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 Woods' niece, Cheyenne Woods, played for the Wake Forest University golf team and turned professional in 2012, when she made her pro debut in the LPGA Championship. Woods grew up in Orange County, California. He was a child prodigy who was introduced to golf before the age of two by his athletic father, Earl Woods. Earl was a single-digit handicap amateur golfer who also was one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University. Tiger's father was a member of the military and had playing privileges at the Navy golf course beside the Joint Forces Training Base