Tiger Woods is first athlete to hit $1 Billion

Wow, I had no idea his money was at this point, but it is.

Forbes: Tiger Woods is first athlete to reach $1 billion

http://blogs.golf.com/presstent/2009...1-billion.html

It's good to be Tiger Woods. Forbes.com is reporting that Woods is the first athlete to reach $1 billion in earnings, beating out Michael Jordan and Michael Schumacher. Woods earned more than $10.5 million in giant cardboard checks this year on the PGA Tour and added another $10 million last weekend by winning the FedEx Cup. According to Forbes, that little bonus was enough to push Woods over the $1 billion mark. Forbes has been tracking athlete earnings since before Tiger turned pro. Woods had earned a cumulative $895 million going into 2009, by our estimates, from prize money, appearance fees, endorsements, bonuses and his golf course design business. If you add his $10.5 million in 2009 prize money, the FedEx bonus and his take so far this year from his more than $100 million in annual off-the-course earnings, Woods' career earnings are now 10 figures. The article points out that only Woods's accountant truly knows if he's a billionaire, but one thing is certain: Tiger's money-making potential won't slow down anytime soon. The most stunning part is that Woods is only 33 years old--he might have 15 years of competitive golf left in him, and 30-plus years of designing courses. This is only the first billion for Woods. Woods has been the highest-paid American athlete for years, and the competition isn't even close. In this year's Fortunate 50, SI's annual ranking, Woods's estimated total earnings were nearly $100 million, far exceeding Phil Mickelson in second ($53 million) and LeBron James in third ($42.4 million). Amazingly, Woods made even more the year before, according to SI -- $128 million.

/discuss

I think it's great that one person can earn so much money through endorsments, tournaments, sponsorsorships etc. Tiger obviously dominates his profession to the extent of his earnings. Good job!

We live in a fucked up world.

How so? Being a billionarie athlete is the greatest thing anyone could ever wish for.

I've always thought the paychecks of athletes and celebrities are disproportionate to the rest of reality. Obviously the guy is talented... but he's made so much money by being great at playing golf. Fucking golf. It's a luxury to begin with.

A kid in Malawi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm) built windmills out of garbage to power his village. Now he's trying to spread it to the rest of his country. I'm damn sure he won't be earning $1,000,000,000 anytime soon, but I would rate his contributions to society as far higher than Tiger Woods's.

I've always thought the paychecks of athletes and celebrities are disproportionate to the rest of reality. Obviously the guy is talented... but he's made so much money by being great at playing golf. Fucking golf. It's a luxury to begin with. A kid in Malawi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm) built windmills out of garbage to power his village. Now he's trying to spread it to the rest of his country. I'm damn sure he won't be earning $1,000,000,000 anytime soon, but I would rate his contributions to society as far higher than Tiger Woods's.

/agree.

A kid in Malawi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm) built windmills out of garbage to power his village. Now he's trying to spread it to the rest of his country. I'm damn sure he won't be earning $1,000,000,000 anytime soon, but I would rate his contributions to society as far higher than Tiger Woods's.

Hey, that's the kid from TED! I actually watched the video about him on youtube the other day. But I do agree. It is disproportionate to the rest of reality, but so has his play against the rest of the PGA league itself. He came in around what, '97 and has dominated since? Golf already has a huge money base behind it obviously and dominating a sport almost singlehandedly deserves some credit. Most of his money has come from sponsorships too, why not blame the sponsors? I don't see how Tiger Woods is the bad guy by being excellent at golf and getting paid out the ass to do so.

Not only that, Tiger is a philanthropist he donates tons of time and money towards causes that he doesn't even have to give one shit about. What have other athletes donated?

I agree wholeheartedly with Grav and I'm a sports fanatic. It saddens me how much money athletes, actors, singers, etc earn because of their entertainment value. That's all it is. They are entertaining the masses for a short period of time and they get paid millions, or even billions in Tiger Wood's case.

IMO, researchers and scientists should make athlete's wages. Or this kid who built windmills out of trash. Individuals furthering the advancement of society and our species as a whole are grossly underrated.

It's just the standard for today's society. If you have the ability to reach the masses, you will get paid.

IMO, researchers and scientists should make athlete's wages. Or this kid who built windmills out of trash. Individuals furthering the advancement of society and our species as a whole are grossly underrated.

I completely agree, but that's now how things work. Who do you suggest pay them the athletes wages to the researchers in a hypothetical situation?

Instead of paying the researchers and scientists the wages, why not pay the people who make the actual discoveries? You could research something specfically your entire life and come up with nothing. I'm sure there are thousands that have been through this dilemma, or only ones that have come up with short answers or discoveries. Then what? You've paid millions upon millions of dollars to people that haven't done anything with it? Then there is a new problem.

Perhaps not the exact amount of athlete's wages.

My point was people that are immensely valuable to our species are incredibly underrated. You know what I meant, hoser.

I'd like to clarify, I don't have a problem with Tiger Woods or any other overpaid entertainer. They're not the ones to blame. I just think it's stupid in general.