The Rise And Fall And Rise Of Tiger Woods

                       

Tiger Woods has been a child star, a teenage phenomenon, a juggernaut, an iroko and a disgraced celebrity. He burst onto the scene with one of the steepest rises you'll ever see and then fell apart in an equally stunning collapse.

We went back to the moment Tiger appeared with a golf club on TV at age 2 and tracked the insane twists and turns he took to get to where he is today.

Tiger was a child star. He first appeared on TV when he was two years old on "The Mike Douglas Show."

He started working with a professional golf coach at age 4.

He practiced like mad, but he says he still had time to be a kid (yes, that's him).

And he still went to school.

He hit his first hole-in-one at age 6

By age 13, he was a scratch golfer, meaning his average score for a round was par or better.

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In a surreal 1990 interview, Tiger said, "Since I'm black I might be even bigger than Jack Nicklaus ... I might be sort of like a Michael Jordan in basketball."

He played his first PGA tournament at age 16. He missed the cut, and said later, "I was so tense I had a tough time holding the club. It was like rigor mortis had set in."

He went back to the amateur circuit and dominated. He won 3-straight US Amateur titles from 1994 to 1996.

He was a legitimate star at Stanford. The New York Times even ran a story when he got some jewelry stolen.

He went pro in 1996 and became a phenomenon.

He signed a $40-million deal with Nike before he ever won a pro event.

It didn't take him long. He won three of the first eight tournaments he entered, and was named SI's Sportsman of the Year in 1996.

But in April 1997, a bombshell GQ article came out that made him come off as immature, vulgar, and brash.

This off-color quote completely contradicted his squeaky-clean image, and Tiger was never open with the media again

But that controversy (and every other controversy) disappeared when he started an unprecedented 12-year run of success in 1997.

He won the Masters by 12 strokes in 1997, setting the tournament record at 18 under par.

From 1997 to 2009 he won 14 majors; 71 PGA tournaments; and made 225 of 231 cuts, meaning he successfully hit around obstructions more than 97% of the time.

During that time he got married to Swedish model Elin Nordegren and had kids.

He earned $100 million in winnings on the course, and hundreds of millions more in endorsements.

And the whole time he maintained a perfectly clean image, which made his fall so stunning.

Everything he built came crashing down at 2:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving night, 2009

Tiger crashed his car into a tree. The back window was smashed out, prompting rumors that he and Elin had gotten into a fight.

Two days before the fight, the National Enquirer had published a story saying he had an affair with Vegas hostess Rachel Uchitel.

In the wake of the crash, Tiger's mistresses started coming out of the woodwork, some with the kinky and embarrassing text messages to prove it.

Tiger admitted to his affairs, made a public apology, and took an extended break from golf.

Elin divorced him, getting $110 million in a settlement.

 His endorsement revenue went down $22 million when Gatorade and AT&T jumped ship.

 When he returned to the course in 2010, it was a circus. He was taunted by airplanes at the Masters.

After a year-long winning drought, he hired swing guru Sean Foley in August 2010 and began an arduous process of completely changing his swing.

2011 ended up being worse than 2010. Tiger struggled with injury and his swing, only playing in nine tournaments.

He also fired his long-time caddie Stevie Williams, who went on to call him a "black arse" at an awards dinner.

He hit rock bottom in August 2011 when he missed the cut at the PGA Championship.

Tiger ended the 2011 season ranked 58th in the world.

Unlike his meteoric rise to dominance in 1996, his return to form in 2012 was slow and steady.

He won his first event post-scandal at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.

But he lacked distance control with his retooled swing, and followed up his win with a crappy Masters.

Month after month, he got more comfortable. He ended 2012 with two more wins and a string of top 10s.

 In 2013, we've seen vintage Tiger.

He would have won the Masters if not for this shot that hit the flagstick, went into the water, and later cost him a 2-stroke penalty.

       

He has now won four of the eight tournament he's played in this year.

                               

He even has a public girlfriend for the first time in four years — the world's best downhill skier, Lindsey Vonn.

This classic tale played out recently between the two love birds on the golf megastar's yacht and Yahoo!'s OMG! section has all the details. 

'Woods, 37, was photographed this week hanging out with a bikini clad Vonn, 28, at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. The athletic duo was spotted fishing on Woods's million-dollar yacht — ironically named Privacy — with his daughter Sam, 6, and son Charlie, 4. These are Woods's two children with ex-wife Elin Nordegren, who actually lives nearby. Vonn and Woods's romance must be getting serious if she is spending quality time with his kids.

Woods and Vonn have ramped their relationship up and are heading straight for the beautiful but boring phase of the courtship.'

He's once again the best player on the planet, and one of the most dominant athletes in sports