Earl Woods Earl Woods Earl Dennison Woods (March 5, 1932 – May 3, 2006) was a US Army infantry officer who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was a college-level baseball player, writer, and father of professional golfer Tiger Woods. Woods started his son in golf at a very early age and coached him exclusively for his first years in the sport. Earl Woods was born in Manhattan, Kansas. His father, Miles Woods, had five children by his first wife, Viola, and six more (of whom Earl was the youngest) by his
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