Tiger Woods’ mom was the enforcer, the parent he feared above his dad, but Kultida Woods has a softer side.

She gave 75 cents for his early tournaments — 25 cents for a hotdog, 25c to call her, and the rest as a backup if the payphone swallowed the first quarter.

Back in 2009, she said, having lived in the U.S. for 40 years as opposed to the 25 she was in Thailand, she was more American in a sense. That said, she raised her son with all the best elements of her culture.

Kultida Woods Immigrated to the U.S. From Thailand to Be Earl Woods’ Wife

Kultida “Tida” Punsawad was born in 1944 to a teacher and architect in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. She was the youngest of four siblings of Thai, Chinese, and Caucasian heritage, brought up as a Buddhist.

Her family owned a fleet of buses, and her dad had a tin mine.

At five, her parents divorced, and she was sent to boarding school until she was ten. During her five years at boarding school, no relative visited her. Afterward, she shuttled between her father and mother, who remarried and extended their families.

Despite her rudimentary English, she became a civilian secretary at the U.S. Army base in Bangkok. Here she met Officer Earl Woods, a former baseball player of African-American, Chinese, and Native American heritage. Earl already had a family in America with Ann Hart, his wife since 1954, with whom he had three kids.

Their first date was a comedy of cultural misunderstandings. They agreed to meet at eight, he waited for Kultida late into the night, thinking she had stood him up, and she asked him why he had missed their 8 a.m. appointment the next day.

Only then did Earl learn that Thai women of her class did not go out at night. Kultida invited him to a holy day service at the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, which was their first date with a chaperone in tow.

According to one report, the officer obtained a divorce from his first wife in Mexico. Earl and Kultida married in 1969 and made their home in Brooklyn, New York, where she found work in a bank. Ann only obtained a U.S. divorce in 1972.

Kultida Woods Raised Tiger Woods in Asian Culture

After Earl retired from the Special Forces, they settled in Cypress, Orange County, which he chose for its proximity to a Navy golf course. Upon settling into the traditionally white neighborhood, they were “greeted” with a rock through the kitchen window.

Kultida bestowed a unique name on her only son with Earl — Eldrick Woods, born December 30, 1975. She wanted the child who would become world-famous with his nickname “Tiger,” always to feel like his parents surrounded him. His name began with his father’s initial, “E,” and ended with his mother’s, “K.”

Unable to bear more children per the doctors, the former secretary devoted her life to raising her son with the values of her homeland, never once hiring a babysitter. Tiger accompanied his mother on his first trip to Thailand at nine and met his grandfather, who gave him a mother-of-pearl Buddha statue he still has.

Tiger appreciates Buddhism as it is based on a “whole way of being and living,” and having been raised with the best of Western and Asian elements, he revealed his preference:

Kultida Woods Was Furious with Tiger Woods over His Cheating Scandal

The Woods remained married until Earl’s death from cancer at 74. It is believed that at his May 2006 passing, Kultida lived in the home Tiger bought his parents in Tustin, Orange County. Earl had stayed in Cypress.

According to Tiger’s aunt Mai, the officer despised his wife’s Thai cooking, and she had a problem with his smoking, a habit he never quit despite all his medical issues. In high school, Tiger called his girlfriend in tears over his father’s philandering.

This must have made his multiple counts of infidelity against his wife, Elin Nordegren, coming to light in 2010 especially tough on Kultida. Through her anger and disappointment about the pain her son brought to his family, she still defended him to the press. She insisted that her son would learn from his mistake and has a good soul.

Kultida Woods Is a Philanthropist Who Always Does What She Thinks Is Right

Growing up, her mother was also worried about what people think; even as a child, the options of others did not concern Kultida. Tiger loves his “tough” mom very much. She always tells him:

“You can’t do things just to please other people. It will waste your energy, and you won’t be happy in yourself. You have to do what is right for yourself. “

Tiger Woods gave his mom discretion to choose schools special to her in her home country to bequest funds from the Tiger Woods Foundation in 2009. She selected the Buddhist Girls Convent School and a home for mentally disabled kids close to her place of birth in Thailand.

An HBO documentary on the golfer revealed that his mom took his rivalry with Phil Mickelson very personally. Two sources confirmed that she called Mickelson “hefty,” a body shaming play on his nickname “Lefty.” She holds the late golfer Byron Nelson in high regard.

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Source: CNN