Earl Woods

Earl Dennison Woods (March 5, 1932 – May 3, 2006) was the father of American professional golfer Tiger Woods. Woods started his son in golf at a very early age and coached him exclusively over his first years in the sport. He later published two books about the process. He was previously a U.S. Army infantry officer who served two tours of duty in South Vietnam and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was also a college baseball player. His granddaughter, Cheyenne Woods, is also a professional golfer. Early life Woods was born in Manhattan, Kansas. His father, Miles Woods, had five children by his first wife, Viola, and six more (of whom Earl was the youngest) by his second, Maude Carter. Miles Woods was an epileptic who worked as a street cleaner and caretaker. Although his father was a devout Baptist, he also had a reputation for being able to swear for 30 minutes without interruption. Woods once remarked, "I picked up on that." His father was African-American and his mother, Maude (Carter) Woods, was of mixed African and European ancestry and was lighter-skinned. The skin tone of Woods's siblings ranged from fairly dark to very light; he remembered that his grandmother Carter, who was of mixed race, was "the prettiest blonde you ever saw." There was a family joke about an alleged Chinese ancestor who "didn't stay on his railroad job," but there is no record of any Chinese ancestry. Maude Woods, who was college educated, was determined that her children should make the best of themselves. When her husband died in 1943, however, she had to go to work as a maid. Woods recalled that it "broke her heart." Maude Woods died when Earl was 15, and he was raised from then on by his older sister, Hattie Bell Woods. He graduated from Manhattan High School in 1949.