Golf Central

On this day in 1975, in Cypress (Orange County, California), Eldrick "Tiger" Woods was born  to Earl and Kultida Woods. The world of golf - and sport overall for that matter - have never been the same since.

How time flies! ... And while we're not in the habit of stepping out on limbs here around In Golf We Trust, we'll say this with with dead-solid certainty: Treasure him while you can folks, because Eldrick "Tiger" Woods is the best golfer most of us will ever see in our lifetimes and he's square in the middle of his prime. Happy 32nd, Tiger ...

Is it really that long since little Tiger, aged 2, was shown swinging a mini golf club on the Mike Douglas Show on October 6, 1978 alongside his father, the host, and entertainer Bob Hope? Yep. Is it really that long since Tiger became the youngest player (at the time) to make his debut in a PGA Tour event, when he teed it up at Riviera in the Nissan LA Open in '92 at age 16? Yep again ...

It was during that tournament that Masters champ Sandy Lyle was asked if he had ever heard of "Tiger Woods" and Lyle replied: "Is that a golf course?". And Tiger, asked about what he had learned in the event, said "I learned I'm not that good." (Both still among our favourite Tiger anecdotes).

And is it really that long since Tiger caught the veteran Davis Love III from behind to win the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational for his first pro win? Yes, again. My, how time flies.

There's not much more we can say beyond wishing the Big Man In Red a happy birthday and look forward to another year of his singular brilliance. After all, we write about Tiger a few times every week, at least, as we should as golf journalists. But even the briefest of statistical recaps on Tiger's career to date is still enough to make your head spin ...

Tiger is:

• Only 32 years old.
• Winner of 13 professional major titles, No. 2 of all time. Only Jack Nicklaus, with 18, has more. Nicklaus' record is likely to fall in 3-5 years' time.
• Winner of 61 PGA Tour events. Only Sam Snead (82), Nicklaus (73), Ben Hogan (64) and Arnold Palmer (62) have won more. Barring an injury or catastrophe, Tiger will be solo No. 3 by the end of 2008.
• The leading winner in both career majors and career PGA Tour titles among active golfers. The nearest active player to Woods in PGA Tour victories is Phil Mickelson, a Hall of Fame-worthy player himself who is nearly lapped in a distant second with 32 wins.
• A genuinely nice guy who has hurdled life's prejudices and tough obstacles to have earned every single iota of his enormous popularity and wealth.

We can't think of too many things that are more interesting, as golf lovers, than celebrating Tiger Woods' birthday (mind you, unless you're one of his competitors), but a quick scan through the history books does point out a couple interesting things ...

It was on this day in 1986, that birds were made redundant in the UK. That's right, on Dec. 26, 1986, it was announced that more than 200 canaries, who could detect the presence of deadly methane gas in mine shafts, were to be phased out of their duties in Britain's coal pits. The birds were replaced by hand-held gas detectors. Despite the inconvenient hassle of having to go sign on at their local JobCentres and not really having many other relevant employable skills, our guess is the canaries were pretty happy about getting out of a job that meant being good was being dead ...

And on this day in 1995, the lowest ever temperature in the United Kingdom was recorded, when the thermometer plunged to an ungodly -27.2°C at Altnaharra in the Highlands of Scotland (that's -19.96°F). So spare a thought today for the trusty and shivering crew working away in the IGWT far-flung field office in Inverness ...

That said, we were curious as to who else shares a birthday with Mr Woods, so it's suk san wan keut!, as they say in Kultida Woods' native Thailand, to two (believe it or not!) members of the '60s Anglo-American television rock quartet the Monkees, who actually were pretty darn decent, and had No. 1 singles with Last Train to Clarksville and I'm A Believer in 1966. The Monkees' Texas-born guitarist Mike Nesmith is 65 today, and Mancunian singer Davy Jones is 62. ... If they all celebrated their birthdays together, two Monkees and one Tiger would make the start of a decent little zoo ...

And not to say that Tiger Woods missed his professional calling or anything, but Monkees aside, Dec. 30 is a pretty good day to be born if you want to be a musician. So happy Tigerific b-day greetings to Leon Jackson (19), the Scottish singer who just won the UK X-Factor and scored this year's Christmas No. 1; to US "godmother of punk" Patti Smith (61); songwriter Jeff Lynne (60) of late Beatles wannabe band ELO; and singer Jay Kay (38) of one-hit wonders Jamiroquai.

It's also happy birthday to Heidi Fleiss (42), the infamous US "madame to the stars"; and to NBA superstar LeBron James (23), who is probably America's second-most popular athlete. But don't feel bad King James, because lots of people are used to finishing second to Tiger Woods.

It also would have been a birthday for the fabled Minorcan ruler Abû 'Uthmân Sa'îd Hakam al Qurashi (b. 1204, d. 1282), who allegedly wanted to be called "Tiger" but is still in the All-Cool Names Wing of the Great Beyond anyway.