A TV sportscaster discovered the kid and his news report soon led to the appearances on major television shows.
WHEN HE WAS 8 YEARS OLD, he won his first Optimist International Junior championship in the 10-and-under division. Seven years later, he had owned six of those titles - two more than any other golfer in history.
"The first time I saw (him) hit a golf ball, I saw a kid who'd popped out of the womb as a Magic Johnson or a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," said his first teaching pro, Rudy Duran. "He had talent oozing out of his fingertips, and you just couldn't wait until he grew up to see how good he could be."
He attended Western High School and then went on to Stanford where the lanky, 6-2 kid grew into a young man.
In 1991, when he was 15, he won the U.S. Junior Amateur -- the youngest ever to do so -- and then repeated in 1992 and 1993, something again no one has ever done.
He won the U.S. Amateur at age 18 in 1994 and -- like the Junior Amateur -- he matched it again with wins in 1995 and 1996. At 18, he added being the youngest-ever winner of that tournament as well. He's also been a Collegiate Player of the Year as well as Golf World's Man of the Year.
Finally, after all the amateur tournament victories in such a short span of time, he was ready to face the grueling life on the Pro Tour.
Some grind. In 1996, he won the Las Vegas Invitational and the Walt Disney World Oldsmobile Classic. And this year, he's already added the Mercedes Championship, the Byron Nelson Classic, the Western Open and, of course, the Masters.
SOME HAVE SAID that he is the third black to ever play on the pro Tour (Lee Elder and Calvin Peete being the other two) but that's not entirely true. He doesn't consider himself black since his family has all those mixes of cultures. When asked what he thought he was then, he replied: "Cablinasian," a word he concocted to signify all of them.
He says he believes in most aspects of Buddhism but his Zen can easily be seen on the tee, where he smacks the ball like some hulking monster.
And it all started in a garage 21 years ago when the son of a military man who pursued excellence like some people chase down a fly in the house started hitting golf balls into a net.
That guy's name is Earl. And remember that buddy he had in Vietnam? Well, Earl used to call his friend "Tiger." So it was only fitting that he called his son, Tiger, too. Tiger as in Tiger Woods.