Tiger Woods officially inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame

Though he had all but guaranteed his spot long ago, Tiger Woods finally took his spot among the sport's best golfers on Wednesday night.

Woods, after being introduced by his 14-year-old daughter Sam, was officially inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

 “I got to this position because of my upbringing, having two unbelievable parents, but I didn’t get here alone,” Woods said in his emotional speech at the PGA Tour's headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. “I know that golf is an individual sport. We do things on our own a lot for hours on end.

"But in my case, I didn’t get here alone. I had unbelievable parents, mentors, friends who allowed me and supported me in the toughest of times, darkest of times and celebrated in the highest of times … This is an individual award, but it’s actually a team award. All of you allowed me to get here.”

Woods was one of four people inducted into the Hall of Fame on Wednesday night. Susie Maxwell Berning, who won 11 times on the LPGA Tour and won the U.S. Women’s Open three times in her career, was inducted along with former tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who led the league from 1994-2016. Marion Hollins, who died in 1944, was posthumously inducted.

'Tiger made it actually a cool sport to play 'Woods’ induction into the Hall of Fame had long been decided — and it’s easy to see why. Not only does the 46-year-old have 15 major championships and a record-tying 82 tour wins under his belt, dating back to his first win in 1996, but he completely changed the sport.

Until he came along, golf just wasn’t cool.

“For me growing up as a kid, even when I was in high school, golf was still kind of not really considered a cool sport to play or wasn’t really — maybe not that many people played it,” Dustin Johnson said earlier on Wednesday at TPC Sawgrass, where The Players Championship will kick off on Thursday. “Especially in high school, you kind of were a dork if you played golf.

“But Tiger made it actually a cool sport to play. For me, it was huge. Obviously at that time it was when he was in his prime, so watching him, everybody wanted to be like Tiger for sure.”

It’s not just the wins that set Woods apart, but it was how he did it. He claimed the U.S. Open by 15 strokes in 2000, which marked his fifth major championship at the time and his third that season alone. He then won the same event eight years later on a broken leg. His first major win came at the Masters in 1997, which he won by 12 shots when he was just 21 years old. Woods slipped on his fifth green jacket in 2019 after multiple back surgeries.

He’s also the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam, which he did in 2000 at 24, and is the only player to win four straight majors for the “Tiger Slam.”

Woods told several stories about his upbringing with his parents in the sport, from the difficult practice sessions he had with his father, to winning quarters on the putting greens as a child competing with adults, to his parents taking out a second mortgage on their home so he could compete.