Golf pro Tiger Woods may soon earn one billion dollars in career earnings, becoming the world's first billionaire to accumulate his fortune by playing sports. According to Forbes magazine, Woods may reach the billion dollar mark by 2010. He is already a millionaire many times over.
The 14-time major championship winner earned 115 million dollars in 2007 alone, according to Forbes. The magazine annually ranks the world's richest people with its Forbes' Celebrity 100 list. Soccer player David Beckham was the No. 2 sportsman on the list with earnings of 65 million dollars.
"It will be an unprecedented occurrence," the magazine said. "There are plenty of billionaires who have excelled at sports like Switzerland's richest man and champion sailor Ernesto Bertarelli. But there are no billionaires who accumulated their fortune by playing sports."
The magazine added, in its Wednesday edition, that while tycoons like Bill Gates accumulated his wealth by holding a stake in a company with soaring profits, Woods is unique because his massive fortune was earned through pay checks.
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