2019 was a good year to be Tiger Woods… and it wasn’t bad to be Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson or Jordan Spieth, either.
Forbes released its annual list of the highest-paid athletes in the world on Friday, and while Woods wasn’t at the top of the list for 2020, he did quite well for himself.
According to the report, Woods made $62.3 million in 2019 with the lion’s share of Tiger’s wealth coming from off-the-course endorsements to the tune of $60 million. Roger Federer topped the list at $106.3 million. The yearly list spanned from June 2019 to June 2020.
Woods collects that $60 million from eight entities: Bridgestone, Discovery Communications, Inc., Hero Motocorp, Monster Energy, Nike, Rolex, TaylorMade and Upper Deck.
Roger Federer is the first tennis player to reach No. 1 on Forbes’ list of the highest-paid athletes in the world 🎾 pic.twitter.com/9UZRfPKvCx
— ESPN (@espn) May 29, 2020
Woods’ $60 million endorsement income was tied with LeBron James as the second-most endorsement-based income on the list trailing on Federer’s $100 million. The $60 million number also represents a $45 million drop from his peak in 2009 when he made $105 million off the course.
McIlroy’s place on the list was improved significantly thanks to his FedEx Cup victory. Still, the World No. 1’s $30 million in endorsements and $22 million in earnings was good enough to get him to 14th on the list.
Mickelson ($40 million in endorsements/$800,000 on-course earnings) ranked No. 25 on the list and Spieth ($26 million in endorsements/$1.2 on-course earnings) ranked No. 52.
Overall, the top-100 earned $1.1 billion from sponsors, up 11% from last year, on top of a 12% gain in 2019.
Here’s an animated timeline showing the highest-paid athletes from 1990-2020, via Noobnorm.
