Tiger Woods announces death of his mom Kultida: 'My biggest fan'

Kultida Woods waits near the clubhouse as her son Tiger Woods plays during the pro-am prior to the start of the Hero World Challenge at the Isleworth Golf & Country Club on Dec. 3, 2014, in Windermere, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Imag

Kultida Woods, the Thai-born mother of Tiger Woods, died Tuesday morning, a week after being seen attending his indoor TMRW Golf League in Florida.

Woods announced his mother's death in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday

Tiger Woods announces mother's death

Details about the circumstances surrounding Kultida Woods' death have not been released.

Woods’ father, Earl, died in 2006. Kultida had moved to South Florida when Woods relocated from Orlando to Jupiter.

What they're saying:

The golfer described his mother as a "force of nature" who was his biggest supporter from the time she drove him to junior golf tournaments in California to cheering him on during his 15 major championships, often wearing her wide-brimmed visor and sunglasses.

"My Mom was a force of nature all her own, her spirit was simply undeniable," Woods wrote. "She was quick with the needle and a laugh. She was my biggest fan, greatest supporter, without her none of my personal achievements would have been possible."

Tiger Woods with his parents Kultida and Earl Woods at the Johnnie Walker Classic at Blue Canyon Golf Club, Thailand. (David Cannon/ALLSPORT/Getty Images)

Woods said his mother "was loved by so many, but especially by her two grandchildren, Sam and Charlie."

President Donald Trump was among those who reached out with a post on his Truth Social, calling her "an amazing influence" on Woods.

The backstory:

"Tida," as she was called by many, was working as a civilian secretary in the U.S. Army office in Bangkok when she met Earl Woods, who was stationed there. She spoke minimal English when she married him and left Thailand for the first time in 1968, first going to Brooklyn and then to Cypress, California, where Woods was born in 1975.

His father taught him golf. His mother brought the discipline.

"Everyone thought it was my dad when I went on the road, which it was," Woods said last year when he received the Bob Jones Award from the USGA. "But Mom was at home. If you don’t know, Mom has been there my entire life. She’s always been there through thick and thin.

"She has allowed me to get here. She allowed me to do these things, chase my dreams, and the support and love — I didn’t do this alone. I had the greatest rock that any child could possibly have: my mom."

"I am a loner, and so is Tiger," Kultida Woods said in a 2009 interview in Thailand with Jaime Diaz at Golf Digest, a rare occasion when she spoke publicly.

"When I was a girl my mother would always be worried, ‘What will people say?’ And even then I would think, I don’t give a damn," she said. "I always tell Tiger: ‘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.’ And on that, he does a good job."

Inside the ropes, his mother wanted to see domination, and she got every bit of that. "And then, sportsmanship," she once said.

She was the one responsible for him wearing a Sunday red shirt — Woods now has an apparel line named for that — because in Thai it was his power color.

The Source: Information for this story came from a post on X by Tiger Woods and a report by the Associated Press.

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