Tiger Woods enjoyed a dominant career in professional golf, eventually growing into one of the largest business empires in history, and surviving a controversy in his personal life that almost ruined his career in the process. He has landed a lot of very lucrative deals in his life, and continues to do so today.
The Crazy Earnings of Golfer Tiger Woods
The stellar golf legend has an estimated net worth of over $800 million, according to estimations made in 2019. There are a lot of ways that he has been able to amass this wealth, and we will discuss them further on. Keep reading to find out more!
One of his most financially sound cash cows is a long-standing alliance with apparel giant, Nike. The iconic sportswear brand was one of the few sponsors to maintain relations with Woods after the 2009 infidelity scandal that shook the sports world.
Woods didn’t let the scandal drag him down, though. He recovered from the controversy and returned from a string of crippling injuries to re-establish himself as one of the most profitable sports athletes. He is currently working with a range of blue-chip brands, including Nike, Rolex and TaylorMade, the golf equipment company that produces Woods’ signature club line.
Overall in his career, he has been able to score around 83 career wins and has even received medals straight from the president.
So how did it all begin? Woods made his professional start in golfing on 29 August 1996. 228 days later, on April 13, 1997, he managed to win The Masters. After winning The Masters, the 21-year-old negotiated a $40 million five-year contract with Nike and a $20 million five-year contract with Titleist.
Read more about how he earned all his money: https://www.phil-mickelson.com/tiger-woods-net-worth/
Tiger Woods Wins the Masters
Around a couple of weeks later, on May 20, 1997, a day after having won the Byron Nelson Classic (the first championship he managed to enter after being the youngest person ever to win The Masters), Woods signed a $30 million five-year contract with American Express. The American Express contract, coupled with his Nike, Titleist and Tournament wins, brought his net worth to $100 million. If you compare this with LeBron James’ deal with Nike, it matured over seven years to be worth $90 million!
In September of 2000, Woods announced a second Nike sponsorship deal. This deal was worth $100 million over five years ($20 million per year). In other words, Woods received $140 million from Nike alone between 1997 and 2005. It is estimated that he must have received more than $200 million among all contracts over the seven-year period.
Woods has also had a bit of tricky and rocky personal life. In 2004, Woods married Elin Nordegren. Woods and Nordegren’s eldest child, a daughter they named Sam Alexis Woods, was born in 2007, and their son, Charlie Axel Woods, was born in 2009. Tiger’s adultery scandal shook the pair in 2009 and ultimately led to the downfall of their partnership. This cost him millions of dollars in potential earnings and he almost lost many of his sponsorship deals. However, he made it through and eventually climbed back up the success ladder.