As a result of the illness and eventual death of his inspirational father Earl in May, Tiger Woods took two months away from golf after the US Masters. On his return, despite missing the cut in the US Open, he put together a remarkable second half of the year with six wins, the highlights of which were victories in the Open Championship at Hoylake and the US PGA Championship at Medinah, taking his total of major championship victories to 12.
Woods father had taught the young Tiger mental strength and that was more apparent than ever in 2006. In his remarkable run, Woods also won two World Golf Championship titles – the Bridgestone International and the American Express Championship – plus the Buick Open and the Deutsche Bank Championship. For good measure, he finished the year with wins in two unofficial events - the PGA Grand Slam of Golf (for the seventh straight time) and the Target World Challenge.
Once again Woods led the US PGA money list with almost US$10 million, which took his career total to US$65 million with 54 career wins from 214 tournaments, a staggering 25% success rate.
