I'd wanted to write earlier, but was caught up watching the replays of the Tour Championship & Fedex Cup finals. That was the first time in 5 years that I'd stayed up to watch golf live on tv. Because for 5 years Tiger Woods didn't win.
The first time I watched Tiger live on tv was 1996, when he won his third US Amateur in a row. Before that he'd won three US Junior in a row, too. Even Nicklaus, with 18 Majors to his name, cannot match that record. And at 42, Tiger, having just won his 80th. PGA title, looks likely to win 4 more Majors and equal Nicklaus's achievement.
I've been following Tiger's career for 22 years, through the ups and downs. I've kept many of his golfing records, and even have the cd's of his Junior and Amateur tournaments somewhere. For now, some of his golfing prowess can be seen as follows:
From 1991, at the age of 15, Tiger had won his first US Junior title, and then won it for 3 straight years. Immediately following that, also for 3 straight years, he won the US Amateur title. Late the same year, 1996, he quit college and turned professional, age 20.
For 21 years now as a pro, Tiger has won 80 PGA titles( second only to Sam Snead with 82), including 14 Majors (second only to Jack Nicklaus with 18), and 26 other titles, making a grand total of 106. That works out to almost 4 wins per year for 21 years, and that includes the last 5 years with nothing. Since Tiger normally plays about 18 tournaments per year, his success rate is a phenomenal 22%. I don't think any other golfer can match that. If, as the golf analysts say now, Tiger plays at the very top level for another decade, the possibilities are just mind boggling.
For the just completed Fedex Cup Tour Championship finals, Tiger received a total of USD 4.62 millions. That's RM 18.5 millions for 4 days work, or RM 4.5 millions per day. I don't have the figures for the last 2 years, but up to age 40, Tiger had won USD 110,061,012 in prize money alone. Added to his other earnings, Tiger collected an income of USD 1.35 billions. That's 1,350,000,000. For those 19 years as a pro, Tiger earned about USD 71,000,000 per year, or USD 5,916,666 per month, or USD 197,222 per day. Multiply by 3.8 (RM), that's virtually RM 750,000 per day ! Some top bankers here get this in a month.
I know I'm partly responsible for my nephew, Mizi, becoming a golf professional. As a teenager, he was rated among the top Malaysian amateurs, having won several national level tournaments. Naturally he became a young pro. Alas, the difference between amateur and pro golf is, as they say, like "langit dengan bumi". Mizi didn't progress, and now at 30, with 2 kids of his own, it looks like "bye-bye" to pro golf, and he's already earning money away from the game that I thought he'd make his fortune in.
Sadly, he doesn't even watch Tiger.
...................................................................................
No comments:
Post a Comment