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October 07, 2009

Tiger Woods: I'm not a billionaire

Posted at 10:03 AM by Mike Walker | Categories: Tiger Woods

Tiger-woods-pres-tues_372 Last week, Forbes reported that Tiger Woods was the first athlete to earn $1 billion. One problem, though: Woods says he doesn't have that much money. At a Presidents Cup news conference Tuesday, a reporter asked Woods directly about the Forbes report.

Reporter: "This last week, it was announced you hit the billionaire status. What's that like to learn?"

Tiger Woods: [Laughs] "Well, one, I haven't, so I don't know where that number came from."

Forbes cited estimates of Woods's earnings from endorsements, tournament winnings, appearance fees and his nascent golf-course design business. Other than tournament winnings, Forbes could only guess at the other income of the famously circumspect Woods, and the business magazine admitted its figures could not be exact.

As for Woods, only his accountant knows if Tiger is a billionaire athlete yet, but if it did not happen on Sunday [after his $10 million FedEx Cup win] it is likely only a matter of months or his next check from Nike.

Woods is certain to be the first billionaire athlete, but we'll never know when it happens. He likely won't know right away either, and when he does learn, the only acknowledgment of the fact will probably be a private smile behind the tinted windows of a Buick SUV.

More on Tiger: How Tiger Makes his Millions | Tiger Tracker | Family Album | SI Covers

Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

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And all golfers do get paid depending on the position they end up in...the only time that they don't get paid is if they don't make the cut...follow golf a little closer and you can see for yourself...and they get very hefty pay checks.

Stop all the hating guys...put it this way, he has a lot more than I will ever see in my life and all of you put together..who cares what he spends, or how much he is worth...envy is a terrible desease..and D Fender, I bet you also thought that about Dr's income and why they make such absurd money. But I bet you watch or support some type of sport knowing how much they get paid as well, now that doesn't make sense..and also think about it the CEO of the company you work for makes probably 10 times your salary...why work for someone who makes that much...let me guess, he owns the business so he deserves it..Tiger works for himself, so why shouldn't deserve that type of money if people like you and many others pay to watch him...Maybe you are in the wrong type of business...

first millionaire sports figure was golfer Walter Hagen-founder of the PGA of America
interesting that the first Billionaire sports figure is also a golfer…especially considering professional golfer's don't get a paycheck unless they win! Golf—a game for the rest of your life!

anybody that can make a billion dollars playing golf is pretty smart to me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who cares? This is what "news" in the US consists of these days. What a joke.

What difference does it make?

Tiger is a rich person, but he needs food and housing similarly to everyone else. Let's say, he spends $20,000 a month on food and living expenses. Other than that, he has his millions to give to charities. That is because he can and giving a million or two will not be even visible on his checkbook. On the other side, when an average mid income family spends $5000 on food and hosing., there is NOTHING left. So don't compare rich and the working class. Rich have a lot in excess when they satisfy their basic needs, an average person does not.

It's not anyone business what Tiger Woods has made it's a private matter and it should not be discussed.

TJ, you haven't gotten a clue what your talking about. Tiger does and gives a lot, both money and time. What he doesn't do is seek to have his name in lights for what he does off the golf course. He doesn't talk politics, doesn't talk about others, seldom talks about his foundation which as provided millions. How much of your income did you give to charity over the last 5 years. How much time did you donate. Oh and who is stealing your privacy.

Geez TJ not have a good day bro? Don't hate the player baby hate the game yo!!!

tj is obviously an obama voter. just wait by your mailbox. your obama check will be there any day now.

Tiger is a joke he doesnt help people so he can take his billion or trillion and rot in hell with it

He might have made a billion but with taxes and expenses, he isn't worth a billion

The article said he has EARNED a billion dollars....that does not mean he is a billionaire. I have been working for more than 30 years..I have earned over 1 millions...am I a millionaire?.....

He might make a lot of money but, he also spends a lot of money.

At least Tiger will gain $1 billion by the end of the year. He's one of the few athletes with class and deserves it. He's the athletic role model our children should look up to.

Taxes, people, taxes!!!!!!!!! $1bn in earnings equates to ~$600m back to Tiger. He probably has to earn $1.7bn before he hits the billionaire club. And that assumes he didn't lose any cash in the market meltdown. Once again, terrible reporting. Probably because journalists don't pay taxes.

If you were as good at anything like Tiger, Jordan, etc. are to their trade, then corporations would be lining up to throw money at you too. But you suck, so you're probably broke. Stop being mad at the fortunes of others and make your own.

"o f'ing way that skinny tiger can bench 375. More like 135. Golf is not a sport it is a pass time. If John Daly is a pro golfer that means golfers are not athletes. Period.

"Posted by: Bruno | October 07, 2009 at 02:40 PM
o f'ing way that skinny tiger can bench 375. More like 135. Golf is not a sport it is a pass time. If John Daly is a pro golfer that means golfers are not athletes. Period"


Way to let your ignorance shine through, moron. Tigers in better shape than most, and has a sick workout regmine....so the fact you'd make such an asinine comment shows how quick you are to talk before you think(if the latters even possible). Grow up. And I dont have to see you, to say I'd take Tiger in a wager that he'd outbench your sorry ***.

So what? I'm a "hundredaire" and lovin' it!
Stay thirsty, my friends.

Michael Shumocker was First Billionaire Athlete in 2005

I drive a Enclave Does that make me a billionaire. Hey someone is holding out on me..

Great for Tiger, rather its a million or a billion. With the amount he gives away and the causes he supports, more power to him. Who cares what car he drives or how big his yacht is. He's earned the right to do as he pleases. Oh, and his ethnicity has nothing to do with it. However, his work habits do.

These comments made for some great chuckles during the noon hour! Tiger seems to be a great person and is probably laughing at all the attempts at math - for money which he doesn't have!

The Man is a living Legend Period

who cares. i love how everyone comments on his money that we will never see. i love it.

Tiger Wood and I have one common thing: I am not a billionaire either.

Hey Bruno...Prince Fielder is an "athlete" LMAO That guy is like 350lbs, has a 60-inch waist, and cant move off first base to even field something that goes 10 inches near him. please, dont use the John Daly comparison...a 400lb lineman in football is an "athlete"? nope. just because of his size he can stand there and block. whatever. Tiger is in better physical shape than you'll ever dream of.

Guys,

Tiger actually drives an Escalade. All you are talking about is his yacht. He has an Escalade at his home in Florida and his house is modest to say the least...compared to Vince Carter's down the street...

Tiger is humble and he should be respected for his drive, athleticism, passion, and influence on the game of golf.

funny yo!!! Go Tiger make a trillion let everyone debate that.....USA baby!!!

athlete "a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina"

Now please shut the hell up.

Actually, Bruno, Tiger left Stanford after two years to go pro, so he didn't graduate from a premier school.

He's still driving that beat-up old Buick around Jupiter Island

Have any of you actually seen a Buick Enclave? They're gorgeous. Even if Buick doesn't sponsor him, he still has the free car they gave him, and it's too nice just to toss to the side.

No f'ing way that skinny tiger can bench 375. More like 135. Golf is not a sport it is a pass time. If John Daly is a pro golfer that means golfers are not athletes. Period.

Hey Poor American, he would probably do better than most at a real job. If you didn't know, he attended and graduated from one of the premier schools in the U.S. He's no fool. His work ethic shows in his success on the golf course as well as his ventures off the course. Just wait for your next handout while he goes out and earns his.

These morons who say golfers are not athletes have no clue... Tiger generates over 130 mph club speed when he hits a golf ball... Do you realize how athletic you have to be to do that... It's like calling a shot putter or someone who throws a javelin in the olympics are not athletes... By the way Tiger bench presses 375 lb. and works out daily in the gym so he can hit 350 yard drives...

Well I now have one thing in common with Tiger - I'm not a billionaire either!

Everyone here in Jupiter Florida always sees his $40 MILLION dollar yaht crusing around and his $40 Million dollar Mansion.
Give me a break, all for playing golf.
He would not last a day at a real job.

Actually, GM dropped Tiger's endorsement deal for Buick. So he probably drives something a little bit more his style, like a Jaguar.

As someone has already said: There's a big difference between earn and have.... Hell I've probably earned more than $1 Million in my life, but all I've GOT is tons of debt!!

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't earn a billion....don't care. I also don't care how long it would take to spend a billion if he spent such and such amount every week or month...but yes, he does show up for tournaments in a Buick!!

1.Bob makes a great point
2. Ed & Steve-o, you probably tried playing and stink, if you haven't, moronic statement to make.

who cares!!! any way he isn't giving me any!!!

Well, no one is going to shed any tears for Tiger, but there is the matter of Taxes (Federal, State and Local) which would have reduced that number by anywhere from 38--50%, depending on where he earned the Tournament checks. Florida doesn't have a State Tax, so he probably doesn't pay local taxes on his endorsements, but the Feds will want their top marginal cut. He probably has a few tax shelters, but he earns an awful lot of money to shelter more than a small portion of it.

They may not be athletes in the physical nature compared to NFL or NBA, but at least they can form a sentence and speak intelligently.

Of course Tiger isn't a "billionaire". Just because someone has made $1 billion, doesn't mean his net worth is a billion dollars. I have made well over $1 million in my lifetime, but I'm not a "millionaire"; at least not anymore.

THANKS TO THE AUTHOR, WHO PROBABLY ACTUALLY WATCHES THESE TOURNAMENTS, FOR KNOWING HE STILL ARRIVES IN A BUICK EVERY TIME. 2ND...ENOUGH WITH THE MATH TEST ALREADY!!!

Does it really matter? Until Tiger starts giving out his money to me I could care less about how much money he has. Why people are so concerned with rich celebrities and atheletes is beyond me.

Correction: Race car drivers AND golfers are not athletes.

Golf is not a sport, and golfers are not athletes.

its all nice for the athletes, but it makes the events unaffordable to most average people. Take NFL for example, what does it cost to bring a family of 4 to a game? And to feed them there? Where's the sports in that?

Zach Sorry but Michael Schumacher is not a billionaire yet. At the end of 2007 he had almost 800 mil, he is earning 26 mil per year, so he is roughly 852 mil. While yes it is alot, Tiger is still making the most and closing in on 1 bil if not there yet.

Forbes "admitted" it, according to a "blog."

Booohoooo poor little Tiger. Waaaaa I'm not a billionaire. He sounds like a baby.

race car drivers are not athletes

its not like he has that in the bank, he may have earned that, but he doesnt have that as a balance. Duh!

Hi, you forget the interest rate. Even with 1% interest rate. 1000M * 1%=10 M. So unless he spend more than 200,000 per week. He will has 1 B forever.

soon, very soon Tiger > Trump

Michael Schumacher was the first billionaire athlete.

GO TIGER!

Tiger also has donated so much money to his charities and to other awesome organizations. Who cares if he is a billionaire, he is a great person either way.

I agree with Kyle, there is a big difference between have a billion and earning a billion.

He may not have a billion since he bought that $100 million + yacht from Christiansen Yachts!

Too late for Tiger to be first. Michael Schumacher was acknowledged to be a billionaire in 2005

I don't play golf and I am only interested in watching it when tiger is playing

Driving a formula 1 racecar requries far more physical conditioning than playing a round of golf, even at Tiger Wood's level. To give you some indication of the physical stresses endured,when an F1 driver brakes from 200mph to 30mph to take a hairpin turn (common) the stopping G's are so intense that the driver literally sees everything with a red haze over it, from the pressure on their blood vessels. It is insanely demanding.

Nobody mentions several variables here. First, yes, Tiger has to pay taxes... but before that, he pays his caddy. Caddies on the pga tour get paid as high as a 10% cut of what their boss makes. Is Steve Williams getting 10%? Knowing how cheap Tiger is, probably not, but even if it's 5%, that adds up over the years. Does he also get a cut of Fed Ex Cup winnings, or just the purses? Who knows. Also, Tiger has an agent, and a business manager. Agents most definitely get a percentage of an athlete's earnings. 10%? 20% who knows? I DO know that it sure as hell ain't zero. So now we're looking at possibly 30% of Tiger's winnings (and JUST his winnings, not any other source of income), pre tax, gone. On the flip side, he has makes about 30 mil a year from Nike. Most definitely, from day one, a big chunk (if not all) of that is pais not in cash, but in shares of stock. From 1996 on. Was Tiger so desperate for cash that he sold all those shares (and keep in mind, he doesn't pay tax until he exercises those stock options)? Well, if he did not sell... NKE stock was between 15 and 35 per share between 1996 and 2004. That a lot of years, folks. Today it's 65. So, stock given to him at, say, 20 per share, has tripled in value. Plus, we're talking millions in dividends. So, he has apparently earned $1 billion. If you add up his cash, his stock portfolio (with of course, shares of American Express and Accenture in their as well, along with some GM which is worthless), his real estate holdings (ever see pics of his mansion? Or his boat Privacy?), and other investments (he gives much to his charity, so let's get our heads out of the sand... he pays little in taxes with a shelter like the TW foundation)... add it up, and who knows???

A billion? That's like a thousand million!

Even a 8 year old knows what taxes are, so if he made a billion, of course he wouldn't HAVE a billion!

At least the golfers playing at the Professional level earn the money..if they do not play well not only do they not receive much money but they also do not get endorsments as everyone knows...not like the multitude of other Professional athletes like Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, soccer players etc.etc....they are paid regardless for a period of time a lot of money even if they do not perform well...the owners are on the hook...the Professioal Golfers earn the money by playing well and that is the way all Professionals should be paid...on yearly performances in the way of bonus'....

whether its a billion or a million...its more than i have and who cares. wehen it does or if it does, kudo's to Tiger! he's made a few golf counterparts or nemesis a few bucks along the way as well, not to mention TV.

Couple things: 1. Tiger is clearly saying that Forbes' estimates of his income are wrong. He made a similar point in NC last week regarding his reported $10M course-design fee. That's the (admittedly minor) story here, not the distinction between "earn" and "have," which incidentally is not a distinction Forbes makes in the passage quoted above. 2. Tiger still drives to tournaments in a Buick SUV with Stevie Williams although I'm sure he's got a few other cars in the garage. That's all. Thanks for commenting.

Earning $1B - which Tiger has....and having several billion dollars (a Billionaire) Tiger is not. Sloppy reporting - Fortune never said Tiger is as a Billionaire - but rather that he has earned $1B (take home less than $700M). Sloppy reporting here.

I had to look up "nascent" and "circumspect" in the dictionary to know what was being said. Sorry, my English ain't all that good.

He wasn't reported to be a billionaire - doesn't anyone actually read? It was reported by Forbes, that they estimated Woods had now EARNED more than one billion in total winnings, endorsements, appearance fees, etc. over the course of his CAREER.

Total net worth and total career earnings - two very different things.

if the earnings estimate is correct, he has paid about $500,000,000 in taxes.

Slightly sloppy reporting in the original linked artical by Ryan Reiterman. Extremely sloppy and confused reporting by Michael Walker Jr. Shame on the golf.com editors.

Read more: http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2009/10/tiger-im-not-a-billionaire.html##ixzz0TGcXmfX7

I'm pretty sure if he used coupon's here and there, maybe even take the bus or public transit he could get to $1b net quicker. I saw an article that says if you skip your morning latte's, you can save about $100 a month.

Listen to all of you. Bickering back and forth like little kids about some guys money. Who cares. None of you will ever match Tiger in any way. None of you know the truth about any of these "facts". You just hear it from some other source and say, "Well, I guess it must be the truth." Pathetic.

Using the following assumptions:
One Billion = 1,000,000,000
One hundred thousand = 100,000
One Year = 52 weeks
So if you spend one hundred thousand dollars each week, it will take 192.3 years to spend a total of one billion dollars.
1,000,000,000 / 100,000 / 52 = 192.3
Mark is correct.

I think it is fun math when someone basically calls the original poster dumb since they say the math was wrong. However, in this case the real genius is the guy who commented afterwards who obviously has no idea how to do simple math. $1 billion would take 192+ years to spend if you spent $100,000 a week.

hey rich, its hard to hide those big checks handed to you on national tv from the tax man!
also, i take issue with the poster who thinks F1 drivers do not need to be athletic or are not to be considered athletes.
two articles for you:http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/articles/15-06-05
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6980337.stm
sounds more strenuous than golf to me.

Tiger is more important than 99.9999% than any life a doctor could save. I hope he makes a trillion by life's end!

Does anyone REALLY care?...really?

Hey Jason,
Actually Mark is right, and you're wrong. It would take 192.3 years to spend $1,000,000,000.00 if you're spending $100,000.00 a week.
Spending 100K/wk equals 5.2 million a year. Which means 192.3 years to get to one billion dollars.
Let's simplify it further for you. One billion equals one thousand million. So consider you have one thousand dollars and were spending $5.20 a year, do you really think you'd use up a thousand dollars in 19 years?

This is lazy and uncritical reporting. Earning $1B and having $1B are two different things. Seems pretty obvious.

Hey Jason, it is 192.3 years, Einstein. Let's do the math > 1 bil divided by $100K is 10,000. 10K divided by 52 (weeks per year) is 192.3077 years. Wonderful product of the American educational system...

If he's "earned" a billion, then he's undoubtedly paid nearly half of that in state and federal taxes. So, of course he's not a billionaire . . . yet.

"hey genius...it's not 192 years...it would be 19 years. Apparently math fun with you doesn't mean you have to actually be correct to have fun with math.

Posted by: Jason | October 07, 2009 at 11:45 AM "

Dude, It is 192 years. $100 k a week, $5.2 M a year. $1 B = $1000 M
1000/5.2 = 192.3

Good job bud.

Tiger is smart to keep his cards close to his vest. Too many nuts out here.

Just more proof how screwed up capitalism is. Those who work the hardest and make the biggest difference are not necessarily those with the most capital. And to be filthy rich playing a game?!? Ridiculous!! Nothing against Tiger, I think he is an exceptional person.

for tax purposes, i bet he has actually "earned" way less than that

The real question should be how does the Tiger spend his money.

hey genius...it's not 192 years...it would be 19 years. Apparently math fun with you doesn't mean you have to actually be correct to have fun with math.

Since $10 Million is 1% of 1 Billion, the FedEx cup win amounts to virtually no change in his theoretical value and wouldn't likely be what pushes him over the edge. The quotation infers that he's sitting stagnant at around $990000000.

Check your info. Tiger was dropped by Buick so like your guess that he is a billionaire he isn't smiling behind a Buick SUV.

To say that Tiger making that kind of money is "plain stupid" is actually kind of ignorant. The number of jobs that he himself has created is mind boggling. At Nike, AT&T, Target, the Tiger Woods Learning Centers, the PGA, the USGA, the R&A, American Express, and many many more. Tiger brings an extra half of golf's actual audience to table plus a ton of extra endorsements that would never be possible without him. The man is his own economy. How many jobs has that single doctor created???

If a doctor made a corporation a billion dollars a year then yes a doctor would make Tiger money too, but they don't.

GO TIGER!!!!!

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