16 Richest Athletes In Sports
5. Tiger Woods – $550 million
The accolades he has earned are too numerous to list in their entirety.
Here are some highlights: 14 professional major tournaments, 71 PGA Tour events, he has been ranked #1 for more consecutive weeks than any other player, he has the lowest scoring average of all time.
He has been crowned PGA Player of the year 9 times, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the year twice, AP Male Athlete of the year 4 times and on and on…
Not only is Tiger a champion on the golf course, he is also a champion in the wallet. In fact Tiger Woods is also on a fast track to be the first billionaire athlete ever. So how did he earn all those millions?
Tiger’s first big source of revenue, not surprisingly, is from winning tournaments. Since turning pro in 1996 Tiger has earned $92.8 million from 239 career PGA starts. But as with most of the great athletes like Michael Jordan and Lebron James, the real bulk of Woods’ fortune comes off the green through endorsements.
In his first professional year, at the tender age of 21, Tiger signed deals with Nike and Titleist worth $40 and $20 million respectively. Woods’ corporate relationships have grown at an exponential rate.
He has expanded his Rolodex of sponsors to include Gatorade, American Express, Asahi, General Mills (Wheaties), Golf Digest, Rolex, Gillette, Accenture, Tag Heuer, AT&T, EA Sports, NetJets, Upper Deck, TLC Laser Eye Centers and Buick. All these deals earn Tiger well over $100 million a year aside from his tournament earnings.
