Tiger Woods Signed Type I Original Photograph | PSA/DNA Authentic | Circa 1992

As described by consigner:

Earl Woods sent this photo of Tiger Woods to Jesse Randolph (Author, A Letter to the Youth of America),

Purchased by our consigner from Jesse Randolph's daughter

It is befitting of the legend that Tiger Woods became that by 1992, the year of this Type I photograph signed by this extraordinary athlete, he was already a seasoned veteran of the game that he would come to dominate. Early in that year, Tiger made his PGA Tour debut at the 1992 Nissan L.A. Open at the Riviera Country Club in the midst of a historic run at both the junior and standard amateur level.

Tiger’s aptitude for the game was clear from an incredibly young age. According to his father and longtime coach, Earl, Tiger first picked up a club at the age of 11 months after watching his father workout in the family’s garage on an indoor driving net, taking a putter that was given to him as a toy at six months of age and lining up a putt at the net his father was hitting at. Tiger putted the ball and it struck the net in the center. Though Earl and his mother Kultida could not possibly have known it, those garage sessions would help produce perhaps the greatest golfer the world has ever known.

Tiger began appearing on television for golf long before he donned his famous red Sunday polo. CBS News conducted a profile on toddlers playing golf that included Tiger before he turned three years old. Daytime TV host Mike Douglas saw the story and decided to invite the young Tiger on for a segment alongside Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart, and while those legends of American entertainment looked on, Tiger hit a shot with a driver with what Golf writer Michael Bamberger described as a “natural rhythm” before engaging in a putting contest with Hope.

Tiger’s parents did not have to wait too long to see that their son was a special talent. Woods’ golfing accomplishments quickly illustrated that Tiger was a golfing prodigy and took on an air of the mythical. By age three, Woods shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy’s Los Alamitos golf course. At age five, an appearance in Golf Digest as well as on ABC’s That’s Incredible! Before he celebrated his seventh birthday, he won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition held on the same Navy golf course he played on at three years old. By age eight, he won the 9-10 boys’ event at the Junior World Golf Championships, broke 80 for the first time on a regulation course, and even knocked in his first hole in one. The following year he repeated as Junior World Golf Champion in the 9-10 boys’ event. That was only the beginning.

Tiger defeated his father, who was trying his best, for the first time at age 11. Earl would never beat Tiger again. By 12, he shot under 70 on a regulation course for the first time and began one of the most dominant runs in amateur history. 

From 1988 to 1991, the young marvel won four straight Junior World Golf Championships in his respective age category, while coming in second place at the 1990 Junior PGA Championship. In 1991, he became the youngest player to ever win the U.S. Junior Amateur, touching off a historic run that saw him become the first player to win three straight. Only one other player, Jordan Spieth, has matched that feat. 

1992 saw Tiger profiled on CBS’ Sunday Morning. The profile began with a startling statement: Not a single player at that year’s Masters Tournament was Black. The ascendance of their profile’s young subject stood in stark contrast to a long history of discrimination in golf in the United States and around the world (the first Black competitor at The Masters only competed in 1975, and the first Black member had not been admitted to the host Augusta Club until 1990). His groundbreaking brilliance would help to continue the forging of the path toward equality in golf and would form yet another dimension of his impressive sporting legacy. That same year, Tiger made his first PGA tour appearance and posed for this photograph. Offered is a testament to a lifetime of work already done and a historic legend on the horizon signed by the legend himself. Captured here is a budding superstar in a moment where he is both displaying and further honing the skill that would make him a household name around the world. An elite athlete in the heart of his potential and set to unleash a prime that would change his sport known to the world by a single name: Tiger. 

Tiger would go on to fulfill every ounce of his potential. After his history U.S. Junior Amateur three-peat, Tiger proceeded to put together the only three-peat to date at the U.S. Amateur and was offered a golf scholarship to Stanford. Attending between 1994-1996, Tiger made his debut at The Masters in 1995 and won the 1996 NCAA Division 1 Championship before finally turning pro in August 1996. His would become one of the greatest professional careers golf has ever seen. 

Tiger has won 82 PGA Tour events and 15 majors over his career. His first was fittingly the event that just five years before CBS had confirmed had no Black competitors. Tiger won the 1997 Masters in dominant fashion, winning by a record 12 strokes. He became the tournament’s youngest winner at age 21 years and 104 days, and made history as the first non-white winner of The Masters. He saw Larry Elder, the first Black player to ever compete at the Masters, as he went to fetch his green jacket and embraced the trailblazer before honoring him and other pioneers like Charlie Sifford and Teddy Rhodes, saying “those are the ones who paved the way for me to be here. And I thank them, because if it wasn’t for them, I might not have had the chance to play at all.” Tiger had delivered the next step in golfing history.

Tiger has gone on to win four more Masters, including the 2001 tournament, which gave him all four major championships at once. He has been named PGA Player of the Year a record 11 times, won the Byron Nelson Award a record eight times, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2021. His last major win was the 2019 Masters, a full 11 years after his last major win, and is yet to officially retire, meaning we may still have more greatness to witness on the golf course. One thing is for sure: Tiger will go down in history as one of the greatest golfers to ever live. 

This Type I Original photograph, defined by PSA as “A 1st generation photograph, developed from the original negative, during the period (within approximately two years of when the picture was taken),” is signed by Tiger Woods and is an important piece of golf history. The photograph is stamped on the reverse with a date of August 1992 and comes with a letter of authenticity regarding its status as a Type I. The photograph is encased by PSA and certified by PSA/DNA as to the authenticity of the autograph. The PSA certificate number for this photograph is 85480421.