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"Don't force your kids into sports. I never was. To this day, my dad has never asked me to go play golf. I ask him. It's the child's desire to play that matters, not the parent's desire to have the child play. Fun. Keep it fun."

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While golf is hardly a niche sport, there aren't a lot of professional golfers that the general public can name off the top of their heads. They tend to not generate the same publicity as football, basketball and baseball players. It's a slower sport in comparison to boxing or MMA, but there are a few to become household names playing the game. Arnold Palmer is one, of course, but perhaps no golfer has ever reached the levels of fame and public visibility as Tiger Woods.

From Champion to Father

“My kids now dominate my life and I think that’s a good thing."

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Tiger Woods needs little introduction. Tiger compeded in a number of tours between 1992 to 1995, but wouldn't really explode onto the scene until 1997, claiming four wins and earning two million in winnings. From there it simply became a matter of course that Tiger would take home the gold just about every single time he hit the course. He's claimed eighty one wins with fifteen majors over the course of his career, earned over one hundred million dollars in PGA Tour winnings, and holds seventeen Guinness World Records, including most consecutive US Amateur golf titles and lowest total score in the golf US Masters, and even holds some video game records, including longest drive in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (2005), a game branded with the golfer's endorsement.

If ever an athlete has had a storied career, Tiger Woods has. "People don't understand that when I grew up, I was never the most talented. I was never the biggest. I was never the fastest. I certainly was never the strongest. The only thing I had was my work ethic, and that's been what has gotten me this far."

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Tiger would have his first child with wife Elin Nordegren, a former Swedish model, on June 18, 2007. The child's birth took place only a few hours after the 2007 US Open, where Tiger had placed second. "Sam" sounds like it may be short for Samantha, but in fact, it was a name chosen in honor of Tiger's father, Earl, who had nicknamed Tiger Sam in his childhood. Tiger would eventually give Sam a brother, Charlie Axel Woods, in 2009.

"My father had always called me Sam since the day I was born. He rarely ever called me Tiger. I would ask him, 'Why don't you ever call me Tiger?' He says, 'Well, you look more like a Sam."

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As luck would have it, Sam Woods' birthday often falls on Father's Day, making the name choice a bit of a happy coincidence.

A Future Sports Star?

While Sam is often seen in the crowd, cheering her father on at golf tournaments, her real interest might not lie in the game for which her father made his name, but in soccer. That's not to say that Tiger's kids don't have a stake in the PGA, of course, as Tiger has suggested that his children are now among his primary motivators for holding onto the throne as the world's greatest golfer. Simply put: He wants his kids to see him win. Who wouldn't?

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Followers of Tiger's career may know that this owes in part to injuries that the golfer suffered in a car accident in 2009, which left him unable to walk and took him out of competition for a time. While Tiger still makes a strong showing at every tournament, throughout the 2010s he did have a long stretch of coming in short of first before his 2019 Masters win, where he was able to show his children why he's considered the very best at what he does. “I want them to see what I’ve been able to do my entire career.” While many athletes tend to peak at a fairly young age, Tiger Woods is still going strong well into his forties, showing no signs of slowing down any time soon, continuing to earn accolades and awards at every tournament in which he participates.

Time will tell if Sam Woods has a future in athletics, but if she has a fraction of her father's incredible drive to succeed, then she'll have no problem going down in history as sports royalty.

"There's no sense in going to a tournament if you don't believe that you can win it. And that is the belief I have always had. And that is not going to change."