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That’s right! According to Forbes, by 2010, golf mega-star Tiger Woods will become the first athlete to reach billionaire status by playing sports.

It will be an unprecedented occurrence. There are plenty of billionaires who have excelled at sports, like Switzerland’s richest man and champion sailor Ernesto Bertarelli. But there are no billionaires who accumulated their fortune by playing sports.

A billionaire Tiger would also be unique for earning his money through paychecks. If a billionaire didn’t inherit his or her money, he or she typically made it by holding a stake in a company with a soaring valuation: Think Bill Gates. He didn’t make his billions from his Microsoft salary, but from all the stock he owned.


Woods is poised to become a very unique billionaire because of his tremendous earning power. This is based, first and foremost, on Woods’ remarkable golfing ability. His recent U.S. Open victory was his 14th major championship. He’s only 32, and is quickly approaching Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major career wins.

His list of accomplishments keeps going. Woods, a golf prodigy as a child, is the youngest golfer to achieve a career Grand Slam. He won 50 tournaments on the PGA Tour faster than any player. He’s been the PGA Player of the Year nine times, another record.

And get this…..

Prize money only accounts for about one-tenth of Woods’ earnings. The remainder comes from lucrative endorsement deals. This is another crucial cog in the money-making machine that is Tiger Woods–he’s not just an excellent player; he’s an exceptionally popular and marketable one.

Tiger has endorsement and sponsorship deals with major companies like Nike, Buick, and Gillette. He’s set to stack an estimated $90 million from such deals this year. Once again…TIGER WINS!!!!!