The Tiger roars again
The past 10 years had been muddled for this top athlete – romantic calisthenics with different women, a messy divorce,four procedures on his back where bones were fused on his spine and the medications to manage the pain. He also had to battle sleep disorder and topping the fun are therapy sessions at sex addiction clinics. The accumulated misadventures dropped him from the top 1000 of the world’s best golfers last year, ranking him at 1,199th, the worst in his career.
The world ranking of golf takes into consideration the number of tournaments a player had joined and how the golfer performed in those events in the past two years. Being sidelined for the most part of 2016 didn’t help things.
Now on the comeback trail, Eldridge Tont Woods, famously known as Tiger, had gotten back his form and made adjustments to his swing. He corrected his tee shots and erratic putting and long story short, with a large crowd following and cheering him on the way to the 18th green, he won his 80th PGA Tour Championship in more than five years last week.
Acknowledged as the best golfer of all time and with the surrounding drama rivalling a reality show, Tiger Woods is also the all-time richest golfer with a net worth of $740 million, according to Forbes. Surely, with his recent triumph and all the projected victories, more prize money will be coming in.
As the 16th highest paid athlete in the world, his 2017 earnings topped $43.3 million but only $1.3 million come from winnings. The rest are from endorsement deals with Nike and golf-related products like Bridgestone golf balls, Taylor Made golf equipment, Full Swing Golf and Monster Energy. Because of his colourful past, mainstream companies like Tag Heuer, Gillette, AT&T and Gatorade made a detour but golf companies still love The Tiger even at 42 years old. Nike had been loyal and true to him as they stuck with Woods since he turned pro in 1996.
Second only to Muhammad Ali in trash talking, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. tops the list of highest earning athletes with an annual take of $285 million but he only earns $10M in endorsement money. Lionel Messi, one of football’s highest earners with a $111M yearly take home pay, only gets $27M from his sponsors. Woods collects $42M from his endorsement deals.
He still lords over golf’s top money earners and with his recent championship, his 2018 winnings is now $115.5 million. A distant second is Phil Mickelson with $88.1 million. Sometime in late November, Mickelson will have a chance to close the gap when he faces Woods in a head-to-head, winner-take-all match for $9 million. That’s a damn lot of money for whacking a dimpled ball so far away, taking note of the trajectory, following it on foot and then whack it some more and repeat the process until it reaches the 18th course.
And just like all the ridiculously paid athletes, the world’s greatest golfer displays his opulence. The Tiger has a big-ass yacht and a private jet for whatever purpose it may serve him, a palatial home in Florida complete with a mini golf course and a private dock for his yacht, the requisite Cadillac Escalade SUV with a fire hydrant near his home that he made as a brake, a Porsche Carrera GT, a Lexus LS sedan and the huge $220,000 AMG Mercedes Benz S65 V-12 sedan that he drove while in a drunken stupor.
His business interests include a restaurant called The Woods Jupiter with the female (of course) resto manager eventually ending as his main squeeze. Tiger runs a golf course design company where his first US course was opened in Houston in 2015. Reportedly, he designed the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai.
Of course, not everything is spent on luxury as he gave away $12 million to support his Tiger Woods Foundation which provides kids from under privileged background have better education. His divorce with Elin Nordegren reportedly cost him a cool $100 million.
Oh yes, wouldn’t it be beautifully fulfilling to have all the money to spend on anything, living things or non-living things available under the sun, but the caveat is that fame and fortune comes mostly with a steep price if you don’t know how to deal with it and let it control you.
Sports and millions are like conjoined twins but will you really, really be happy if your family is broken?
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