Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods is the winner of 12 of golf's major championships and is the sport's biggest superstar since Jack Nicklaus. Before he became a grown-up celeb, Woods was a kiddie phenomenon: his father Earl allegedly introduced Tiger to golf at age 9 months, and at age 2 the youngster made a now-famous appearance putting with Bob Hope on The Mike Douglas Show. Woods won three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles (1994-96), and in 1996 turned pro with a $40 million contract from Nike and a fame usually reserved for movie stars. Woods made good on the hype, winning 46 PGA tournaments in his first ten seasons on the tour. He won the 1997 Masters in his first attempt as a pro and later won the PGA Championship (1999), the British Open (2000) and the U.S. Open (2000) to become one of the few golfers to win all four major tournaments during their careers. In April of 2001 Woods won the Masters again, becoming the first golfer in the modern era to hold all four major tournament titles at once (2000 U.S Open, British Open and PGA Championship, and 2001 Masters). In 1999-2000 Woods won six consecutive tournaments, making him the first man to do so since Ben Hogan in 1948. Cementing his reputation as Nicklaus's heir, Woods won the British Open in 2005, the year of Nicklaus's final appearance at the competition. Although 2005 and 2006 were tough on Woods -- his father died 3 May 2006 -- he won the British Open again in 2006.