Tiger Woods is a billionaire — here’s how he spends his money and lives his life
Tiger Woods is one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports.
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.
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. Read more: The 30 highest-paid golfers of all time
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. Read more: Roger Federer has overtaken Tiger Woods as the top moneymaker in individual sports with $110.2 million in earnings
Woods is now a billionaire. 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. Read more: At Tiger Woods’ lowest point, his caddie refused to take another job, and Woods rewarded him by continuing to pay him
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. Read more: Tiger Woods’ former trainer says Tiger used to have a laborious training schedule that included 13 hours of practice
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. Read more: Tiger Woods has reportedly docked his $20 million, 155-foot yacht in the Hamptons — and he apparently plans to stay there during the US Open
Woods owns a 10-acre property in Jupiter, Florida, which was built from scratch just for him for $55 million. 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. Read more: A crazy story about Tiger Woods shows that he was never as obsessed with golfing greatness as everybody thought
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. Source: TMRW Sports
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 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. Read more: Tiger Woods announces his first major equipment endorsement deal since Nike stopped making golf equipment
He also signed in 2019 with TaylorMade for its golf clubs. They released his first set of signature irons, which sold for $2,000. Read more: Tiger Woods’ new TaylorMade clubs are now available for $2,000 after it took ‘hundreds of hours’ and numerous prototypes to build the originals
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. Read more: Tiger Woods’ new TaylorMade clubs are now available for $2,000 after it took ‘hundreds of hours’ and numerous prototypes to build the originals
He’s even partnered with former President Donald Trump. 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. Read more: Trump says he will be awarding Tiger Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom after win at the Masters
While Woods is mum about his private life, details have been gleaned. He spent a lot of time with Erica Herman at the Presidents Cup in 2017. She was the general manager for Woods’ restaurant.
They dated for about six years, but broke up in late 2022 or early 2023. 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. Read more: Lawyer for Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn vows to pursue legal action ‘swiftly and vigorously’ against sites publishing their hacked nude photos
Woods’ pro career was derailed again in 2021 with a major car accident. 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. 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. Dylan Dethier of Golf Magazine unearthed the document indicating that McIlroy had indeed been served his subpoena on Christmas Eve. Appropriately, the company that delivered the subpoena is named “Shark Process, LLC.” Greg Norman, who runs LIV Golf, is nicknamed “The Shark.”—Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) January 25, 2023
In response, Tiger and his pal Rory McIlroy launched a league of their own. Source: TMRW Sports
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.