Tiger Woods is a billionaire — here's how he spends his money and lives his life

Tue, 01/09/2024 - 12:46

Tiger Woods waves to the crowd. — Tiger Woods keeps dropping hints that he will play.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Woods' career once looked over, but he made a stunning comeback by winning the Masters a fifth time and may become a regular on the senior tour in a few years.
He's one of the highest-paid athletes ever and, according to Forbes, is now a billionaire.
Woods spends his money on yachts, private jets, and megamansions off the course.

Tiger Woods is one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports.

While Tiger's career on the PGA Tour appears to be over, there are signs that he will be a regular on golf's senior tour when he turns 50 in a couple of years. In the meantime, he can spend a little more time living his lavish lifestyle with his children, cars, houses, and toys.

Take a look at Tiger's fabulous life below.

Tony Manfred and Mary Hanbury contributed reporting to a previous version of this article.

Tiger Woods has made more than $1.4 billion since turning pro in 1996.

Source: Golf Digest and Forbes

More than $122 million of that came from on-course winnings making him No. 1 on the all-time money list, by far.

In 2018, he had one of his biggest paydays ever in golf.

He won $4.6 million at the Tour Championship alone — $1.6 million for winning the tournament and $3 million for his second-place finish in the FedEx Cup.

Roger Federer recently passed Woods as the highest-paid athlete ever from a nonteam sport.

Roger Federer and Tiger Woods — Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Woods is now a billionaire.

Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer — David Cannon/Getty Images

According to Forbes, Woods is now a billionaire. He's one of only two athletes to achieve the status while still active, alongside LeBron James.

But the real money comes from off the course.

At his peak in the late 2000s, Woods made $100 million annually off the course, Forbes reported. In 2020, Woods raked in $60 million in endorsements.

Woods has hit bumps in the road.

In 2009, news broke that Woods had been cheating on his wife, Elin Nordegren. Two days later, he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant outside his house.

He was accused of having an affair with Rachel Uchitel, a New York nightclub manager.

Months later, several other women came forward to say they had affairs with Woods.

Many of Woods' endorsement partners dropped him over the controversy, including AT&T, Gatorade, Gillette, Golf Digest, and Tag Heuer.

His biggest partner, Nike, stuck with him.

His caddie, Joe LaCava, also refused to abandon him.

Tiger Woods and his caddie — Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Woods has been with Nike since he turned pro in 1996 and signed a $200 million deal with the brand in 2013.

Source: ESPN, ABC, Insider

His divorce settlement cost him $100 million in 2010, Forbes reported.

Source: Forbes

His golf career then started to turn sour.

Before the Masters win in 2019, Woods hadn't won a major golf championship since 2008, and before the Tour Championship, he had not won on tour since 2013.

He has also battled various injuries.

When Woods was charged with driving under the influence, he blamed an "unexpected reaction to prescribed medications." Woods had recently had a fourth surgery on his back, and police later said he had five drugs in his system at the time of the arrest.

But Woods continues to live a lavish lifestyle.

After the divorce settlement, there were reports that he considered selling his 155-foot megayacht, Privacy, for $25 million. The boat was not sold, however, and Woods now docks it in North Palm Beach, Florida.

He stayed on the yacht on Long Island during the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills.

Woods owns a 10-acre property in Jupiter, Florida, which was built from scratch just for him for $55 million.

Tiger Woods house — Courtesy of Jeff Realty

Source: Palm Beach Post

It has a pitch-and-putt golf course, as well as a private dock.

Source: Palm Beach Post

Golf isn't his only passion — Woods is really into spearfishing and learned how to free dive so he could spearfish without an air tank.

Source: Insider

He loves spearfishing so much that he once called in sick to a tune-up tournament before the Open Championship so he could spend time catching fish.

Woods is a die-hard Oakland Raiders fan and tries to find time to support the silver and black whenever he can.

He even has a Raiders-themed pool table in his house.

In his office, he still has the check from his first career win, at the Las Vegas Invitational in 1997.

Even though Woods has 82 career wins, his trophy case at home has only four shelves, one for each of the majors and the 15 trophies he has won in those events.

Source: Golf Digest

He has two border collies, Lola and Bugs.

They keep him company when he's on the practice putting green in his backyard. They have even been trained to fetch the golf balls.

While most golfers have a simulator at home, Tiger also has a putting simulator.

The breaks can be adjusted with a touch screen, and it even traces lines to show the best line.

The 82-time PGA Tour-event winner is a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He turned out for multiple games during the 2017 World Series.

Woods likes tennis as well.

He is good friends with Rafael Nadal and has sat in his box for a number of matches.

Woods also likes to spend his time working out.

Aside from watching sports, Woods also likes to spend his time working out — maybe too much at times during his career. His old coach Hank Haney once said, "My opinion is he really overdoes that."

Woods pushed himself physically because he wanted to be viewed as an athlete.

Haney would also suggest that Woods pushed himself physically because he wanted to be viewed as an athlete, saying that Woods viewed injuries as "a way of being accepted into the fraternity of superstars who played more physical sports than golf."

He struggles to sleep, according to his friends.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy — Jamie Squire/Getty

"He struggles to sleep," Rory McIlroy said of Woods, "which I think is an effect of overtraining, so I tell him to calm down sometimes. He'd be texting me at 4 o'clock in the morning: 'Up lifting. What are you doing?'"

When he is not practicing, he plays video games.

Woods says he likes to practice all day, but when he was recovering from surgery, he filled his time by playing "Call of Duty" eight hours a day, with a 30-minute lunch break. Despite that, Woods said he was still getting beat by 7-year-olds when he played online.

He even has his own restaurant, The Woods Jupiter.

"After years of meals on the road, he decided to bring his vision of an elevated sports bar to life at home in Jupiter," its website says.

When he isn't at home in Jupiter, Woods likes to bring a little bit of it with him.

The ESPN columnist Rick Reilly said in 2013 the golfer was rumored to replace all the furniture in the houses he rented during tournaments with his own, even if he was there for only a few days.

He likes to travel in style.

Tiger Woods Plane — Benjamin Zhang/Business Insider

Tiger owns a Gulfstream G550 private jet, worth about $54 million. But in 2017, for the first time in 10 years, Woods took a commercial flight, from Los Angeles to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

But Woods has been accused of being cheap.

According to one story, Woods wanted to be just one of the guys when he was having lunch with a group of Navy Seals and did not pick up the check, irritating and confusing the seals.

He devotes a ton of time and money to his at-risk youth charity, the Tiger Woods Foundation, giving $12 million to the foundation in 2012.

Source: PGA

Additionally, he works with kids through the TGR Learning Lab, which provides opportunities for students to explore their passions by combining science with everyday tasks.

Woods doesn't rely on only his golf winnings and endorsements to fund his extravagant lifestyle.

He also runs a golf-design business. He opened his first US course in Houston in 2015 and was said to be designing a Trump International Golf Club course in Dubai.

And in 2020, he partnered with PopStroke to design miniature-golf courses.

When Nike got out of the equipment business, Woods signed in 2016 with Bridgestone to use its golf balls.

He also signed in 2019 with TaylorMade for its golf clubs. They released his first set of signature irons, which sold for $2,000.

Woods was heavily involved in the design of the clubs, with TaylorMade spending "hundreds of hours" on testing and building several prototypes until it got them just right for Woods.

He's even partnered with former President Donald Trump.

Tiger Woods and Donald Trump — Julio Cortez/AP

At the end of 2016, the two played at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. "What most impressed me was how far he hits the ball at 70 years old," Woods told CNN of Trump. Woods has also played with Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

Trump awarded Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019.

While Woods is mum about his private life, details have been gleaned.

Tiger Woods Girlfriend — Rob Carr/Getty Images

He spent a lot of time with Erica Herman at the Presidents Cup in 2017, and was seen at several other tournaments, including Tiger's win at the Masters in 2019. She was the general manager for Woods' restaurant.

They dated for about six years, but broke up in late 2022 or early 2023.

Tiger Woods family — Chris Condon/PGA TOUR via Getty Images

The couple was together for about six years. Herman is now asking a court to allow her out of a non-disclosure agreement that Woods had her sign. She is alleging the NDA is no longer valid, citing the Speak Out Act, which prohibits enforcement of NDAs in cases of sexual harassment or assault.

That was Woods' first public relationship since Lindsey Vonn. In 2017, someone hacked them and distributed nude photos of the couple.

Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn — Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Woods' pro career was derailed again in 2021 with a major car accident.

tiger woods car accident — Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies inspect the vehicle of golfer Tiger Woods, who was rushed to hospital after suffering multiple injuries, after it was involved in a single-vehicle accident in Los Angeles, California, U.S. February 23, 2021.
Gene Blevins/Reuters

In early 2021, Woods was involved in a horrific car accident that left him with several severe leg injuries. That accident, which nearly ended his career, kept him off the course for more than year. He later made a stunning comeback to compete in the 2022 Masters.

Woods still made a lot of money from the PGA Tour despite not playing in 2021.

Tiger Woods looks on during the Women's Singles Second Round match between Anett Kontaveit of Estonia and Serena Williams of the United States on Day Three of the 2022 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 31, 2022 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. — Tiger Woods and Serena Williams are close friends.
Getty/Matthew Stockman

Woods took in $8 million from the PGA Tour's inaugural "Player Impact Program." The award goes to the tour's most popular player based on metrics such as social media.

He also may have turned down $700 million to join rival tour.

LIV CEO and commissioner Greg Norman watches play on the second hole during the final round of the LIV Golf Invitational Series Chicago at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. — Greg Norman.
Getty/Brian Spurlock

In late 2022, Greg Norman told Tucker Carlson that he had offered Woods $700 million to join the new Saudi-backed LIV golf league. Norman later clarified that the money was not offered up front but was an estimate of how much Woods would have earned during his time with LIV.

In response, Tiger and his pal Rory McIlroy launched a league of their own.

The PGA Tour announced a number of changes late in 2022 aimed at combatting the defection of golfers to LIV Golf. One of those was a partnership a new tech-based golf league backed by Tiger and McIlroy. The league will have teams made up of tour golfers that will compete in a "tech-infused" stadium setting in primetime, hoping to appeal to a younger audience.

While Tiger is not golfing in events as much, he is still spending a lot of time on the course, caddying for his son, Charlie, or playing in father-son tourneys.

Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods celebrate a birdie on the 12th hole during the final round of the PNC Championship at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club Grande Lakes on December 19, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. — Tiger, Charlie Woods.
Getty/Sam Greenwood

Charlie, 13, recently posted a career-low 68 with his dad on the bag during a tournament.

We will likely never see Woods play full time again, but he is likely to still shoot for wins in the majors.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Tiger Woods is a billionaire — here's how he spends his money and lives his life