Tiger Woods: Eldrick Tont Woods

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Tiger Woods, formally known as Eldrick Tont Woods, is a professional golfer. He was born with a golf club in his hand. He did not realize that in twenty years, his life would ultimately change for the better. He would become one of the most famous professional golfers throughout the world. This was unusual for a Buddhist middle class family to have a son like Woods become such an icon in golf in the United States. He and his family were often shunned just because of their religious views (Bauder). As his fame continued to grow throughout the years, people have begun to view his identity and social location differently than he himself defines it.
Woods was born on December 30, 1975 just outside of Los Angeles, California, to an interracial …show more content…

When Woods was starting his professional career, he was one of the most up and coming stars in professional golf. He had a fresh outlook on golf and was extremely young for how talented he was. Everyone saw the good in him and saw his potential. The media portrayed him to be an extremely good athlete and person when he was rising to fame. During this time, if anyone would mention the name Tiger Woods everyone would think positive because he had been so successful in his professional career. He was beginning to become a role model, at this stage in his life, for many young people and athletes (Callahan). Tragedy began to hit Woods. In 2006, Earl Woods lost his battle to cancer. This was Woods’ main mentor. This, alone, significantly hurt his career (Kelley). Shortly after this loss, it came out in the media that Woods had been cheating on his wife during the recent months and even some while he was away at tournaments. This scandal broke out in the media quickly because he never had anything of this sort happen. He admitted to having sexual relations with many different women, which eventually broke up his family and his marriage. He soon admitted himself into rehab for personal issues and took a leave from golfing for a short period while trying to get his life back on track. Many different companies dropped their endorsements with him so that their name would not be associated with someone who did this type of behavior. His divorce greatly affected his career, even affecting it currently. Today, his endorsements are just under half of what he was previously making (Callahan). Surprisingly, he has not won a major tournament since his divorce; however, he won a few smaller tournaments (Posnanski). This scandal has also affected how society sees him. The belief that many people had about him quickly changed. People were beginning to believe how awful of a person he was. The media was

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