Feb 20 Woods Billions
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Tiger Woods has never had any trouble counting on the golf course, though it’s not too hard to add up a couple of nines filled with birdies and pars and come up with something in the 60’s.
He didn’t have a problem counting to four a few years ago either, when the trophies from all the major championships sat on his fireplace mantle at the same time. And he knows exactly how many more majors he has to win (seven) to top the record of 18 held by Jack Nicklaus.
Figuring out his bank balance might be a bit trickier, since it seems to expand by millions every week. No one other than Woods and his accountants know for certain, but estimates are he will in just a few short years become the first athlete to become a billionaire in earnings and endorsements alone.
The math really gets fuzzy this week, though, when Woods tees it up in the Accenture Match Play Championship. In the Arizona desert, he’ll try to win his eighth straight PGA Tour event, and move a step closer to a record once thought as insurmountable as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. But wait. It gets even better.
Assuming he wins the Match Play – and he’s won it twice – it’s on to Florida where Woods is expected to play twice in tournaments he usually dominates. Wins there would get him to 10 straight, one short of the record set by the late Byron Nelson against war-depleted fields in 1945.
So where would a record-tying No. 11 come? How about at Augusta National in April?
On the 10th anniversary of his astonishing first win in the Masters. In his first Masters since his father died. They couldn’t write a script like this in Hollywood. Way too unbelievable.
Then again, it’s hard not to believe. Woods has already proved he’s the greatest golfer of his time, and just 11 years into his pro career he’s beginning to make a case for himself as the greatest of all time.
He’s the only modern player to win four straight majors, and there’s little doubt now that he will pass Nicklaus to win the most majors ever. His name is all over the record books and, perhaps most frightening to his fellow players, is that he seems to be getting better with every year.
