There’s no denying hard work and dedication have led Tiger Woods to become one of the most successful golfers of all time. The American professional has been one of highest-paid athletes in the world for several years, lucky enough to have a career he loves.
Born in 1975 in California, Tiger Woods began an amateur golf career before turning professional in 1996 aged just 20. The following year, he won three PGA Tour events and in a record-breaking performance, he also won the 1997 Masters. Later that year, he reached the coveted top spot in the world rankings, months after becoming a pro.
Woods has since been a widely known figure in golf ranked top in the world for about a decade starting from the late ’90s to the early 2010s. Following his hiatus to resolve personal problems in 2011 Woods dropped to Number 58 in the world rankings. He regained his top 1 ranking between March 2013 and May 2014 before injuries led him to undergo four back surgeries between 2014 and 2017. In 2018, he started competing again, ultimately winning the 2019 Masters.
Dominating major golf championships throughout his career, Woods has established himself as one of the greatest golfers in the history of the sport as well proven his ability to learn and persist. A pinnacle for success, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019.
Woods believes we can only improve, not get worse, so the truth is, once you find your passion, if you keep working at it, you’ll one day make it. This attitude behind his quotes will inspire you to stick anything out through practice, patience and perseverance.
1. I get to play golf for a living. What more can you ask for – getting paid for doing what you love.
2. I’m all or nothing.
3. My main focus is on my game.
4. Winning takes care of everything.
5. I know that balance that I need to have in my life.
6. It’s been a lot of fun to see some fruits of my hard labour.
7. I smile at obstacles.
8. My will can move mountains.
9. Winning is not always the barometer of getting better.
10. I’m aware if I’m playing at my best I’m tough to beat, and I enjoy that.
11. The joy I get from winning a major championship doesn’t even compare to the feeling I get when a kid writes a letter saying: ‘Thank you so much. You have changed my life.
12. I love to compete. That’s the essence of who I am.
13. I had to take baby steps all year.
14. Golf is a great way for someone to learn discipline, responsibility and sportsmanship.
15. You know, all the nay-sayers said that I was doing the wrong things. They can understand why now I made those changes.
16. I am the toughest golfer mentally.
17. Money and fame made me believe I was entitled. I was wrong and foolish.
18. And I don’t cook, either. Not as long as they still deliver pizza.
19. People don’t understand that when I grew up, I was never the most talented, I was never the biggest, I was never the fastest, I certainly was never the strongest. The only thing I had was my work ethic, and that’s been what has gotten me this far.
20. The greatest thing about tomorrow is I will be better than I am today.
21. Days when you just don’t have it, you don’t pack it in, you give it everything you’ve . You grind it out.
22. One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people’s expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about it.
23. I’m addicted. I’m addicted to golf.
24. As a child, the family that I had and the love I had from my two parents allowed me to go ahead and be more aggressive, to search and to take risks knowing that, if I failed, I could always come home to a family of love and support.
25. I did envisage being this successful as a player, but not all the hysteria around it off the golf course.
26. I get to play golf for a living. What more can you ask for – getting paid for doing what you love.
27. I like to pick my causes and not be forced into doing something.
28. You’ve got to stay patient, stay in the moment, keep grinding… You never know what can happen. And it turned out well.
29. I'm not as far along as Jack Nicklaus was at this age, but I'm trying.
30. No matter how good you get you can always get better and that’s the exciting part.
31. Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.
32. I don’t think golf has ever been any pressure as far as having to succeed.
33. He's a guy that understands how to play the golf course. Experience helps a lot on this golf course -- where to miss it, how to play it, the angles you need to have.
34. That’s why I’ve busted my butt on the range for hours on end and made changes to get to this point where I’m able to compete at the highest level in major championships. That’s where you want to be.
35. Patience was the key today. I played a couple of bad shots but made key putts, didn't drop any shots and kept the momentum going,
36. I’ve always known where I wanted to go in life.
37. I've fallen in love with the course, and the environment. I've never been a fan of TPC courses, so it's nice to play old-school courses like this one that are laid out right in front of you. It's not one of the hardest, but it's fair and you know you have to go low.
38. I’m trying as hard as I can, and sometimes things don’t go your way, and that’s the way things go.
39. As a kid, I might have been psycho, I guess, but I used to throw golf balls in the trees and try and somehow make par from them. I thought that was fun.
40. You can play from the wrong position for a long time with good hands, but eventually it’s going to catch up with you.
41. As you all know, I’m kind of a perfectionist.
42. The only thing you can do is take a learning experience from it, positives and negatives, and apply them to the future. What did you do right, what did you do wrong, and I did a lot of things right this week.
43. You have to look at the past in order to learn from it and move on.
44. My dad has always taught me these words: care and share. That’s why we put on clinics. The only thing I can do is try to give back. If it works, it works.
45. The only reason I enter an event is to win.
46. I just didn’t start off very well and it was a long day. All day I was grinding, but I stayed as patient as possible and I have three more days to get back into it. I will go home, relax and put this day behind me.
47. It played hard. It (the wind) was down off the left when I hit. When Robert (Allenby) hit it was in off the right. The wind was just swirling enough where it made it a little bit difficult.
48. I think it’s an honor to be a role model to one person or maybe more than that. If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person’s life in a positive light, and that’s what I want to do. That’s what it’s all about.
49. Green and black go well together, don't they?
50. There’s no sense in going to a tournament if you don’t believe that you can win it. And that is the belief I have always had, and that is not going to change.
51. It will always be the ball and me.
52. I’ve exceeded a few of my goals, but I’m behind on a couple of others.
53. If money titles meant anything, I'd play more tournaments. The only thing that means a lot to me is winning. If I have more wins than anybody else and win more majors than anybody else in the same year, then it's been a good year.
54. If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?
55. Hundreds of balls, and you might only make one. That's a shot ... once in a lifetime.