Tiger Woods had set himself on a path to achieve greatness from a very young age. The Big Cat had already established himself as a star even when he was just an amateur golfer. Notably, Butch Harmon noticed that when he first met Woods when the latters was just 17-years-old in August 1993.

Speaking to SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, Harmon said, “This kid at a young age had the heart and soul to figure out ‘I’m going to win. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to do it.’ And you can’t team that.”

Despite being Woods’ coach for nearly a decade, Harmon admitted that it wasn’t him who taught the 82-time champion to develop the attitude. He was naturally competitive and wanted to win at any cost.

In fact, Woods had come off an incredible record even before he started working with Harmon. As the veteran coach stated, “He was fearless. We all know this, but he won six national titles in a row. Three juniors, three amateurs. Bobby Jones didn’t do that. Jack didn’t do that. But what you don’t know, in every one of those six finals, the match went to the last hole or beyond, and he won every single one.”

From 1991 to 1993, Woods won the U.S. Junior Amateur. He also captured the U.S. Amateur title for three consecutive years from 1994 to 1996. As Harmon said, neither Bobby Jones nor Jack Nicklaus had achieved that feat. Jones had a streak of two consecutive wins in 1924 & 1925, and also in 1927 & 1928. Meanwhile, Nicklaus had a streak of winning the Ohio State Junior Championship five consecutive times.

Interestingly, Tiger Woods’ last U.S. Amateur win also helped him strike a huge deal. That made him one of the most influential sportspersons in the world.

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Tiger Woods’ incredible consistency attracted one of the biggest deals in sports history

After winning for six consecutive years in a row, Tiger Woods was more than ready to graduate from amateur golf. And the biggest brands in the world were eagerly waiting for him to join the big leagues.

As he was transitioning into professional golf, Woods & his team were contacted by Nike for an exclusive $40 million deal. This was one of the biggest deals in the history of sports.

This eventually turned into a $500 million partnership that lasted around 30 years. However, it would not have happened as Nike was trying to cut corners by suggesting excluding Woods’ IMG agent, Hughes Norton, from the deal.

However, Earl Woods refused the terms, stating, “Go back and tell Phil Knight that you have to trust somebody in this world, and Hughes is the guy we trust.” Former CEO of Nike, Phil Knight, eventually agreed to the deal as they were desperate to sign Woods. They also paid Norton the 20% commission that he earned for managing the deal.

Had this been any other athlete, Nike might have backed out of the deal to save the 20% or $100 million. But because they were signing Tiger Woods, they knew they had a gold mine in their hands.