pro tournament, just one month and 11 days since relinquishing his amateur status. It's the stuff that legends are made of.
"It's really hard to describe the feeling," Woods told reporters after beating Davis Love III, one of the best players in the PGA, in a one-hole playoff. "It's been a hard struggle all the way, and then I got lucky and won it in the end."
Luck, maybe. Talent, certainly.
From the time he swung his first golf club when he was just three months old, Woods has been under the tutelage of his father, Earl, who charted a course that made last Sunday's win inevitable. He knew his son was a golf prodigy when, at the age of 6, Tiger shot his first hole-in-one.
Earl Woods, 64, is one-quarter Native American, one-quarter Chinese, and half black. A natural athlete-he was the first black baseball player at Kansas State and is also now a 1-handicap golfer-the elder Woods bestowed Tiger with athletic genes. A former Green Beret, he toughened his son mentally. He even asked a Navy psychologist to hypnotize Tiger when he was just 13 years old to help the teen concentrate.
In fact, it was Earl's arduous and dangerous missions in Vietcong-held villages with his Vietnam wartime buddy that prompted his son's nickname. "Tiger" is in honor of Phong Nguyen of the South Vietnamese Army, who bravely pulled Earl off a rice-paddy dike and away from the sniper fire raking them.
His mother, Kultida, is half Thai, a quarter Chinese, and a quarter Dutch. She met Earl in Bangkok while working in an office at a U.S. Army base, where Woods was assigned. They moved to Brooklyn after their marriage in 1969, and then to Cypress, Calif., where Tiger was born on Dec. 30, 1975.
In a sport considered by many as "white"-and viewed by some as racist-Tiger Woods is often described as the "Great Black Hope." His mother, Tida, as she is called by friends, bristles at this description.
"To call Tiger black is to deny my existence," she told Newsweek last year. "You know what my grandfather on my mother's side is? Dutch! White! Hah!"
While Woods writes "Asian" on forms requesting ethnicity-"Actually, I'm 90 percent Oriental, more Thai than anything," he's said-Tiger feels his ethnicity should never be an issue. And, if he is a role model, it's simply because some people want him to be.
"I don't want to be the best black golfer," he said. "I want to be the best golfer, period."
His father is perhaps more conscious of the prominent role race has played in the perception-particularly in the marketing-of his son.
Earl has a market-wise formula: When Tiger is playing in the U.S., he's black; when he's playing in Asia, he's Asian.
It's a formula that seems to have paid off quite well. Tiger has already won a $40-million contract from Nike and Titleist, which manufacturers balls and other golf equipment. As a professional, he'll earn an estimated $8 million a year.
In winning in Las Vegas, Woods erased a four-stroke deficit after three rounds with a final-round 64 and looked headed for an outright victory.
But Love, one of the leading money winners on the tour, tied Woods with a 72-hole total of 332, 27 strokes under par, his final round punctuated with an eagle on the fourth hole.
They went to the extra hole with virtually identical tee shots. Woods lofted a nine-iron to 18 feet of the pin, but Love landed in the sand trap. Woods missed a birdie putt, and holed out for a par. Love misread his putt for par, and hugged the 20-year-old Woods to congratulate him.
With the Invitational title, Woods earned $297,000 and vaulted from 128th on the money list to No. 40. His win also secured automatic qualifying slots in PGA tournaments, including the Masters in April.
Since turning pro in September, he has earned more than $437,000 in just five tournaments.
The younger Woods seems to be the centerpiece of a close-knit family, someone instilled with a strong sense of generosity and caring for others. While Tiger and his family have moved to Orlando, Fla., he has not forgotten his roots; he has vowed to continue his work with young kids.
"I don't consider myself a Great Black Hope," he said. "I'm just a golfer who happens to be black and Asian. It doesn't matter whether they're white, black, brown or green. All that matters is I touch kids the way I can through clinics and they benefit from them."
©1998 AsianWeek. The information you receive on-line from AsianWeek is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright protected material.
http://asianweek.com/101196/tigerwoods.html
Earning His Stripes
Tiger Woods emerges victorious in Invitational playoff, captures his first win on the professional golf tour
WOODS: "Actually, I'm 90 percent Oriental, more Thai than anything."
Tiger Woods emerges victorious in Invitational playoff, captures his first win on the professional golf tour
His story is familiar to most people by now. As a 3-year-old, he played golf with Bob Hope on television. When he was 8, he won a world junior championship. By the time he was 18, he had become the youngest player ever to win the U.S. amateur championship. He is also the only player to win both the U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur golf championships three years in a row.
His name is Eldrick Woods. And, like many who've reached a level of fame and fortune, he's now better known by a single moniker: Tiger.
Last weekend, Woods won the Las Vegas Invitational-his first win as a professional. And it happened in only his fifth pro tournament, just one month and 11 days since relinquishing his amateur status. It's the stuff that legends are made of.
"It's really hard to describe the feeling," Woods told reporters after beating Davis Love III, one of the best players in the PGA, in a one-hole playoff. "It's been a hard struggle all the way, and then I got lucky and won it in the end."
Luck, maybe. Talent, certainly.
From the time he swung his first golf club when he was just three months old, Woods has been under the tutelage of his father, Earl, who charted a course that made last Sunday's win inevitable. He knew his son was a golf prodigy when, at the age of 6, Tiger shot his first hole-in-one.
Earl Woods, 64, is one-quarter Native American, one-quarter Chinese, and half black. A natural athlete-he was the first black baseball player at Kansas State and is also now a 1-handicap golfer-the elder Woods bestowed Tiger with athletic genes. A former Green Beret, he toughened his son mentally. He even asked a Navy psychologist to hypnotize Tiger when he was just 13 years old to help the teen concentrate.
In fact, it was Earl's arduous and dangerous missions in Vietcong-held villages with his Vietnam wartime buddy that prompted his son's nickname. "Tiger" is in honor of Phong Nguyen of the South Vietnamese Army, who bravely pulled Earl off a rice-paddy dike and away from the sniper fire raking them.
His mother, Kultida, is half Thai, a quarter Chinese, and a quarter Dutch. She met Earl in Bangkok while working in an office at a U.S. Army base, where Woods was assigned. They moved to Brooklyn after their marriage in 1969, and then to Cypress, Calif., where Tiger was born on Dec. 30, 1975.
In a sport considered by many as "white"-and viewed by some as racist-Tiger Woods is often described as the "Great Black Hope." His mother, Tida, as she is called by friends, bristles at this description.
"To call Tiger black is to deny my existence," she told Newsweek last year. "You know what my grandfather on my mother's side is? Dutch! White! Hah!"
While Woods writes "Asian" on forms requesting ethnicity-"Actually, I'm 90 percent Oriental, more Thai than anything," he's said-Tiger feels his ethnicity should never be an issue. And, if he is a role model, it's simply because some people want him to be.
"I don't want to be the best black golfer," he said. "I want to be the best golfer, period."
His father is perhaps more conscious of the prominent role race has played in the perception-particularly in the marketing-of his son.
Earl has a market-wise formula: When Tiger is playing in the U.S., he's black; when he's playing in Asia, he's Asian.
It's a formula that seems to have paid off quite well. Tiger has already won a $40-million contract from Nike and Titleist, which manufacturers balls and other golf equipment. As a professional, he'll earn an estimated $8 million a year.
In winning in Las Vegas, Woods erased a four-stroke deficit after three rounds with a final-round 64 and looked headed for an outright victory.
But Love, one of the leading money winners on the tour, tied Woods with a 72-hole total of 332, 27 strokes under par, his final round punctuated with an eagle on the fourth hole.
They went to the extra hole with virtually identical tee shots. Woods lofted a nine-iron to 18 feet of the pin, but Love landed in the sand trap. Woods missed a birdie putt, and holed out for a par. Love misread his putt for par, and hugged the 20-year-old Woods to congratulate him.
With the Invitational title, Woods earned $297,000 and vaulted from 128th on the money list to No. 40. His win also secured automatic qualifying slots in PGA tournaments, including the Masters in April.
Since turning pro in September, he has earned more than $437,000 in just five tournaments.
The younger Woods seems to be the centerpiece of a close-knit family, someone instilled with a strong sense of generosity and caring for others. While Tiger and his family have moved to Orlando, Fla., he has not forgotten his roots; he has vowed to continue his work with young kids.
"I don't consider myself a Great Black Hope," he said. "I'm just a golfer who happens to be black and Asian. It doesn't matter whether they're white, black, brown or green. All that matters is I touch kids the way I can through clinics and they benefit from them."
©1998 AsianWeek. The information you receive on-line from AsianWeek is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright protected material.