MIAMI: Golf superstar Tiger Woods, who was reported to have been seriously hurt Friday in a car accident in Florida, is arguably the biggest sporting personality in the world – with a bank balance to match.

The 33-year-old world number one, who reportedly drove into a tree after leaving his property in the Isleworth community in Windermere, a suburb of Orlando, earned an estimated US$118 million last year in prizemoney and endorsements.

According to Forbes business magazine, Woods is the first athlete to have broken through the billion dollars earnings mark.

Fourteen majors have made Woods a sporting icon and his earning power and accompanying fame have snowballed since.

Aged just 25, he became the first man to win the US Open, the British Open, the USPGA and the Masters on a roll to make him the first simultaneous holder of all four major championship titles at the same time.

The media promptly dubbed the achievement the “Tiger Slam,” as opposed to a Grand Slam given that the wins straddled 2000 and part of 2001.

In 2002, he emulated Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus in winning back-to-back Masters Tournaments.

Born in Cypress, California on December 30, 1975, Tiger Woods is the son of Earl Woods, a lieutenant-colonel in the US Army, and Thai-born Kultida. His parents christened him Eldrick, but his father nicknamed him Tiger in honour of a Vietnamese soldier who had been a good friend.

With both his parents being of mixed racial origin Tiger is himself one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai, one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American and one-eighth Dutch and describes himself as Cablinasian – a compound abbreviation he produced from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian, and Asian.

After a record three US amateur crowns Woods broke through at the 1997 Masters at Augusta, winning by 12 strokes at just 21 to become the youngest ever champion and the first African American champion.

Even before then he had shown enough in winning several other events just weeks after turning professional that he was feted as Sports Illustrated’s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and also PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, his red shirt – for aggressiveness and assertiveness – becoming symbolic.

Earlier this month, Woods landed the Australian Masters but had returned home for a fortnight’s break prior to playing in the Chevron World Challenge on Monday at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California.

This year he landed eight titles after eight months out of action recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left knee, but failed to win a major.

Woods is married to former Swedish model Elin Nordegren and the couple have two children, Sam Alexis, born in 2007, and Charlie Axel, born earlier this year.

Florida hospital sources described Woods as having had “a minor car accident” and added late Friday he had been released in “good condition.” — AFP