Claim: Tiger Woods was the number one golfer in 1997 according to the Official World Golf Ranking.

Eldrick Tont `` Tiger '' Woods -LRB- born December 30 , 1975 -RRB- is an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time . He has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years .   Following an outstanding junior , college , and amateur career , Woods turned professional at the age of 20 , at the end of the summer in 1996 . By April 1997 he had already won his first major , the 1997 Masters . Woods won this tournament in a record-breaking performance , winning by 12 strokes while pocketing $ 486,000 . He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997 , after less than a year as a professional . Throughout the 2000s , Woods was the dominant force in golf ; from August 1999 to September 2004 -LRB- 264 weeks -RRB- and from June 2005 to October 2010 -LRB- 281 weeks -RRB- , Woods was the top-ranked men 's golfer in the world .   From December 2009 to early April 2010 , Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his personal life after he admitted infidelity . Despite attempts at reconciliation , he and his wife Elin Nordegren eventually divorced . His many alleged extramarital indiscretions were revealed by several women , through many worldwide media sources . This was followed by a loss of golf form , and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011 . He ended a career-high winless streak of 107 weeks when he triumphed in the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011 . After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25 , 2013 , he ascended to the No. 1 ranking once again , holding the top spot until May 2014 . Woods had back surgery in April 2014 and September 2015 and has struggled since to regain his dominant form . By March 29 , 2015 , Woods had fallen to # 104 , outside of the top 100 for the first time since 1996 . In May 2016 , Woods dropped out of the world top 500 for the first time in his professional career .   Woods has broken numerous golf records . He has been World Number One for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any golfer . He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record eleven times , the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times , and has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons .  He has won 14 professional major golf championships , the second-highest of any player -LRB- Jack Nicklaus leads with 18 -RRB- , and 79 PGA Tour events , second all time behind Sam Snead , who had 82 wins . He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer . He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam , and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour . Additionally , Woods is only the second golfer -LRB- after Nicklaus -RRB- to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times . Woods has won 18 World Golf Championships , and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999 . Woods and Rory McIlroy are the only golfers to win both The Silver Medal and The Gold Medal at The Open Championship .