Triumph, injury, scandal, failure and triumph once more have stuffed the intervening years. But via it all, the 46-12 months-vintage Woods has maintained his supremacy as one of the pinnacle-incomes athletes withinside the world, raking in over $1.7 billion in salary, endorsements and different earnings over the direction of his 27-12 months profession—greater than everybody else Forbes has tracked Forbes now estimates his internet really well worth to be at least $1 billion, primarily based totally on his lifetime income, making him one in all simply 3 recognized athlete billionaires. The others are NBA celeb LeBron James, who has leveraged his repute and fortune through taking fairness stakes in some of businesses, and Michael Jordan, who hit ten digits after he retired, way to a well-timed funding withinside the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. Woods has reached that rarified air regardless of reportedly turning down a “mind-blowingly considerable” provide from the brand new Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf tour, a deal that LIV CEO Greg Norman instructed the Washington Post could’ve been withinside the “excessive 9 digits.” Yet to this point, much less than 10% of Woods’ profession income, and internet really well worth, comes from golfing winnings. The bulk of his fortune comes from considerable endorsement offers with greater than a dozen brands, inclusive of Gatorade, Monster Energy, TaylorMade, Rolex and Nike, with whom he signed in 1996 and which stays his largest backer. “He hit the proper time withinside the proper sport, being an athlete with a numerous history who become approachable,” veteran sports activities commercial enterprise representative and Columbia lecturer Joe Favorito says. “Brands love understanding they’re getting a person who's embraced now no longer simply through the conventional however additionally through the informal fans.” Woods has used his popularity and income to extend into an array of different ventures, which now consist of a golfing layout commercial enterprise (TGR Design), a stay occasions manufacturing company (TGR Live) and a restaurant (The Woods). Through TGR Ventures, Woods has taken stakes in Full Swing, a golfing era schooling tool; Heard, a hospitality software program startup; and PopStroke, a luxurious mini-golfing revel in with 4 places in Florida and plans to open a half-dozen greater places throughout the united states in 2022. Woods is likewise diagnosed as a associate in a SPAC introduced in January, and he's an investor along British billionaire Joe Lewis’ Tavistock Group, golfing rival Ernie Els and Justin Timberlake in NEXUS Luxury Collection, a set of golf equipment and resorts. “[He’s] been extraordinarily skillful in taking elements of businesses, in growing their very own commercial enterprise, in methods that athletes earlier than them simply weren’t,” says mythical sports activities agent Leigh Steinberg, seemingly the foundation for Tom Cruise’s person in Jerry Maguire. Steinberg could know. He nonetheless recollects negotiating the then-largest rookie agreement in soccer records in 1975—a deal that paid Atlanta Falcons quarterback Steve Bartkowski $600,000 over 4 years. Even adjusted for inflation, that’s simplest about $800,000 annually—much less than what dozens of NFL newbies made ultimate 12 months. What’s changed? First and foremost, the cost of stay sports activities on television. In a streaming world, nearly no different programming can nonetheless reliably generate a mass audience. In 2011, fifty one of the 12 months’s pinnacle one hundred telecasts have been wearing occasions. Last 12 months, that range become ninety five out of one hundred. The greenback length of TV contracts has soared, taking participant salaries— or withinside the case of golfing, match prize money—with them. Jack Nicklaus earned $5.7 million (much less than $forty million in today’s dollars) over his 4-decade gambling profession, which started out professionally in 1961. That’s much less than a 3rd of Woods’ 27-12 months inflation-adjusted haul. Woods’ effect on golfing’s TV ratings, and handbag sizes, can't be overstated. In the early 2000s, in step with former CBS president Neal Pilson, TV audiences could drop 30% to 50% whilst Woods become now no longer in competition at a match. This so-called “Tiger Effect” contributed to PGA Tour winnings almost tripling among 1996 and 2008, a stretch wherein Woods received 14 important championships. (He remains a main draw, however much less so those days.) Tiger has been the instigator,” six-time important champion Phil Mickelson stated in a 2014 interview. “He’s been the only that’s absolutely propelled and pushed the bus due to the fact he’s introduced multiplied ratings, multiplied sponsors, multiplied interest, and we've got all benefited.” At his peak, Woods become the maximum prolific athlete endorser in records, incomes north of $one hundred million consistent with 12 months off the direction. He held the No. 1 spot in Forbes’ highest-paid athletes listing for ten consecutive years, finishing in 2012. Not even his dramatic fall from grace after his 2009 Thanksgiving automobile crash derailed his income power. Over the ultimate 12 months, regardless of not often teeing up the ball whilst recuperating from a severe automobile accident, Woods collected $sixty eight million in off-direction earnings, sufficient to make him the 14th-highest-paid athlete withinside the world. Seeing Woods combat via apparent ache has kindled a brand new form of Tiger mania as fans, and sponsors, aid him anew withinside the position of resilient survivor as opposed to invincible conqueror. Woods’ wealth is secured whether or not or now no longer he ever swings a golfing membership once more. Yet he has already introduced his dedication to play on this summer’s Open Championship at St Andrews, and hasn’t dominated out his participation on this month’s U.S. Open Championship, regardless of retreating from the very last spherical of ultimate month’s PGA Championship due to discomfort in his surgically repaired legs and back. “Initially he become a clean-reduce position model; he become a person that epitomized the American dream,” says Steinberg. “In a few methods, the struggles have simplest introduced to his profile.”