Tiger Woods War veteran who was mostly African American with traces of European descent. Earl's mother Maude Carter was light skinned. Some people suggested that she had Native American and Chinese ancestry. Tiger refers to his ethnic make-up as ""Cablinasian"" (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian). Woods' first name—Eldrick—was coined by his mother because it began with "E" (for Earl) and ended with "K" (for Kultida). His middle name Tont is a traditional Thai name. He was nicknamed Tiger in honor of his father's friend Col. Vuong Dang Phong, who had also been known as Tiger.
Tiger Woods 2000 U.S. Open, where he broke or tied nine tournament records in what "Sports Illustrated" called "the greatest performance in golf history", in which Woods won the tournament by a record 15-stroke margin and earned a check for $800,000. At age 24, he became the youngest golfer to achieve the Career Grand Slam. At the end of 2000, Woods had won nine of the twenty PGA Tour events he entered and had broken the record for lowest scoring average in tour history. He was named the "Sports Illustrated" Sportsman of the Year, the only athlete to be honored twice, and