Kultida Woods, mother of Tiger Woods, dies at 78
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Tiger Woods has often spoken affectionately of how Kutilda Woods' support helped shape his career.
PHOTOS: AFP, TIGER WOODS/INSTAGRAM
Christine Hauser
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NEW YORK – Kultida Woods, whose guidance and support helped propel her son Tiger Woods to become one of golf’s most dominant athletes, died on Feb 4 at the age of 78.
Tiger announced his mother’s death on social media. He did not cite a cause or say where she died.
“My mom was a force of nature all her own, her spirit was simply undeniable... She was my biggest fan, greatest supporter,” he wrote.
“Without her none of my personal achievements would have been possible.”
Kultida was a frequent presence in her son’s public life, whether attending his tournaments or standing by his side during a period of scandal that took him away from the sport.
Tiger spoke often about his mother’s role in his career.
“I didn’t do this alone,” he said in a speech as recently as in 2024, accepting the Bob Jones Award from the United States Golf Association. “I had the greatest rock that any child could possibly have – my mom.”
Kultida Punsawad was born in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, on Sept 30, 1946, and met Earl Woods, who died in 2006, in the country when she was a secretary in Bangkok and he was on a military assignment.
During his acceptance speech at the 2022 World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Tiger credited his parents with providing him an early start in the sport he came to dominate.
He said that when he was six, his mother took him to a golf course in Long Beach, California, and asked employees there: “Can my son play here and practise a little bit?”
He also recalled that when he was eight, she would drop him off at the entrance of the golf course and give him 75 cents to buy a hot dog and use the payphone to call when he was ready for her to pick him up.
In the speech, Tiger revealed that when he was about 14, his family struggled to afford the costs of his golf tournaments. His voice broke as he recalled the sacrifices his mother made to make it work.
Kultida, in the audience, smiled up at him.
Tiger credited his father for inspiring his work ethic. But while he spoke often of how supportive his mother was, he has also said she was tough on him.
In an interview with the CBS News programme 60 Minutes in 2006, Kultida was asked whether she had experienced prejudice in the United States, and she said yes, especially when she took Tiger from a tournament to a country club.
“Some of them reject us,” she said. “I said, ‘Tiger, it’s their problem. It’s their ignorance. Be proud of who you are’.”
Tida, as she was known, said she told Tiger when he was a child, “You will never ruin my reputation, because I will beat you”, according to a 2006 article in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The article quoted him as saying she used to “beat the hell out of” him. “I’ve still got the handprints,” he said, according to the newspaper.
Tiger Woods' mother, Kultida Woods, follows him after he won the Masters in Augusta on April 14, 2019.
PHOTO: DOUGH MILLS/NYTIMES
In 2010, when Tiger publicly apologised in front of national news media for having an affair while he was married to Elin Nordegren, he said his mother was among the people that he had hurt, and that he had strayed from the Buddhist teachings she had instilled in him at a young age.
Kultida embraced her son after he spoke.
“I’m so proud to be his mum, period,” she said at the time. “As a human being, everyone has faults, makes missteps and learns from it.”
A New York Times report during the troubled period for Tiger described Kultida as the “matriarch, iron hand and spiritual compass for her son”.
According to another article from the Associated Press, she was also the one responsible for him wearing his famed Sunday red shirt, because in Thai it was his power colour.
In addition to her son, Kultida’s survivors include a granddaughter and a grandson. NYTIMES
