This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.
Tiger Woods returns to our Money Winners list this year despite a season shortened due to an injury and being let go as a General Motors spokesman. He won four of the six PGA tournaments he entered this year before bowing out with an injured knee. Paul Rogers, a veteran golf writer, who has written for Travel + Leisure Golf, GOLF Magazine, and Links Magazine, who I interviewed via e-mail, called that, "an unheard of rate of success by any current player's standards except his own."
That record made him golf's second-biggest prize winner despite his short season. Rogers says, "To give you a better sense of this
accomplishment, the top money winner on Tour this year, Vijay Singh, competed in 23 events." Rogers also mentioned that Woods is currently designing three golf courses in the Dubai desert, the mountains of North Carolina, and in Mexico's Baja, Calif., for a reported design fee of $25 million each.
Golf Digest magazine estimated in its February issue that by 2010 Woods could be the first athlete to reach $1 billion in earnings. He earned $123 million total in 2007 for total career earnings of $769 million, according to the magazine.
What drives Woods now is not amassing great wealth, but winning the most championships in golf history. Rogers referred to Woods' "long, determined march toward winning 18 major championships -- the record set by Nicklaus." He notes, "Tiger needs just four more to tie and five more to make his largest mark in golf history."
With a speedy recovery, sometime in the next two years, Tiger could be named the golfer with the most championship wins in history and also the highest earning athlete of all time.
Most Woods fans would say it is the first prize, not the latter, that he covets most.
Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2008.
Entrepreneur's Journal: Putting together a solid sales contract
The week in preview: Earnings from Walmart, Macy's, and other retailers
Six top trades for the rest of 2009
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-12-2008 @ 3:36PM
bruce brown said...
I have noticed a lot of errors in the articles AOL. Is there an opening for an editor?
The article states that Tiger will be the first athlete to earn $1 billion....then goes ion to say he earned $123 billion in 2007, and cumulatively has earned $769 billion.