Tiger Woods

Right, grab a pen and listen carefully for today's recipe. Take some African American, Native American and a large portion of Chinese, mixed together with some Thai and then a light sprinkling of Dutch. Wait for three years add a set of golf clubs. Wait a few more years and what have do you get? Only the greatest golfer the world has ever seen.

Eldrick Woods was born in Cypress, California two days before the start of 1976. His father was 50% African American, and 25% Chinese and Native American. His mother is 50% Thai and 25% Dutch and Chinese. If you work it out, Eldrick has a pretty diverse ethnic background. Sorry, I keep saying Eldrick whereas you probably know him as Tiger, the nickname given to him by one of his father's friends which seems to have stuck. Nobody could have imagined in their wildest dreams that when he held his first golf club at 3 years old that by 2006 he would be the highest paid and arguably the best known sportsman on the planet. However, by the time he was 8 and already winning junior tournaments then some may have started to see something just a little bit special in the boy. The successes continued through his teens and then it was decision time. Should he go to college or take up golf full time? He enrolled at Stanford University in 1994 but left after 2 years to make a career out of the sport which he loved - not an easy decision by any means but one which would turn the world of golf on its head.

That very same year he was voted Sportsman of the Year by the prestigious Sports Illustrated magazine and by June of the following year he was Number One in the world rankings, having won the US Masters tournament by a record 12 strokes. Remember, he was only 21.

Now at this point maybe I should explain golf as simply and quickly as I can so you can better appreciate some of the facts I'm going to give you later. OK. A round of golf consists of 18 holes, and a tournament has four rounds. You start each hole from the tee and hit your first shot onto the area of nicely cut, short grass called the fairway. This is a drive. The idea is then to hit your ball as few times as possible to get it into the hole, which is found on the green. The shots you take on the green are called putts. Each hole has a standard number of shots you should take and this is called par. If you take one shot less than the standard it's called a birdie, two shots less is an eagle and three shots an albatross. If you take more than you should, this is called a bogey, double bogey, triple bogey etc. Sounds easy? Not so. The course designers also put obstacles on the course to ruin your day. There are holes filled with sand which are called bunkers. There are areas of long grass that run alongside the fairway which is called the rough. There are even ponds and lakes which are called ponds and lakes! On some of the shorter holes it's possible to hit your ball into the hole in only one shot. It's called a hole in one. This is very rare for professional golfers, even more so for amateurs. I've been playing for more than 20 years and have never even come close. Tiger did it when he was 8.

So now you're experts in how golf works I'll give you some figures. Tiger Woods holds the record for the lowest score in a major championship - 19 under par set at the British Open. He shares the record for the lowest in the other three majors. His combined average is the lowest in history. He holds the records for the largest victory margin in the Masters and the US Open. He the youngest to do this, the fastest to do that, has won the most of this and earned the most of that. I imagine he holds the record for holding the most records in golf. Enough. Let's just say that there has never been anyone like him.

This level of success is hard to sustain in any walk of life let alone under the glare of the world's press. Recent dips in form caused people to say his time had come and the death of his father was a huge blow to him. He took time off the mourn his loss and then came back for the US Open, where he failed to qualify for the final rounds for the first time in his career. Talk was of the end of this golfing genius. So what did he do? He went to Scotland and won the British Open again, just one shot short of his previous record of 19 under par. Anyone who saw him receive the trophy would have choked back the tears as he openly wept while dedicating the victory to his father.

Incidentally, watch out for which colour shirt he wears for the last day of every tournament. It's always some shade of the same colour. I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to watch out for it yourself.