Philip Francis (golfer) Philip Francis (golfer) Philip C. Francis is an American professional golfer. Francis was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was one of the top-ranked junior golfers in the class of 2007, winning more than 140 junior events, to include the 2006 U.S. Junior Amateur. He was ranked number one in junior golf for 65 straight weeks. Francis first picked up a golf club at 18 months old and won for the first time at age four in an eight and under event. He also broke Tiger Woods' record by winning four consecutive Junior World Golf Championships (1999-2002). Francis played in
Tiger Woods addition to his first major, the 1997 Masters. Woods won this tournament by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance and earned $486,000. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997, less than a year after turning pro. Throughout the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf—he won the 2000 U.S. Open by a record 15-shot margin. He was the top-ranked golfer in the world from August 1999 to September 2004 (264 weeks) and again from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 weeks). Woods took a self-imposed hiatus from professional golf from December 2009