Yesterday, Tiger Woods finished the Deutsche Bank Championship in 3rd position, which in itself is not an altogether noteworthy achievement for someone of his caliber. What is however, is the $544 000 he earned from his podium finish which put him in an very exclusive bracket – he is the first golfer ever to earn more than $100 million throughout his career.

Although his performances of late have been mercurial at best, Tiger still managed to rake in $5 533 158 this year alone, thanks to the collective earnings from the 17 events he competed in. So just how much is he worth? According to Yahoo! Sports, his career earnings stand at a rather impressive $113 350 837, next in line is rival Phil Mickleson with a still respectable sum of $71 350 712. Those are just winnings by the way, and don’t include endorsements or other types of sponsorsihp, Woods’s net worth is estimated to be around $600 million.

Since turning pro in 1996, Woods has 74 PGA tour wins, second only to Sam Snead who holds the record with 82 tour wins. Snead amassed a humble $620 126 over his career which began in 1937. The increase in purses over the years has no doubt helped Woods rake in his considerable winnings.

Well, I just think the purse increase helps,” Woods said after his final round 66. “I’ve won fewer tournaments than Sam Snead has. Obviously he was in a different era. It’s just that we happened to time it up right and happened to play well when the purses really had a nice spike up. It was nice to have a nice start to my career, and I won some majors early.  I think we got some interest in the game of golf – a lot more youth, that’s for sure.”

Woods could add an additional $10 million to his earnings pot in about three weeks time at the FedEx Cup, a bonus for winning the PGA Tour playoffs.

[Source: Yahoo! Sports, iAfrica]