Earl Woods is the father of professional golfer Tiger Woods. Born in Manhattan, Kansas in 1932, Earl ended up training his son Tiger how to play golf at a very young age. At the age of 74, Earl died on May 3, 2006. During his life, he ended up serving two different combat tours during the time of the Vietnam War. He was involved in the U.S. Army Special Forces division and eventually reached the ranking of Lieutenant Colonel.

In April of 2010, Nike released a commercial that features the voice of Tiger Woods' father. In the commercial, Tiger appears in black and white, does not say anything, and simply looks into the camera.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NTRvlrP2NU The celebrity news and gossip site TMZ.com has speculated that the commercial was purposefully created in order to "humanize" the golfer in the minds of the public. In summarizing the Nike video, TMZ described it as an "artsy PR effort."http://www.tmz.com/2010/04/07/nike-tiger-woods-earl-woods-golf-nike-commercial-tigers-dad-for-new-commercial/

The commercial was reportedly filmed on March 25, 2010, just a few weeks prior to its April 7^th release on YouTube.http://www.tmz.com/2010/03/26/tiger-woods-shoots-new-commercial-for-nike/ Shot on location of the Isleworth Country Club, the commercial shows Tiger Woods standing still and wearing a Nike-branded hat and shirt.

In the above mentioned Nike advertisement, Earl poses the following questions to his son:

• "Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And, did you learn anything."

Right around the time that Earl Woods retired from the military, he started playing golf himself. With access to military golf courses, he often was able to play at these courses that the public did not have access to and slowly improve his game. Reportedly, he was eventually able to play an 18-hole golf course and score in the low 70s.http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=070803_2_B1_hPlay11047

After Tiger was born, Earl decided he was going to teach him how to play golf as well. Before Tiger had turned two years old, his father began teaching him how to play golf in Orange County, California, the city in which Tiger and his father resided at that time. Like his father, Tiger was able to occasionally practice his golfing at private, military courses.http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=070803_2_B1_hPlay11047 While Earl was still alive, he could be seen attending many of Tiger's games and cheering him on.