Despite his absence from full time golf, Tiger Woods is still on top of Sportico’s highest paid athletes
Tiger Woods is one of the most influential athletes across all sports. He has made Sportico's rankings of highest-paid athletes despite being out of regular competition in recent years.
Woods is second only to basketball legend Michael Jordan. While the 49-year-old boasts $2.79 billion, Jordan has $4.15 billion, as per reports.
Woods is not the only golfer on the list. He is joined by Arnold Palmer ($1.82 billion), Jack Nicklaus ($1.75 billion) and Phil Mickelson ($1.49 billion). The other athletes gracing the highest-paid list are Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Roger Federer and Floyd Mayweather.
Tiger Woods has been away from the full PGA Tour calendar since his 2021 car crash. He had incurred multiple minor injuries and a severe one to his right leg. The latter was so serious that the doctors had contemplated amputation.
Woods had taken some much needed time off to recover after the accident. However, despite his absence from golf, he still has a massive ability to move the needle. He had topped the PGA Tour's Player Impact Program rankings last year even though fellow golfer Scottie Scheffler had produced a series of extraordinary performances that season.
Woods hasn't made regular competitive appearances since. He was last seen at the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie, a budding golfer. The father-son duo placed second after losing to Bernhard Langer and his son, Jason.
Did Tiger Woods play at the 2025 Masters?
This year, Tiger Woods was expected to make his PGA Tour debut at his self-hosted Genesis Invitational in February. However, he pulled out of the tournament as he was coping with his mother's loss.
While fans then assumed that Woods would make his grand debut at the Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts the year's first Major, with possibly some even hoping for a performance on the lines of his famous 2019 win, he announced that he had sustained an Achilles tendon rupture and undergone surgery. He thus skipped the tournament this year.
On the other hand, Woods and Rory McIlroy's ambitious tech-forward league TGL went on floors earlier this year. But unfortunately, both their teams couldn't make it past the ground-level stage.
When Tiger Woods will make his PGA Tour debut this year is still unclear. The next Major tournament is the PGA Championship in May.