Updated on June 23rd, 2023 at 12:02 pm
Following a difficult five years without a win, golfing megastar Tiger Woods hit the headlines at last, for — primarily– the right reason. That is because he won the Tour Championship in Atlanta in 2018. His outstanding performance, after half a decade out of sorts, is attributed to his affection for one specific lady, Erica Herman. This is everything worth knowing about the woman who revitalized the faded star’s career.
Woods was born in 1975, in Cypress, CA. As a youngster, he discovered his passion for golf and enjoyed notable success at college. At the age of twenty, he left the amateur game and won his first major tournament, the Masters, by twelve strokes — which was a new record. One year after turning professional, he was ranked the world’s number one player.
Moreover, Woods showed that his amazing success early in life was no accident, by dominating the sport consistently over the following ten years. In 2000, he trounced the US Open players, winning the tournament by an unprecedented fifteen shots. And maybe his most impressive feat was holding the world number one ranking for over five years. Then, after losing that ranking for a brief period, he regained it again for an additional five and a half years.
Woods has won the Annual PGA Player Award on eleven different occasions, and he has claimed victory in eighty PGA Tour Events and fourteen majors. Also, he is the youngest pro to have completed a Grand Slam, triumphing in fifty on tour tournaments. Consequently, this golfing prodigy is generally considered to rank among the twenty-first century’s best sportsmen.
Needless to say, in 2009, the previously positive Tiger Woods tale was turned on its’ head when reports surfaced of his numerous affairs with women. At first glance, the golfer seemed to be happily married to Elin Nordegren, a former model from Sweden he had tied the knot with five years previously. However, the pair, who have a couple of children together, separated after the news broke.
New York nightclub manager, Rachel Uchitel, was first revealed to be one of the golfing star’s numerous lovers. And more than twelve other women subsequently spoke to the press to claim that they had had affairs with the married star too. In multiple media statements, Woods offered his apologies for the way he had behaved. Furthermore, he later disclosed that he would take a break from the sport he had loved so much.
A number of firms had signed sponsorship deals worth millions of dollars with Woods. However, due to Woods’ extracurricular activities, the firms terminated these contracts. General Motors, TAG Heuer, and Accenture were some of the well-known brands that rushed to disassociate themselves from the widely criticized golfer. One study reports that Woods’ adultery is believed to have lost shareholders in the different firms associated with him, as much as twelve billion dollars.
Once he had dropped to a career-low ranking of fifty-eight, in the World Rankings for 2011, Woods finally started to reignite his professional ambitions, reclaiming the top position just a couple of years later. Nonetheless, a series of back problems put a halt to this effort. Subsequently, he dropped out of the top 500 by June 2016. Things became steadily worse after this.
Woods was placed under arrest for a DUI offense, in May 2017, after falling asleep in his car while its’ engine was running. He claimed that he had misjudged the side effects of some prescription medication he was using during this period. He was placed on probation for a year, after making a guilty plea to dangerous driving later on in the year.
Woods was attracting the right kind of publicity by September 2018, though, when he won the Tour Championship in Atlanta, aged forty-two. This was the star’s first title in half a decade, with his two-stroke East Lake win also helping to improve his ranking position. Lots of people thought that recent events in the star’s personal life were behind his fantastic performance.
The love of his life was Erica Herman, a thirty-three year old who Woods was caught whispering sweet nothings to, once his bad run of luck finally ended. Reportedly, the couple initially met at the star’s Florida restaurant – The Woods Jupiter – in 2017, where Herman worked as a supervisor. In October of the same year, they made their relationship public during the President’s Cup, where Herman wore a ‘player spouse’ breastpin.
A couple of days after this, Herman and Woods arrived at court together, to attend his driving under the influence hearing in Florida. A couple of months after this, the couple went on a Bahamas holiday with the star’s two children. The pair were out in public once more, in July 2018, as Royal Box spectators at a Wimbledon tennis match.
The couple was seen together again in August 2018, at the St. Louis PGA Championship. Certainly, Herman created quite a buzz on social media, when she kissed Woods and patted his bottom live on air. Lots of Twitter users were surprised by this display of affection in public.
A friend of Woods spoke to People magazine in April 2018, to say that the lovebird’s relationship is doing well. The anonymous source commented, “No contracts have been signed. It is not as if they are taking things too seriously. However, she is really lovely, and Tiger adores her”.
Another source told People about the critical part Herman had in Woods’ resurgence on the golf course. After Woods won the Tour Championship in Atlanta, the unnamed source commented, “Tiger had reputation issues for ages. However, now he is the happiest he has been for years”.
Notwithstanding, some people were unhappy with this flourishing romance. An inside source reportedly spoke to Radar Online about Herman, describing her as a materialistic party girl who has been “pursuing Woods like a groupie for nearly a decade.” The anonymous source also said, “I am amazed that Tiger wants to be seen with her in public.”
In addition, reports appeared saying that Woods began seeing Herman, while still dating Kristin Smith. Herman and Woods publicly appeared together just thirty days after the star had split up with the stylist from Texas. “Kristen thought something was going on, but Tiger always denied it by criticizing Erica” an inside source is believed to have informed Radar Online.
Prior to dating Smith, Woods was romantically involved with Lindsey Vonn, the skier who won gold at the Olympics. These two sports personalities initially went public with their relationship in 2012, after Woods divorced from his partner. However, he separated from Vonn a few years later.
Regardless of whether Woods’ resurgence is due to Erica Herman or not, we are happy to have him back!
