Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Presidents Cup
location	Victoria, Australia in 2011
establishment	1994
course	Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 2011
par	70 in 2011
yardage	7,002 yards in 2011
tour	PGA Tour
format	Match play
month played
final year
current champion	United States
final champion	}}

The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world less Europe. Europe competes against the U.S. in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup. The Presidents Cup is held biennially. Initially it was held in even numbered years, with the Ryder Cup being held in odd numbered years. However, the cancellation of the 2001 Ryder Cup due to the September 11 attacks pushed both tournaments back a year, and the Presidents Cup is now held in odd numbered years. It is hosted alternately in the U.S. and in countries represented by the International Team.

Format and strategy

The scoring system of the event is match play. The format is drawn from the Ryder Cup, consisting of twelve players per side and a non-playing captain, usually a highly respected golf figure. The captains are responsible for pairing the teams in the doubles events, which consist of both alternate shot and best ball formats (also known as "foursome" and "four ball" matches respectively) However, unlike the Ryder Cup, all twelve players must play foursome and four ball matches on Thursday and Friday (six matches per session, unlike the Ryder Cup with four matches), and only two players will sit out each session of Saturday matches (five matches per Saturday session, compared to four), and each player must play a one-on-one, singles match on Sunday.

Each match, whether it be a doubles or singles match, is worth one point. In the doubles matches a half-point is awarded to each team in the event of a tie. With 11 foursome doubles matches, 11 four ball doubles matches and 12 singles matches that represents a total of 34 points. To win the Presidents Cup a team must accrue a total of 17.5 points.

The format of the Presidents Cup differs from the Ryder Cup mainly in that it includes six extra matches, which prevents a team from hiding its weaknesses. By having all 24 players on the course for all three days there cannot be a situation such as in the 1999 Ryder Cup when Europe kept three players (Jarmo Sandelin, Jean Van de Velde and Andrew Coltart) on the bench for the sixteen four-ball and better-ball matches on the first two days. This use of twelve players on all three days arguably led to the United States' victory.

Ties

Until the 2005 event, prior to the start of the final day matches, the captains selected one player to play in a tie-breaker in the event of a tie at the end of the final match. Upon a tie, the captains would reveal the players who would play a sudden-death match to determine the winner. In 2003, however, the tiebreaker match ended after three holes because of darkness, and it was decided that the Cup would be shared by both teams.

To prevent a repeat of this situation a new format was adopted. Beginning in 2005, all doubles matches played Thursday through Saturday may end in a tie. However, on Sunday, all singles matches ending in a tie at the end of the regulation 18 holes will be extended to extra holes until that match is won outright. All singles matches will continue in this format until one team reaches the required 17.5 point total and wins The Presidents Cup. At that point, all remaining singles matches will only be played to the regulation 18 holes and may end in a tie. This is done to preserve the individual player points for the event.

History

The event was created and is organized by the PGA Tour. At the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994, former U.S. President Gerald Ford was Honorary Chairman. Subsequent events saw former President George H. W. Bush, then-Australian Prime Minister John Howard, then-President Bill Clinton, the former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki, George W. Bush and the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper in the chair.

Charity

There is no prize money awarded at the Presidents Cup. The net proceeds are distributed to charities nominated by the players, captains, and captains' assistants. The first six Presidents Cups raised over US$13 million for charities around the world.

Results

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;" !Year!!Venue!!Winning Team!!colspan="2"|Score!!Losing Team!!Captains |- |2011 |Royal Melbourne Golf Club(Melbourne, Australia) | | | | | Fred Couples Greg Norman |- |2009 |Harding Park Golf Club(San Francisco, California) |United States |align="center"|19½ |align="center"|14½ |International | Fred Couples Greg Norman |- |2007 |Royal Montreal Golf Club(L'Île-Bizard, Quebec, Canada) |United States |align="center"|19½ |align="center"|14½ |International | Jack Nicklaus Gary Player |- |2005 |Robert Trent Jones Golf Club(Gainesville, Virginia) |United States |align="center"|18½ |align="center"|15½ |International | Jack Nicklaus Gary Player |- |2003 |Fancourt Hotel and Country Club Estate(George, Western Cape, South Africa) |Tied |align="center"|17 |align="center"|17 |Tied | Jack Nicklaus Gary Player |- |2000 |Robert Trent Jones Golf Club(Gainesville, Virginia) |United States |align="center"|21½ |align="center"|10½ |International | Ken Venturi Peter Thomson |- |1998 |Royal Melbourne Golf Club(Melbourne, Australia) |International |align="center"|20½ |align="center"|11½ |United States | Jack Nicklaus Peter Thomson |- |1996 |Robert Trent Jones Golf Club(Gainesville, Virginia) |United States |align="center"|16½ |align="center"|15½ |International | Arnold Palmer Peter Thomson |- |1994 |Robert Trent Jones Golf Club(Gainesville, Virginia) |United States |align="center"|20 |align="center"|12 |International | Hale Irwin David Graham |}

ESPN Presidents Cup History

Perfect performances

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;" !Golfer!!Team!!Record!!Year!!Overall Cup |- | Mark O'Meara | United States | 5-0-0 | 1996 | Won |- | Shigeki Maruyama | International | 5-0-0 | 1998 | Won |- | Tiger Woods | United States | 5-0-0 | 2009 | Won |}

Future sites

2011 Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Melbourne, Australia

2013 Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio

See also

List of American Presidents Cup golfers

List of International Presidents Cup golfers

Handa Cup, a similar event in which ladies compete

References

External links

Official site

Category:Team golf tournaments Category:PGA Tour events

de:Presidents Cup fr:Presidents Cup nl:Presidents Cup ja:プレジデンツカップ no:The Presidents Cup sv:Presidents Cup th:เพรสสิเดนท์สคัพ zh:总统杯

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Tiger Woods
fullname	Eldrick Tont Woods
nickname	Tiger
birth date	December 30, 1975
birth place	Cypress, California
death date
height
weight
nationality
residence	Jupiter Island, Florida
spouse	Elin Nordegren (2004–2010)
children	Sam Alexis (b. 2007)Charlie Axel (b. 2009)
college	Stanford University (two years)
yearpro	1996
tour	PGA Tour (joined 1996)
prowins	98
pgawins	71 (3rd all time)
eurowins	38 (3rd all time)
japwins	2
asiawins	1
auswins	1
champwins
otherwins	16
majorwins	14
masters	Won: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005
usopen	Won: 2000, 2002, 2008
open	Won: 2000, 2005, 2006
pga	Won: 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007
wghofid
wghofyear
award1	PGA TourRookie of the Year
year1	1996
award2	PGA Player of the Year
year2	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award3	PGA TourPlayer of the Year
year3	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award4	PGA Tourleading money winner
year4	1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award5	Vardon Trophy
year5	1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009
award6	Byron Nelson Award
year6	1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
award7	FedEx Cup Champion
year7	2007, 2009
awardssection	List of career achievements by Tiger Woods#Awards }}

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No. 1, he is the highest-paid professional athlete in the world, having earned an estimated US$90.5 million from winnings and endorsements in 2010.

Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time behind Sam Snead and Nicklaus. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer does. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 16 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999.

Woods held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any other golfer. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons.

From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources.

In October 2010, Woods lost the world number one ranking; his ranking gradually fell to a low of #58 in November 2011. He snapped a career-long winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. As of February 27, 2012, he is ranked #21. He remains winless on the PGA Tour since September 2009.

Background and family

Woods was born Eldrick Tont Woods in Cypress, California, to Earl (1932–2006) and Kultida (Tida) Woods (born 1944). He is the only child of their marriage, but does have two half-brothers, Earl Jr. (born 1955) and Kevin (born 1957), and a half-sister, Royce (born 1958) from the 18-year marriage of Earl Woods and his first wife, Barbara Woods Gray. Earl, a retired lieutenant colonel and Vietnam War veteran, was of mixed African American, Chinese, and Native American ancestry. Kultida (née Punsawad), originally from Thailand (where Earl had met her on a tour of duty in 1968), is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry. This makes Woods himself half Asian (one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Thai), one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch. He 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.

Woods has a niece, Cheyenne Woods, who is an amateur golfer on Wake Forest University's golf team.

Early life and amateur golf career

Woods grew up in Orange County, California. He was a child prodigy, introduced to golf before the age of two, by his athletic father Earl, a single-figure handicap amateur golfer who had been one of the earliest African-American college baseball players at Kansas State University. In 1978, Tiger putted against comedian Bob Hope in a television appearance on ''The Mike Douglas Show''. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes over the Cypress Navy course, and at age five, he appeared in ''Golf Digest'' and on ABC's ''That's Incredible''. Before turning seven, Tiger won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California. In 1984 at the age of eight, he won the 9–10 boys' event, the youngest age group available, at the Junior World Golf Championships. He first broke 80 at age eight. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991.

Woods' father Earl wrote that Tiger first beat him when he was 11 years old, with Earl trying his best. Earl lost to Tiger every time from then on. Woods first broke 70 on a regulation golf course at age 12.

Woods' first major national junior tournament was the 1989 Big I, when he was 13 years old. Woods was paired with pro John Daly, then relatively unknown, in the final round; the event's format placed a professional with each group of juniors who had qualified. Daly birdied three of the last four holes to beat Woods by only one stroke. As a young teenager, Woods first met Jack Nicklaus in Los Angeles at the Bel-Air Country Club, when Nicklaus was performing a clinic for the club's members. Woods was part of the show, and impressed Nicklaus and the crowd with his skills and potential. Earl Woods had researched in detail the career accomplishments of Nicklaus, and had set his young son the goals of breaking those records.

While attending Western High School in Anaheim at the age of 15, Woods became the youngest ever U.S. Junior Amateur champion (a record which stood until it was broken by Jin Liu in 2010). He was named 1991's Southern California Amateur Player of the Year (for the second consecutive year) and Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year. In 1992, he defended his title at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, becoming the first multiple winner; competed in his first PGA Tour event, the Nissan Los Angeles Open (he missed the 36-hole cut); and was named Golf Digest Amateur Player of the Year, Golf World Player of the Year, and Golfweek National Amateur of the Year.

The following year, Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship; he remains the event's only three-time winner. In 1994, at the TPC at Sawgrass in Florida, he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, a record that stood until 2008 when it was broken by Danny Lee. He was a member of the American team at the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships (winning), and the 1995 Walker Cup (losing).

Woods graduated from Western High School in 1994 at age 18, and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" among the graduating class. He had starred for the high school's golf team under coach Don Crosby.

College golf career

Woods was recruited very heavily by college golf powers, and chose Stanford University, the 1994 NCAA Division I champion. He enrolled at Stanford in the fall of 1994 under a golf scholarship, winning his first collegiate event, the 40th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational, that September. He declared a major in economics, and was nicknamed "Urkel" by college teammate Notah Begay III. In 1995, he successfully defended his U.S. Amateur title at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island He participated in his first PGA Tour major, the 1995 Masters Tournament, and tied for 41st as the only amateur to make the cut. At age 20 in 1996, he became the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles and won the NCAA individual golf championship. In winning the Silver Medal as leading amateur at The Open Championship, he tied the record for an amateur aggregate score of 281. He left college after two years and turned professional.

Professional career

Woods became a professional golfer in August 1996, and immediately signed deals with Nike, Inc. and Titleist that ranked as the most lucrative endorsement contracts in golf history at that time. Woods was named ''Sports Illustrated'''s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. In April 1997, he won his first major, the Masters, becoming the tournament's youngest-ever winner. Two months later, he set the record for the fastest-ever ascent to #1 in the Official World Golf Rankings. After a lackluster 1998, Woods finished the 1999 season with eight wins, including the PGA Championship, a feat not achieved since 1974.

In 2000, Woods achieved six consecutive wins, the longest winning streak since 1948. One of these was the 2000 U.S. Open, where he broke or tied nine tournament records in what Sports Illustrated called "the greatest performance in golf history." 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 first and only athlete to be honored twice, and was ranked by Golf Digest magazine as the twelfth-best golfer of all time.

Following a stellar 2001 and 2002 in which Woods continued to dominate the tour, Woods' career hit a "slump". He did not win a major in 2003 or 2004. In September 2004, Vijay Singh overtook Woods in the Official World Golf Rankings, breaking Woods' record streak of 264 weeks at #1. Woods rebounded in 2005, winning six official PGA Tour money events and reclaiming the top spot in July after swapping it back and forth with Singh over the first half of the year.

In 2006, Woods began dominantly, winning his first two PGA tournaments but failing to capture his fifth Masters championship in April. Following the death of his father in May, Woods took a nine-week hiatus from the tour and appeared rusty upon his return at the U.S. Open, missing the cut at Winged Foot. However, he quickly returned to form and ended the year by winning six consecutive tour events. At the season's close, with 54 wins and 12 majors wins, Woods had broken the tour records for both total wins and total majors wins over eleven seasons.

He continued to excel in 2007 and the first part of 2008. In April 2008, he underwent knee surgery and missed the next two months on the tour. Woods returned for the 2008 U.S. Open, where he struggled the first day but ultimately claimed a dramatic victory over Rocco Mediate, after which Mediate said, "This guy does things that are just not normal by any stretch of the imagination," and Kenny Perry added, "He beat everybody on one leg." Two days later, Woods announced that he would miss the remainder of the season due to further knee surgery, and that his knee was more severely damaged than previously revealed, prompting even greater praise for his U.S. Open performance. Woods called it "my greatest ever championship." In Woods' absence, TV ratings for the remainder of the season suffered a huge decline from 2007.

Upon Woods' much-anticipated return in 2009, he performed well, including a spectacular performance at the 2009 Presidents' Cup, but failed to win a major, the first year since 2004 that he failed to do so. After his marital infidelities came to light at the end of 2009 and received massive media coverage, Woods announced in December that he would be taking an indefinite break from competitive golf. In February 2010, he delivered a televised apology for his behavior. During this period, several companies ended their endorsement deals with Woods.

He returned to competition in April at the 2010 Masters Tournament, where he finished in a tie for fourth place. He followed the Masters with poor showings at the Quail Hollow Championship and the Players Championship, where he withdrew in the fourth round citing injury. Shortly afterward, Woods' coach since 2003, Hank Haney, resigned the position; he was replaced in August by Sean Foley. The rest of the season went badly for Woods, who failed to win a single event for the first time since turning professional, while nevertheless finishing the season ranked #2 in the world.

Woods' performance continued to suffer in 2011, taking its toll on his ranking. After falling to #7 in March, he rebounded to #5 with a strong showing at the 2011 Masters Tournament, where he tied for fourth place. Due to leg injuries incurred at the Masters, he missed several summer events; in July he fired his longtime caddy Steve Williams, replacing him temporarily with friend Bryon Bell. After returning to tournament play in August, Woods continued to falter, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of #58. He rose to #50 in mid-November after a third-place win at the Emirates Australian Open, and broke his winless streak with a victory at December's Chevron World Challenge.

His 2012 season started at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on the European Tour in late January. For the first two days of play Tiger was grouped with Rory McIlroy and world No.1 Luke Donald. He shot under par rounds of 70 and 69 on Thursday and Friday respectively, which left him in joint 4th place at 5-under par. His low round of the week came on Saturday, shooting a 6-under par 66, giving him the joint lead with England's Robert Rock. Woods struggled on Sunday and couldn't mount a big enough charge, shooting a level par 72 and settling for joint 3rd place. Woods' second tournament of the year came at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in early February which he had not played since 2002. His amateur partner for the week was Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. Woods shot solid rounds of 68-68-67 on the first three days, and began Sunday in third place, four shots behind leader Charlie Wi. However, he struggled with his putting and shot a final round 75 while his playing partner Phil Mickelson shot a 64 and won the tournament. His next tournament was the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona. Woods battled to win his first round match against Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño, 1-up, and then played Nick Watney in the second round. On the 18th hole, Woods had to make birdie to extend the match, however his 5 foot putt missed and he was knocked out of the tournament. Woods commented that his putting was hindered technically and required some work after battling with it throughout the round.

Endorsements

Woods has been called the world's most marketable athlete. Shortly after his 21st birthday in 1996, he began signing endorsement deals with numerous companies, including General Motors, Titleist, General Mills, American Express, Accenture, and Nike, Inc. In 2000, he signed a 5-year, $105 million contract extension with Nike. It was the largest endorsing deal ever signed by an athlete at that time. Woods' endorsement has been credited with playing a significant role in taking the Nike Golf brand from a "start-up" golf company earlier in the past decade, to becoming the leading golf apparel company in the world, and a major player in the equipment and golf ball market. Nike Golf is one of the fastest growing brands in the sport, with an estimated $600 million in sales. Woods has been described as the "ultimate endorser" for Nike Golf, frequently seen wearing Nike gear during tournaments, and even in advertisements for other products. Woods receives a cut from the sales of Nike Golf apparel, footwear, golf equipment, golf balls, and has a building named after him at Nike’s headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon.

In 2002, Woods was involved in every aspect of the launch of Buick's Rendezvous SUV. A company spokesman stated that Buick is happy with the value of Woods' endorsement, pointing out that more than 130,000 Rendezvous vehicles were sold in 2002 and 2003. "That exceeded our forecasts," he was quoted as saying, "It has to be in recognition of Tiger." In February 2004, Buick renewed Woods' endorsement contract for another five years, in a deal reportedly worth $40 million.

Woods collaborated closely with TAG Heuer to develop the world's first professional golf watch, released in April 2005. The lightweight, titanium-construction watch, designed to be worn while playing the game, incorporates numerous innovative design features to accommodate golf play. It is capable of absorbing up to 5,000 Gs of shock, far in excess of the forces generated by a normal golf swing. In 2006, the TAG Heuer ''Professional Golf Watch'' won the prestigious ''iF product design award'' in the Leisure/Lifestyle category.

Woods also endorses the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of video games; he has done so since 1999. In 2006, he signed a six-year contract with Electronic Arts, the series' publisher.

In February 2007, along with Roger Federer and Thierry Henry, Woods became an ambassador for the "Gillette Champions" marketing campaign. Gillette did not disclose financial terms, though an expert estimated the deal could total between $10 million and $20 million.

In October 2007, Gatorade announced that Woods would have his own brand of sports drink starting in March 2008. "Gatorade Tiger" was his first U.S. deal with a beverage company and his first licensing agreement. Although no figures were officially disclosed, ''Golfweek'' magazine reported that it was for five years and could pay him as much as $100 million. The company decided in early fall 2009 to discontinue the drink due to weak sales.

According to ''Golf Digest'', Woods made $769,440,709 from 1996 to 2007, and the magazine predicted that by 2010, Woods would pass one billion dollars in earnings. In 2009, ''Forbes'' confirmed that Woods was indeed the world's first athlete to earn over a billion dollars in his career (before taxes), after accounting for the $10 million bonus Woods received for the FedEx Cup title. The same year, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $600 million, making him the second richest "African American" behind only Oprah Winfrey.

Honors

On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Woods would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame. He was inducted December 5, 2007 at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.

He has been named "Athlete of the Decade" by the Associated Press in December 2009. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, and is the only person to be named ''Sports Illustrated'''s Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Since his record-breaking win at the 1997 Masters Tournament, golf's increased popularity is commonly attributed to Woods' presence. He is credited by some sources for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new audiences, and for drawing the largest TV audiences in golf history.

Tiger-proofing

Early in Woods' career, a small number of golf experts expressed concern about his impact on the competitiveness of the game and the public appeal of professional golf. Sportswriter Bill Lyon of Knight-Ridder asked in a column, "Isn't Tiger Woods actually bad for golf?" (though Lyon ultimately concluded that he was not). At first, some pundits feared that Woods would drive the spirit of competition out of the game of golf by making existing courses obsolete and relegating opponents to simply competing for second place each week.

A related effect was measured by economist Jennifer Brown of the University of California, Berkeley who found that other golfers played worse when competing against Woods than when he was not in the tournament. The scores of highly skilled (exempt) golfers are nearly one stroke higher when playing against Woods. This effect was larger when he was on winning streaks and disappeared during his well-publicized slump in 2003–04. Brown explains the results by noting that competitors of similar skill can hope to win by increasing their level of effort, but that, when facing a "superstar" competitor, extra exertion does not significantly raise one's level of winning while increasing risk of injury or exhaustion, leading to reduced effort.

Many courses in the PGA Tour rotation (including Major Championship sites like Augusta National) began to add yardage to their tees in an effort to slow down long hitters like Woods, a strategy that became known as "Tiger-Proofing". Woods himself welcomed the change as he believes adding yardage to the course does not affect his ability to win.

Playing style

When Woods first joined the professional tour in 1996, his long drives had a large impact on the world of golf. However, when he did not upgrade his equipment in the following years (insisting upon the use of True Temper Dynamic Gold steel-shafted clubs and smaller steel clubheads that promoted accuracy over distance), many opponents caught up to him. Phil Mickelson even made a joke in 2003 about Woods using "inferior equipment", which did not sit well with Nike, Titleist or Woods. During 2004, Woods finally upgraded his driver technology to a larger clubhead and graphite shaft, which, coupled with his clubhead speed, made him one of the Tour's lengthier players off the tee once again.

Despite his power advantage, Woods has always focused on developing an excellent all-around game. Although in recent years he has typically been near the bottom of the Tour rankings in driving accuracy, his iron play is generally accurate, his recovery and bunker play is very strong, and his putting (especially under pressure) is possibly his greatest asset. He is largely responsible for a shift to higher standards of athleticism amongst professional golfers, and is known for putting in more hours of practice than most.

From mid-1993, while he was still an amateur, until 2004, Woods worked almost exclusively with leading swing coach Butch Harmon. From mid-1997, Harmon and Woods fashioned a major redevelopment of Woods' full swing, achieving greater consistency, better distance control, and better kinesiology. The changes began to pay off in 1999. From March 2004 to 2010, Woods was coached by Hank Haney, who worked on flattening his swing plane. Woods continued to win tournaments with Haney, but his driving accuracy dropped significantly. Haney resigned in May 2010 and was replaced by Sean Foley.

Mike "Fluff" Cowan served as Woods' caddy from the start of his professional career until March 1999. He was replaced by Steve Williams, who became a close friend of Woods and is often credited with helping him with key shots and putts. In June 2011, Woods fired Williams and replaced him with Woods' friend Bryon Bell.

Equipment

As of 2011:

Driver: Nike VR Tour Driver (8.5 degrees; Mitsubishi Diamana Whiteboard 83g shaft)

Fairway Woods: Nike VR Pro 15° 3-wood with Mitsubishi Diamana Blueboard and Nike SQ II 19° 5-Wood

Irons: Nike VR Pro Blades (2-PW) (Tiger will put his 5 Wood or 2 Iron in the bag depending upon the course setup and conditions). All irons are 1 degree upright, have D4 swingweight, standard size Tour Velvet grips and True Temper Dynamic Gold X-100 shafts.

Wedges: Nike VR 56° Sand Wedge and Nike SV 60° Lob Wedge

Putter: Nike Method 001, 35 inches long; Titleist Scotty Cameron; Nike Method 003 (switches putters depending on the greens of certain courses)

Ball: Nike ONE Tour D (with "Tiger" imprint)

Golf Glove: Nike Dri-FIT Tour glove

Golf Shoes: Nike Air Zoom TW 2011

Driver club cover: ''Frank'', a plush tiger head club cover created by his mother. Frank has appeared in several commercials.

Career achievements

Woods has won 71 official PGA Tour events including 14 majors. He is 14–1 when going into the final round of a major with at least a share of the lead. He has been heralded as "the greatest closer in history" by multiple golf experts. He owns the lowest career scoring average and the most career earnings of any player in PGA Tour history.

He has spent the most consecutive and cumulative weeks atop the world rankings. He is one of five players (along with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus) to have won all four professional major championships in his career, known as the Career Grand Slam, and was the youngest to do so. Woods is the only player to have won all four professional major championships in a row, accomplishing the feat in the 2000–2001 seasons.

PGA Tour wins (71)

European Tour wins (38)

Japan Golf Tour wins (2)

Asian Tour wins (1)

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (1)

Other professional wins (15)

Amateur wins (21)

Major championships

Wins (14)

{|class="sortable wikitable" !Year!!Championship!!54 Holes!!Winning Score!!Margin!!Runner(s)-up |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 1997 ||Masters Tournament ||9 shot lead ||−18 (70–66–65–69=270) ||12 strokes || Tom Kite |- style="background:thistle;" | 1999 ||PGA Championship ||Tied for lead ||−11 (70–67–68–72=277) ||1 stroke || Sergio García |- style="background:#fbceb1;" | 2000 ||U.S. Open ||10 shot lead ||−12 (65–69–71–67=272) ||15 strokes || Ernie Els, Miguel Ángel Jiménez |- style="background:#abcdef;" | 2000 ||The Open Championship ||6 shot lead ||−19 (67–66–67–69=269) ||8 strokes || Thomas Bjørn, Ernie Els |- style="background:thistle;" | 2000 ||PGA Championship (2)||1 shot lead ||−18 (66–67–70–67=270) ||Playoff ¹ || Bob May |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 2001 ||Masters Tournament (2)||1 shot lead ||−16 (70–66–68–68=272) ||2 strokes || David Duval |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 2002 ||Masters Tournament (3)||Tied for lead ||−12 (70–69–66–71=276) ||3 strokes || Retief Goosen |- style="background:#fbceb1;" | 2002 ||U.S. Open (2)||4 shot lead ||−3 (67–68–70–72=277) ||3 strokes || Phil Mickelson |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | 2005 ||Masters Tournament (4)||3 shot lead ||−12 (74–66–65–71=276) ||Playoff ² || Chris DiMarco |- style="background:#abcdef;" | 2005 ||The Open Championship (2)||2 shot lead ||−14 (66–67–71–70=274) ||5 strokes || Colin Montgomerie |- style="background:#abcdef;" | 2006 ||The Open Championship (3)||1 shot lead ||−18 (67–65–71–67=270) ||2 strokes || Chris DiMarco |- style="background:thistle;" | 2006 ||PGA Championship (3)||Tied for lead ||−18 (69–68–65–68=270) ||5 strokes || Shaun Micheel |- style="background:thistle;" | 2007 ||PGA Championship (4)||3 shot lead ||−8 (71–63–69–69=272) ||2 strokes || Woody Austin |- style="background:#fbceb1;" | 2008 ||U.S. Open (3)||1 shot lead ||−1 (72–68–70–73=283) ||Playoff ³ || Rocco Mediate |} ¹ Defeated May in three-hole playoff by 1 stroke: Woods (3–4–5=12), May (4–4–5=13) ² Defeated DiMarco with birdie on first extra hole ³ Defeated Mediate with a par on 1st sudden death hole after 18-hole playoff was tied at even par

Results timeline

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse; text-align:center" |- style="background:#eee;" !align="left"|Tournament !1995 !1996 !1997 !1998 !1999 !2000 !2001 !2002 !2003 !2004 !2005 !2006 !2007 !2008 !2009 !2010 !2011 |- | style="text-align:left;"|The Masters |T41 LA |CUT | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:yellow;"|T8 |T18 | style="background:yellow;"|5 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T15 |T22 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:yellow;"|T3 | style="background:yellow;"|T2 | style="background:yellow;"|2 | style="background:yellow;"|T6 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 |- | style="text-align:left;"|U.S. Open |WD |T82 |T19 |T18 | style="background:yellow;"|T3 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T12 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T20 |T17 | style="background:yellow;"|2 |CUT | style="background:yellow;"|T2 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:yellow;"|T6 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 |DNP |- | style="text-align:left;"|The Open Championship |T68 |T22 LA |T24 | style="background:yellow;"|3 | style="background:yellow;"|T7 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T25 |T28 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 | style="background:yellow;"|T9 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T12 |DNP |CUT |T23 |DNP |- | style="text-align:left;"|PGA Championship |DNP |DNP |T29 | style="background:yellow;"|T10 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |T29 | style="background:yellow;"|2 |T39 |T24 | style="background:yellow;"|T4 | style="background:lime;"|1 | style="background:lime;"|1 |DNP | style="background:yellow;"|2 |T28 |CUT |}

LA = Low Amateur DNP = Did not play CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

World Golf Championships

Wins (16)

¹ Won on the first extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. ² Won on the seventh extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. ³ Won on the second extra hole of a sudden-death playoff. ⁴ Won on the fourth extra hole of a sudden-death playoff.

Results timeline

!Tournament!!1999!!2000!!2001!!2002!!2003!!2004!!2005!!2006!!2007!!2008!!2009!!2010!!2011!!2012

align="left"

style="background:yellow;"

style="background:yellow;"

DNP

R64

R32

style="background:yellow;"

style="background:yellow;"

R32

DNP

R64

R32

align="left"

style="background:yellow;"

NT1

style="background:yellow;"

style="background:yellow;"

style="background:yellow;"

DNP

style="background:yellow;"

align="left"

style="background:yellow;"

style="background:yellow;"

style="background:yellow;"

DNP

T78

T37

align="left"

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

style="background:yellow;"

style="background:yellow;"

DNP

¹Cancelled due to 9/11 DNP = Did not play QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = tied NT = No Tournament Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10. Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

! Year !! Wins (Majors) !! Earnings ($) !! Money list rank
1996	2	790,594	24
1997	4 (1)	2,066,833
1998	1	1,841,117
1999	8 (1)	6,616,585
2000	9 (3)	9,188,321
2001	5 (1)	6,687,777
2002	5 (2)	6,912,625
2003	5	6,673,413
2004	1	5,365,472
2005	6 (2)	10,628,024
2006	8 (2)	9,941,563
2007	7 (1)	10,867,052
2008	4 (1)	5,775,000
2009	6	10,508,163
2010	0	1,294,765	68
2011	0	660,238	128
2012*	0	197,400	73
!Career*	!71 (14)	!95,014,942	1

: * As of February 26, 2012.

Other ventures

Tiger Woods Foundation

The Tiger Woods Foundation was established in 1996 by Woods and his father Earl, with the primary goal of promoting golf among inner-city children. The foundation has conducted junior golf clinics across the country, and sponsors the Tiger Woods Foundation National Junior Golf Team in the Junior World Golf Championships. As of December 2010, TWF employed approximately 55 people.

The foundation operates the Tiger Woods Learning Center, a $50 million, 35,000-square-foot facility in Anaheim, California, providing college-access programs for underserved youth. The TWLC opened in 2006 and features seven classrooms, extensive multi-media facilities and an outdoor golf teaching area. The center has since expanded to four additional campuses: two in Washington, DC; one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and one in Stuart, Florida.

The foundation benefits from the annual Chevron World Challenge and AT&T; National golf tournaments hosted by Woods. In October 2011, the foundation hosted the first Tiger Woods Invitational at Pebble Beach. Other annual fundraisers have included the concert events Block Party, last held in 2009 in Anaheim, and Tiger Jam, last held in 2011 in Las Vegas after a one-year hiatus.

Tiger Woods Design

In November 2006, Woods announced his intention to begin designing golf courses around the world through a new company, Tiger Woods Design. A month later, he announced that the company's first course would be in Dubai as part of a 25.3 million-square-foot development, The Tiger Woods Dubai. The Al Ruwaya Golf Course was initially expected to finish construction in 2009. As of February 2010, only seven holes had been completed; in April 2011, the New York Times reported that the project had been shelved permanently.

Tiger Woods Design has taken on two other courses, neither of which has materialized. In August 2007, Woods announced The Cliffs at High Carolina, a private course in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. After a groundbreaking in November 2008, the project suffered cash flow problems and suspended construction. A third course, in Punta Brava, Mexico, was announced in October 2008, but incurred delays due to issues with permits and an environmental impact study. Construction on the Punta Brava course has not yet begun.

The problems encountered by these projects have been credited to factors including overly optimistic estimates of their value; declines throughout the global economy, particularly the U.S. crash in home prices; and decreased appeal of Woods following his 2009 infidelity scandal.

Writings

Woods wrote a golf instruction column for ''Golf Digest'' magazine from 1997 to February 2011. In 2001 he wrote a best-selling golf instruction book, ''How I Play Golf'', which had the largest print run of any golf book for its first edition, 1.5 million copies.

Personal life

Marriage and children

In November 2003, Woods became engaged to Elin Nordegren, a Swedish former model and daughter of former minister of migration Barbro Holmberg and radio journalist Thomas Nordegren. They were introduced during The Open Championship in 2001 by Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who had employed her as an au pair. They married on October 5, 2004, at the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados, and lived at Isleworth, a community in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, Florida. In 2006, they purchased a $39 million estate in Jupiter Island, Florida, and began constructing a 10,000-square-foot home; Woods moved there in 2010 following the couple's divorce.

Woods and Nordegren's first child, a daughter named Sam Alexis Woods, was born on June 18, 2007. Woods chose the name because his own father had always called him Sam. Their son, Charlie Axel Woods, was born on February 8, 2009.

Infidelity scandal and fallout

On November 25, 2009, supermarket tabloid ''The National Enquirer'' published a story claiming that Woods had an extramarital affair with New York City nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel, a claim she denied. Two days later, around 2:30 AM on November 27, Woods left home in his Cadillac Escalade SUV and, while still on his street, collided with a fire hydrant, a tree, and several hedges. He was treated for minor facial lacerations and received a ticket for careless driving. Following intense media speculation about the accident, Woods released a statement on his website taking sole responsibility for the accident, calling it a "private matter" and crediting his wife for helping him from the car. On November 30, Woods announced that he would not be appearing at his own charity golf tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, nor any other tournaments in 2009, due to his injuries.

On December 2, following the release by ''US Weekly'' of a voicemail message allegedly left by Tiger for a mistress, Woods released another statement in which he admitted "transgressions" and apologized to "all of those who have supported [him] over the years", while reiterating his and his family's right to privacy. Over the next several days, more than a dozen women claimed in various media outlets to have had affairs with Woods. On December 11, he released a third statement admitting to infidelity and apologizing again, as well as announcing that he would be taking "an indefinite break from professional golf."

In the days and months following Woods' admission of infidelity, several companies re-evaluated their relationships with him. Accenture, AT&T;, Gatorade and General Motors completely ended their sponsorship deals, while Gillette suspended advertising featuring Woods. TAG Heuer dropped Woods from advertising in December 2009 and officially ended their deal when his contract expired in August 2011. The magazine ''Golf Digest'' suspended Woods' monthly column beginning with the February 2010 issue. In contrast, Nike continued to support Woods, as did Electronic Arts, which was working with Woods on the game ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online''. A December 2009 study estimated the shareholder loss caused by Woods' affairs to be between $5 billion and $12 billion.

On February 19, 2010, Woods gave a televised statement in which he said he had been in a 45-day therapy program since the end of December. He again apologized for his actions. "I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to," he said. "I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish." He said he did not know yet when he would be returning to golf. He announced a few weeks later on March 16 that he would be returning at the 2010 Masters Tournament on April 8.

Woods and Nordegren officially divorced on August 23, 2010.

Other

From childhood Woods was raised as a Buddhist, and actively practised this faith from childhood until well into his adult professional golf career. In a 2000 article, Woods was quoted as saying he "believes in Buddhism... Not every aspect, but most of it." He has attributed his deviations and infidelity to his losing track of Buddhism. He said that "Buddhism teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."

Tiger Woods is registered as an independent. In January 2009, Woods delivered a speech commemorating the military at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. In April 2009, Woods visited the White House while in the Washington, D.C. area promoting the golf tournament he hosts, the AT&T; National.

Woods underwent laser eye surgery in 1999. Before this surgery, Woods eyesight was minus 11, meaning he was almost legally blind. He considered the surgery a big help in his career and a good alternative to the glasses and contact lenses. He immediately started winning tour events after the surgery. He received money from TLC Laser Eye Centers to endorse them. In 2007, he had a second laser eye surgery when his vision began to deteriorate again.

See also

Career Grand Slam Champions

Golfers with most European Tour wins

List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins

List of men's major championships winning golfers

List of World Number One male golfers

Longest PGA Tour win streaks

Most PGA Tour wins in a year

Most wins in one PGA Tour event

References

Further reading

External links

Tiger Woods Foundation

Tiger Woods Learning Center

Tiger Woods' Videos on mReplay

Tiger Woods Video on ESPN Video Archive

Tiger Woods Video on FoxSports Video Archive

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Category:Tiger Woods Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:African American golfers Category:American Buddhists Category:American male golfers Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American people of Native American descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American sportspeople of Chinese descent Category:American sportspeople of Thai descent Category:Golf writers and broadcasters Category:Golfers from California Category:Laureus World Sports Awards winners Category:Men's Career Grand Slam champion golfers Category:People from Anaheim, California Category:People from Cypress, California Category:People from Martin County, Florida Category:People from Orange County, Florida Category:PGA Tour golfers Category:Sportspeople from Orange County, California Category:Stanford Cardinal men's golfers Category:Winners of men's major golf championships

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Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Bill Haas
fullname	William Harlan Haas
birth date	May 24, 1982
birth place	Charlotte, North Carolina
death date
height
weight
nationality
college	Wake Forest University
yearpro	2004
retired
tour	PGA Tour
extour	Nationwide Tour
prowins	3
pgawins	2
eurowins
japwins
asiawins
sunwins
auswins
chalwins
champwins
seneurowins
otherwins	1
majorwins
masters	T18: 2010
usopen	T23: 2011
open	T57: 2011
pga	T12: 2011
wghofid
wghofyear
award1	Haskins Award
year1	2004
awardssection	}}

William Harlan Haas (born May 24, 1982) is an American professional golfer who is currently a member of the PGA Tour.

Early life

Haas was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and was raised in Greer, South Carolina, a suburb of Greenville. He was the third member of his family to play golf at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina following his father, Jay, and uncle, Jerry. Haas had a distinguished college career. He was a three-time first-team All-American, four-time All-ACC, two-time ACC player-of-the-year, and 2001 ACC rookie-of-the-year. During his college career, he won ten college tournaments; and in his senior year of 2004, he won the Haskins Award, the Jack Nicklaus Award, and the Ben Hogan Award. He also set an NCAA record for lowest scoring average. Haas was a member of the 2003 Walker Cup team as well as two Palmer Cup teams. He turned professional in 2004.

Early professional career

Haas was a member of the Nationwide Tour in 2005 after failing to earn his PGA Tour card in Qualifying School. His best finish in a Nationwide Tour event was a solo 2nd at the 2005 Scholarship America Showdown.

PGA Tour career

Haas birdied the last two holes at the 2005 qualifying tournament to earn his card on the PGA Tour for the 2006 season. He has finished 99th, 104th, 104th again and 61st on the money list in his first four years on tour.

Haas and his father won the CVS Charity Classic in 2004. Haas comes from a distinguished family of golfers. He is a great nephew of 1968 Masters winner Bob Goalby, and has several other relations in golf including his father Jay, his uncle Jerry and his brother Jay Jr.

2010: breakout year

Haas picked up his first career PGA Tour win in 2010 at the Bob Hope Classic in La Quinta, California. A week prior to the event, Bill received advice from his father Jay and great-uncle Bob Goalby about his feet positioning in his swing. Haas won the event by a stroke over Matt Kuchar, Tim Clark and Bubba Watson.

Haas had his second PGA Tour win of 2010 in October at the Viking Classic, winning by three strokes over Michael Allen. He ended the season ranked 20th on the money list.

Amateur wins (1)

2002 Players Amateur

Professional wins (3)

PGA Tour (2)

!No.	!Date	!Tournament	!Winning Score	!Margin of Victory	!Runner(s)-up
1		Bob Hope Classic	-30 (68-66-66-66-64=330)	1 stroke
2		Viking Classic	-15 (66-66-69-72=273)	3 strokes

PGA Tour playoff record (0–2)

!No.!!Year!!Tournament!!Opponent(s)!!Result
1	2011	Bob Hope Classic	Gary Woodland, Jhonattan Vegas	Eliminated with par on first extra hole;Vegas won on second extra hole
2	2011	Greenbrier Classic	Bob Estes, Scott Stallings	Eliminated with par on first extra hole;Stallings won with birdie on first extra hole

Other (1)

2004 CVS Charity Classic (with Jay Haas)

Results in major championships

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse;" |- bgcolor="#eeeeee" !align="left"|Tournament !! 2003 !! 2004 !! 2005 !! 2006 !! 2007 !! 2008 !! 2009 |- |The Masters |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |- |U.S. Open |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T40 |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |- |The Open Championship |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |- |PGA Championship |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |}

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse;" |- bgcolor="#eeeeee" !align="left"|Tournament !! 2010 !! 2011 |- |The Masters |align="center"|T18 |align="center"|T42 |- |U.S. Open |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|T23 |- |The Open Championship |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T57 |- |PGA Championship |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T12 |}

DNP = Did not play CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" = tied Yellow background for top-10.

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur

Walker Cup: 2003

Palmer Cup: 2003, 2004

See also

2005 PGA Tour Qualifying School Graduates

References

External links

Category:American golfers Category:Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's golfers Category:PGA Tour golfers Category:People from Charlotte, North Carolina Category:1982 births Category:Living people

nl:Bill Haas

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Jim Furyk
fullname	James Michael Furyk
birth date	May 12, 1970
birth place	West Chester, Pennsylvania
death date
height
weight
nationality
residence	Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
spouse	Tabitha
children	Caleigh Lynn (b.2002) Tanner James (b.2003)
college	University of Arizona
yearpro	1992
retired
tour	PGA Tour (joined 1992)
extour
prowins	26
pgawins	16
eurowins
japwins
asiawins
sunwins
auswins
nwidewins	1
chalwins
champwins
seneurowins
otherwins
majorwins	1
masters	4th: 1998, 2003
usopen	Won: 2003
open	4th/T4: 1997, 1998, 2006
pga	T6: 1997
wghofid
wghofyear
award1	Vardon Trophy
year1	2006
award2	FedEx Cup Champion
year2	2010
award3	PGA Player of the Year
year3	2010
award3	PGA Tour Player of the Year
year3	2010
awardssection	}}

James Michael Furyk (born May 12, 1970) is an American professional golfer, 2010 FedEx Cup champion, and 2010 PGA Tour Player of the Year. He has won one major championship, the 2003 U.S. Open. Furyk is known for consistently playing at the top level and for a visibly unconventional, looping golf swing. Due to his ability to perform at such a high level despite that swing and his deliberate approach to the game, his devoted fan base has given him the nicknames "The Grinder" and "The Businessman". In September 2006 he reached a career high of second in the Official World Golf Rankings. He ranked in the top-10 for over 350 weeks between 1999 and 2010.

Biography

Furyk was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. At that time, his father Mike was an assistant pro at Edgmont Country Club and later also spent time as a pro at West Chester Golf and Country Club as well as Hidden Springs Golf Course in Horsham. His early years were spent in the Pittsburgh suburbs learning the game from his father, who was head pro at Uniontown Country Club near Pittsburgh. He graduated from Manheim Township High School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1988 where he was a standout basketball player in addition to being a state champion golfer. He attended the University of Arizona and turned professional in 1992. Furyk won at least one tournament each year on the PGA Tour between 1998 and 2003. At the time, this was the second best streak of winning seasons behind Tiger Woods and he made the top ten in the Official World Golf Rankings. Furyk's biggest win to date came on June 16, 2003, when he tied the record for the lowest 72-hole score in U.S. Open history to win his first major championship.

In 2004 he only played in fourteen events after missing three months due to surgery to repair cartilage damage in his wrist and he fell out of the top hundred on the money list, but he returned to good form in 2005 and regained his top ten ranking, winning a PGA Tour event in that year and two in 2006.

In the 2006 season, he finished a career-high second on the money list and won the Vardon Trophy for the first time. He also had a career-best thirteen top-10 finishes, including nine top-3s, four second-place finishes, and two victories.

The only instructor he has ever used is his dad, Mike Furyk, which may account for his unusual swing. His caddy is Mike "Fluff" Cowan, who was Tiger Woods' caddy for Woods' first two years as a professional.

During the 2003 Buick Open on-course commentator Mike Hulbert interviewed Furyk from what appeared to be a snack bar during a rain delay while covering the early rounds on USA Network. Other players (who were not visible, nor identified) were in the room at the time of Furyk's interview and proceeded to throw popcorn at them from off camera as the interview progressed. At one point Furyk even held up a golf towel to block the popcorn as it got worse, and he stated that: "It looks like it's 'Pick on Hubby' Day!"

2010 was a banner year for Furyk. After going more than two seasons winless, he won a career-best three tournaments on Tour in 2010: The Transitions Championship, the Verizon Heritage, and the season-ending Tour Championship. Furyk's victory in the Tour Championship also earned him the 2010 FedEx Cup after winning by one stroke. His accomplishments in 2010 won him both the PGA Player of the Year and PGA Tour Player of the Year for the first time.

The Swing

Jim Furyk's trademark looping golf swing begins with a setup that has the ball at the heel of the club instead of the center, or even out at the toe. This moves his 6'2" frame in so close that his hands are virtually touching his thighs. Most golfers would have a difficult time with a golf club from such a starting point. Compare Furyk's setup to the more textbook setup of Tiger Woods, who begins with his hands 8 inches or so away from his body, a position that promotes a take-away that will put the golf club over his right shoulder at the top, and keep his right elbow tucked against his body. For a human being, this is the classic launch position. Since the beginning of time it has been used to throw a stone, a spear, a baseball, or swing a club. The big muscles of the body—the back, shoulders and thighs—are in control, not the weaker ones in the hands and wrists. The athlete (or hunter in early times) is said to be "loaded." His entire body is poised in the optimum power position.

Furyk, by contrast, takes the club away in the manner of a basketball player shooting a hook shot. His arms move back vertically, and at the top his right elbow "flies" away from his body. Tall players tend toward more upright swings. While this manner of beginning doesn't promote power, it is an early step to facilitate accurate ball-striking. The club's shaft is nearly vertical, like a putter. It moves straight back and straight up, keeping it on path longer, which tends to reinforce in the mind the route along which to bring it back into the ball. At the top of the backswing, Furyk is in the same position as Jack Nicklaus would be—club shaft parallel to the intended line of flight, elbow flying off to who-knows-where. Starting the downswing, Furyk then "corrects" for his unconventional takeaway by dropping his right elbow into the slot where it needs to be, a move that brings the golf club onto the proper swing path to achieve sound results. It's this downswing beginning that produces the idiosyncratic loop in his swing.

As Mike Furyk describes in a ''Golf Digest'' issue in 2001, Jim Furyk's hips "underturn" during the backswing and "overturn" coming down. On the downswing, he draws the club in a large arc behind his body (viewing from his right hand side), then pastes his elbow against his right hip at impact. Commentator, Gary McCord, said it looked like Furyk was trying to swing inside a phone booth. Another commentator David Feherty memorably described Furyk's swing as "an octopus falling out of a tree". Others have noted it reminds them of "a one-armed golfer using an axe to kill a snake in a telephone booth."

This move was controversial during Jim Furyk's early career; however, his father never forced him to change what came naturally to him. Jim Furyk's well-known ball-striking precision is now serving him well on the professional tour.

Furyk, however, isn't the first professional golfer to show us that a swing that defies convention—and countless books and articles on golf—can be successful. Nicklaus' swing was upright, with a flying elbow—and one of the biggest loopers of all time was Lee Trevino.

Professional wins (26)

PGA Tour wins (16)

Legend

Major Championships (1)

FedEx Cup playoff event (1)

Other PGA Tour (14)

!No.!!Date!!Tournament!!Winning Score!!Margin of Victory!!Runner(s)-up
1		Las Vegas Invitational	-28 (67-65-65-67-67=331)	1 stroke	Billy Mayfair
2		United Airlines Hawaiian Open	-11 (68-71-69-69=277)	Playoff	Brad Faxon
3		Las Vegas Invitational	-25 (67-68-69-63-68=335)	1 stroke	Mark Calcavecchia
4		Las Vegas Invitational	-29 (67-64-63-71-66=331)	1 stroke	Jonathan Kaye
5			-23 (65-67-68-65=265)	2 strokes	Franklin Langham
6		Mercedes Championships	-14 (69-69-69-67=274)	1 stroke	Rory Sabbatini
7		Memorial Tournament	-14 (71-70-68-65=274)	2 strokes	John Cook (golfer)
8			-8 (67-66-67-72=272)	3 strokes	[[Stephen Leaney
9		Buick Open	-21 (68-66-65-68=267)	2 strokes	Briny Baird, Chris DiMarco, Geoff Ogilvy, Tiger Woods
10		Cialis Western Open	-14 (64-70-67-69=270)	2 strokes	Tiger Woods
11		Wachovia Championship	-12 (68-69-68-71=276)	Playoff	Trevor Immelman
12		Canadian Open	-14 (63-71-67-65=266)	1 stroke	Bart Bryant
13		Canadian Open	-16 (69-66-69-64=268)	1 stroke	Vijay Singh
14		Transitions Championship	-13 (67-68-67-69=271)	1 stroke
15		Verizon Heritage	-13 (67-68-67-69=271)	Playoff
16		The Tour Championship	-8 (67-65-70-70=272)	1 stroke	Luke Donald

Nationwide Tour wins (1)

1993 (1) NIKE Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic

Other wins (9)

1995 (1) Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua International

1997 (1) Argentine Open

1998 (1) Fred Meyer Challenge (with David Duval)

2002 (1) Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Rich Beem and John Daly)

2003 (1) PGA Grand Slam of Golf

2005 (1) Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial money event)

2006 (1) Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial money event)

2008 (1) PGA Grand Slam of Golf

2009 (1) Chevron World Challenge

Major championships

Wins (1)

{|class="wikitable" !Year!!Championship!!54 Holes!!Winning Score!!Margin!!Runner(s)-up |-bgcolor="#FBCEB1" | 2003 ||U.S. Open ||3 shot lead ||-8 (67-66-67-72=272) ||3 strokes || Stephen Leaney |}

Results timeline

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse;" |- bgcolor="#eeeeee" !align="left"|Tournament !1994 !1995 !1996 !1997 !1998 !1999 |- |The Masters |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|T29 |align="center"|T28 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|4 |align="center"|T14 |- |U.S. Open |align="center"|T28 |align="center"|DNP |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T5 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T5 |align="center"|T14 |align="center"|T17 |- |The Open Championship |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|T45 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|4 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T4 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T10 |- |PGA Championship |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|T13 |align="center"|T17 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T6 |align="center"|CUT |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T8 |}

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse;" |- bgcolor="#eeeeee" !align="left"|Tournament !2000 !2001 !2002 !2003 !2004 !2005 !2006 !2007 !2008 !2009 |- |The Masters |align="center"|T14 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T6 |align="center"|CUT |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|4 |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|28 |align="center"|T22 |align="center"|T13 |align="center"|T33 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T10 |- |U.S. Open |align="center"|60 |align="center"|T62 |align="center"|CUT |align="center" style="background:#00ff00;"|1 |align="center"|T48 |align="center"|T28 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T2 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T2 |align="center"|T36 |align="center"|T33 |- |The Open Championship |align="center"|T41 |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|CUT |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|4 |align="center"|T12 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T5 |align="center"|T34 |- |PGA Championship |align="center"|T72 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T7 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|9 |align="center"|T18 |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T34 |align="center"|T29 |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T29 |align="center"|T63 |}

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse;" |- bgcolor="#eeeeee" !align="left"|Tournament !! 2010 !! 2011 |- |The Masters |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T24 |- |U.S. Open |align="center"|T16 |align="center"|CUT |- |The Open Championship |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T48 |- |PGA Championship |align="center"|T24 |align="center"|T39 |}

DNP = Did not play CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

Starts - 65

Wins - 1

2nd place finishes - 2

Top 3 finishes - 3

Top 5 finishes - 11

Top 10 finishes - 18

Longest streak of top-10s in majors - 4

Results in World Golf Championship events

!Tournament!!1999!!2000!!2001!!2002!!2003!!2004!!2005!!2006!!2007!!2008
align="left"	R64		DNP			DNP	R64	R64	R32	R64
align="left"	T11	DNP	NT1	T33	T12	T36	T15		T35
align="left"						T22	T24		DNP	T27

!Tournament!!2009!!2010!!2011
align="left"		R32	R64
align="left"		T37	T49
align="left"	T51		T23
align="left"	DNP	DNP

¹Cancelled due to 9/11 DNP = Did not play QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play "T" = Tied NT = No tournament Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10. Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

{|class=wikitable style="text-align:center" !Year !! Wins (Majors) !! Earnings ($) !! Rank |- | 1994 || 0 || align=right|236,603 || 78 |- | 1995 || 1 || align=right|535,380 || 33 |- | 1996 || 1 || align=right|738,950 || 26 |- | 1997 || 0 || align=right|1,619,480 ||style="background:yellow;"|4 |- | 1998 || 1 || align=right|2,054,334 ||style="background:yellow;"|3 |- | 1999 || 1 || align=right|1,827,593 || 12 |- | 2000 || 1 || align=right|1,940,519 || 17 |- | 2001 || 1 || align=right|2,540,734 || 13 |- | 2002 || 1 || align=right|2,363,250 || 14 |- | 2003 || 2 (1) || align=right|5,182,865 ||style="background:yellow;"|4 |- | 2004 || 0 || align=right|691,675 || 116 |- | 2005 || 1 || align=right|4,255,369 ||style="background:yellow;"|4 |- | 2006 || 2 || align=right|7,213,316 ||style="background:yellow;"|2 |- | 2007 || 1 || align=right|4,154,046 ||style="background:yellow;"|7 |- | 2008 || 0 || align=right|3,455,714 || 12 |- | 2009 || 0 || align=right|3,946,515 ||style="background:yellow;"|7 |- | 2010 || 3 || align=right|4,809,622 ||style="background:yellow;"|2 |- | 2011* || 0 || align=right|1,066,686 || 70 |- !Career* !! 16 (1) !! $48,632,649 !! 4 |} ''*As of August 21, 2011.''

United States national team appearances

Ryder Cup: 1997, 1999 (winners), 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 (winners), 2010

Presidents Cup: 1998, 2000 (winners), 2003 (tie), 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners)

*Presidents Cup record W-L-H: 10-6-2

World Cup: 2003

See also

Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

References

External links

Site featuring Jim's instructional Short Game video.

{{navboxes|title=Jim Furyk in the Ryder Cup |list1= }} {{navboxes|title=Jim Furyk in the Presidents Cup |list1= }}

Category:American golfers Category:Arizona Wildcats men's golfers Category:PGA Tour golfers Category:Winners of men's major golf championships Category:Sportspeople from Pennsylvania Category:People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania Category:1970 births Category:Living people

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Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Nick Watney
fullname	Nicholas Alan Watney
birth date	April 25, 1981
birth place	Sacramento, California
death date
height
weight
nationality
residence	Fresno, California
college	Fresno State University
yearpro	2003
retired
tour	PGA Tour
extour	Canadian TourNationwide Tour
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pgawins	4
eurowins
japwins
asiawins
sunwins
auswins
nwidewins	1
chalwins
champwins
seneurowins
otherwins	2
majorwins
masters	7th: 2010
usopen	T60: 2008
open	T7: 2010
pga	T12: 2011
wghofid
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Nicholas Alan Watney (born April 25, 1981) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. The highlight of Watney's career to date is his victory at the 2011 WGC-Cadillac Championship.

In July 2011, Watney broke into the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time in his career, after his victory at the AT&T; National, placing him tenth in the world.

Early career

Watney was born in Sacramento, California. He played his high school golf at Davis Senior High School in Davis, California. He played collegiate golf under his uncle Mike Watney at Fresno State University, where he was a three-time All-America golfer. He turned professional in 2003, following in the footsteps of his uncle, Mike Watney, who played on the PGA Tour in the 1970s.

Professional career

In 2003, Watney's first professional victory came at the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial on the Canadian Tour. The next year he played on the Nationwide Tour, and after winning the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship, Watney earned qualification for the PGA Tour.

In 2007, after two years of slow progress, Watney won his first PGA Tour title at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. This victory took Watney into the top 100 of the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time. He got his second tour win at the 2009 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, with a one-stroke victory over John Rollins, taking him to his highest position yet in the World Golf Rankings, number 76.

In the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Watney had a three-shot lead going into the final round. However, he shot a final round of 81, which dropped him back to a tie for 18th place.

Watney won the biggest tournament of his career to date and his first World Golf Championship at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in March 2011. He entered the final round trailing by two strokes, but shot a final round 67, including a run of four birdies in five holes in the middle of the round, and finished with a birdie at the notoriously difficult 18th, to record a two-stroke victory over compatriot Dustin Johnson. Watney admitted in an interview afterwards that he had dwelt on finishing 2nd at Doral, in the same tournament two years before, when his putt on the 18th finished a couple of inches short of the hole. After the victory, Watney moved up to number 15 in the World Golf Rankings.

In July, Watney won for the second time in 2011 at the AT&T; National by beating K. J. Choi by two strokes. The victory owed much to his third-round score when he set a course record 62 around Aronimink Golf Club, beating the previous record set coincidently on the same day, which Chris Kirk and Steve Marino held briefly with joint 63s. Watney shot a 27 on the back nine, which tied the second lowest nine-hole score ever recorded on the PGA Tour. The record is held by Corey Pavin who shot 26 at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee in 2006. During the final round Watney did not record a single bogey, making a number of crucial par saving putts to hold off the challenge of Choi and capture his fourth PGA Tour title. This win took Watney to the top of the FedEx Cup standings, ahead of Choi, and into the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time in his career.

Personal life

Watney's cousin is journalist Heidi Watney.

Professional wins (7)

PGA Tour wins (4)

{| width=53% | valign=top width=33% align=left |

Legend

World Golf Championships (1)

Other PGA Tour (3)

|}

!No.!!Date!!Tournament!!Winning score!!Margin of victory!!Runner-up
1		Zurich Classic of New Orleans	-15 (69–67–68–69=273)	3 strokes	Ken Duke
2		Buick Invitational	-11 (69–69–71–68=277)	1 stroke
3		WGC-Cadillac Championship	-16 (67–70–68–67=272)	2 strokes	Dustin Johnson
4		AT&T; National	-13 (70–69–62–66=267)	2 strokes	K. J. Choi

Nationwide Tour wins (1)

!No.!!Date!!Tournament!!Winning score!!Margin of victory!!Runner-up
1		Nationwide Tour Championship	-15 (69–64–71–69=273)	3 strokes	Brett Wetterich

Canadian Tour wins (1)

2003 Lewis Chitengwa Memorial Championship

Other wins (1)

2005 Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational

Results in major championships

{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="font-size: 95%; border: #aaa solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse;" |- bgcolor="#eeeeee" !align="left"|Tournament !2007 !2008 !2009 !2010 !2011 |- |The Masters |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|T11 |align="center"|19 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|7 |align="center"|46 |- |U.S. Open |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T60 |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|76 |align="center"|CUT |- |The Open Championship |align="center"|T35 |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|T27 |align="center" style="background:yellow;"|T7 |align="center"|CUT |- |PGA Championship |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|DNP |align="center"|CUT |align="center"|T18 |align="center"|T12 |}

DNP = Did not play CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" = tied Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

Tournaments played: 17

Wins: 0

Top 10s: 2

Top 25s: 5

Missed cuts: 6

Most consecutive cuts made: 5

World Golf Championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

!Tournament!!2007!!2008
align="left"	DNP	DNP
align="left"	DNP	DNP
align="left"	T61	DNP

!Tournament!!2009!!2010!!2011
align="left"	DNP	style="background:yellow;"	style="background:yellow;"
align="left"	style="background:yellow;"	T26	style="background:#00ff00;"
align="left"	T36	T16	T23
align="left"	style="background:yellow;"	T21

DNP = Did not play

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play

"T" = tied

Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

U.S. national team appearances

World Cup: 2009

See also

2004 Nationwide Tour Graduates

2005 PGA Tour Qualifying School Graduates

References

External links

Category:American golfers Category:Fresno State Bulldogs men's golfers Category:PGA Tour golfers Category:People from Sacramento, California Category:People from Davis, California Category:People from Fresno, California Category:1981 births Category:Living people

fr:Nick Watney nl:Nick Watney no:Nick Watney