THE SUNDAY PROFILE : Earning His Stripes : Tiger was just a babe in the Woods family when he first picked up a golf club. And he’s still swinging at 19. But it’s not just his talent that is making him a star.

Tiger Woods lost a gold chain and a watch during a robbery last fall. America’s most renowned amateur golfer had a knife held to his throat, was struck in the face and knocked to the ground in a Stanford University parking lot.

Woods didn’t lose his sense of humor, though.

“I talked to him at 2 a.m. the night after the incident,” said Earl D. Woods, Tiger’s father. “He said, ‘Pops, you know that overbite I had? It’s gone. My teeth are perfectly aligned.’ ”

Just like Tiger’s life, which has always had a certain symmetry: golf prodigy on one hand, gifted student on the other; a celebrity in the public’s eye, just one of the guys to his buddies.

The 19-year-old has followed an almost primrose cart path, playing his first round of golf in Pampers, racking up so many trophies and awards that his parents turned the living room of their Cypress home into a Tiger shrine, and capturing amateur golf’s most prestigious prize, the U.S. Amateur, in August.

And now this bump in the road.

It wasn’t the first: Woods received a death threat before playing in the 1992 Los Angeles Open.

But his father is concerned that it might not be the last. “Let’s face it. A lot of major black athletes have had threats. It just goes with the territory,” he said. “I just hope this doesn’t trigger ideas in other minds around the world.”

The elder Woods, 62, has always been prepared for those other minds. A former Green Beret who served in Vietnam, he uses his military training to identify--and avoid--trouble spots while traveling with Tiger on the amateur golf circuit.

But now that Tiger, an Anaheim Western High School graduate, is in college, his dad can’t always be on the lookout.

“The only thing Tiger can do, from a counterterrorist point of view, is to be alert,” Woods said. “But who expects to be mugged in front of their own house in a well-lit parking lot?”

His son, a Stanford freshman who is a willowy 6-foot-1, 150 pounds, dismissed the robbery as an isolated incident. “People get mugged every day,” he said in a school-issued release. “I just want to move on from this and bury it in the past.”

He appears to be doing so, with the help of Virginia-based sports psychologist Jay Brunza.

“Like anyone who experiences this kind of traumatic event, it’s scary,” said Brunza, who also helps Woods control his emotions on the golf course. “But given the circumstances, he seems to be doing fine. You grow through experiences like this, and that’s what Tiger will do.”

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Eldrick (Tiger) Woods has always been in the spotlight. He made his first television appearance at 2, was featured in Sports Illustrated at 15 and attracted huge galleries when he was invited as a 16-year-old to the 1992 L.A. Open.

But last August, Woods, who turned 19 in December, became a golfing icon. Staging a furious rally on the last day of the U.S. Amateur, he made up a six-shot deficit in the 36-hole final to beat Trip Kuehne of McKinney, Tex. The victory was punctuated by a made-for-television fist-pumping celebration after a 14-foot birdie putt on the second-to-last hole.

“The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show With David Letterman,” ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN and CNN all called after the Amateur. Woods turned them all down.

The media crush continued at Stanford, where Steve Raczynski, the assistant sports information director, said he received 75 media requests during a two-week stretch of September.

“We took a little poll in the office, asking what athlete has entered Stanford with more notoriety,” Raczynski said. “We had John McEnroe, who advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals the summer before college; (swimmer) Janet Evans, who won Olympic gold medals before coming here; (quarterback) John Elway. None of them was in Tiger’s category.”

The only way Woods, who won two of his first four college tournaments last fall, thought he could juggle golf, school and the media was to hold monthly news conferences, virtually eliminating one-on-one interviews.

Yes, he’s that huge.

And he seems to be tiring of all the attention, sometimes referring to reporters as “you guys,” the way Michael Jordan does.

But Woods is a polished speaker who knows to keep his cool and how to entertain reporters while avoiding controversy.

“I’m always myself,” Woods said. “Always tell the truth. Always be who you are. You have to be discreet sometimes--you can’t just blurt out what you want to say--but you can phrase things so they come out the right way.”

The folks at the nation’s top sports management firms are drooling over Woods, and not just because he’s a rarity in the sport.

“If he was white, yellow or orange it wouldn’t matter--the fact he’s black is incidental,” said Hughes Norton, senior vice president of the Cleveland-based International Management Group. “He’s everything you could want. He’s a very genuine kid, he’s good looking, long off the tee. . . . You add it all up, and it’s not fair.”

The nickname Tiger, which his father had given to a close friend who disappeared during the Vietnam War, is also a selling point.

“It’s a great name, as opposed to Dave Eichelberger,” Norton said. “You are what you are, but it sure doesn’t hurt.”

Heck, if Woods is as good as many expect him to be, maybe they’ll name a golf course after him someday. Can’t you picture it? Eighteen holes, highlighted by long, tree-lined fairways and lush landscaping. . . .

Welcome to Tiger Woods.

First Hole

Earl Woods couldn’t believe it. Kultida, Tiger’s mother, had put the rusty, worn-out high chair on the side of the house, with other junk ticketed for the dump. “You can’t throw it away,” Woods told her. “That’s going to be in the Hall of Fame someday.”

It was from this high chair that 6-month-old Tiger began watching his dad hit golf balls into a net in the garage. He’d gaze at the swing for hours, interrupted only by rice cereal or mashed banana breaks.

When he was 10 months old, Tiger climbed down, grabbed a plastic putter, went through the same pre-shot routine as his dad and whacked a ball into the net.

Second Hole

Tiger was 2 when he played his first round with a set of sawed-off clubs at the Navy course in Cypress.

“He hit a ball into a sand trap, pulled his pants down and went pee-pee,” Kultida Woods recalled. “Then he pulled his pants up and hit the shot.”

Third Hole

The 3-year-old Tiger cub made appearances on CBS News and “The Mike Douglas Show,” where he upstaged Bob Hope in a putting contest.

He shot a 48 on the back nine of the Navy course. OK, so he played from the red tees . . . and his dad teed up the fairway shots.

Fourth Hole

Tiger met--and stunned Heartwell Park (Long Beach) Golf Course pro Rudy Duran, who would coach him from age 4 to 10.

“It was mind-boggling to see a 4 1/2-year-old swinging like a refined touring pro,” said Duran, who now works at Chalk Mountain Golf Course in Atascadero. “It was like watching a PGA player shrunk to 50 pounds. What would Jack Nicklaus shoot if he was 3-foot-7? That’s what Tiger shot.”

Fifth Hole

The city of Cypress held a reception in Woods’ honor in September and, as usual, Woods nearly strained his wrist signing autographs. Fresh off his victory at the U.S. Amateur, a certain aura enveloped him at the Cypress Golf Club. How else do you explain grown men, in their 40s and 50s, asking for Tiger’s signature?

“That was weird, but what’s even stranger was seeing a 17-year-old ask a 5-year-old for his autograph,” said Earl Woods, who retired in 1988 after 20 years in the military and 10 with McDonnell Douglas. “That happened to Tiger when he was 5 and he was filming a ‘That’s Incredible!’ episode. He didn’t know how to write, so he printed.”

Sixth Hole

Tiger was about 6 when he got a full set of downsized clubs.

“On the way back he said, ‘You know what, Rudy? We didn’t get a one-iron--I want a one-iron,’ ” Duran recalled. “I said, ‘A one-iron? You’re not gonna generate enough club head speed to get a one-iron airborne. You’ll just hit it into the ground.’

“Later that day on the range, he took his dad’s one-iron, a full-length club that went up to his chin, and just ripped it. . . . So, we went out and bought him a one-iron.”

Seventh Hole

Earl Woods was concerned. His 7-year-old was obsessed with low scores. Dad’s advice: Enjoy yourself, stop and smell the roses.

“He said, ‘Daddy, this is how I have fun, shooting low scores,’ ” Woods said. “I shut up and said, ‘OK, I’ll never ask that again.’ ”

Losing was another matter.

“He’d be so upset when he lost,” his mother said. “We’d say, ‘Do Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson win every tournament? They can’t.’ We had to explain that to him.”

Eighth Hole

Tiger was 8 when he notched his first prominent victory, at the Optimist International World Junior. He won that tournament again at 9, but it was his second-place finish a year later that revealed his true prowess.

Down eight shots, he birdied the last six holes in a charge that fell short. And there would be even more dramatic comebacks: from two down with two holes to play to win the 1993 U.S. Junior; from three down with five holes to play to beat Buddy Alexander in the 1994 U.S. Amateur round of 16, and from four down with 10 holes left to beat Trip Kuehne in the final.

“Tiger has the gift of a champion--that is, he’s able to elevate to another competitive level to enhance performance when he needs it,” sports psychologist Brunza said.

Woods isn’t sure how this happens, but he knows it does.

“If you have to accomplish something, you just set your mind to it and hopefully it will be there,” he said. “It won’t work every time. You can’t do everything you want. But as long as it happens occasionally, that’s nice.”

Ninth Hole

News clips of Ethiopia’s famine in 1985 so moved the 9-year-old that he took $20 out of his piggy bank for his parents to send to Africa.

Woods has always felt an obligation to give, more recently by conducting clinics for inner-city kids and by planning a foundation to help kids through golf.

Said Stanford golf Coach Wally Goodwin: “I think he’d rather put on a clinic for kids than play in a tournament.”

10th Hole

True story, Earl Woods swears: “When Tiger was 10, he said, ‘Daddy, when I turn pro, do you think you could live off $100,000 a year?’ I paused and said, ‘Let me think about it. The tab is going up every week.’ ”

Woods has three grown sons by a previous marriage, but Tiger is his most expensive kid.

He has played throughout the United States and in Mexico, France, Canada and Thailand, racking up frequent-flier miles and airline, hotel and restaurant tabs.

Although many amateur tournaments provide special hotel rates and courtesy cars, the perks are nothing like those on the pro tour. “Oh, I get everything paid for by sponsors,” Tiger’s father joked. “There are three companies: Earl, D. and Woods. I have about five very floating credit cards and two mortgages on the house.”

At least college provided some relief. Woods is on a full scholarship.

11th Hole

When Tiger was 11, he had a short love affair with, of all things, professional wrestling. He’d ask his father to tape World Wrestling Federation cards because he had to be in bed by 9. “I didn’t realize it was fake then,” Tiger admitted.

12th Hole

Tiger had this look of gloom when he came to John Anselmo, the teaching pro at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington Beach, one day when he was 12. “What’s wrong?” asked Anselmo, Tiger’s coach at the time.

“He said, ‘I’m having problems. I’m hitting the ball at the flag, and it keeps sucking back. How do I get rid of that backspin?’ ” Anselmo recalled. “People spend their entire lives trying to get a backspin on the ball, and here was this kid trying to get rid of it.”

13th Hole

CBS golf analyst Ken Venturi recently had dinner with Woods and came away marveling at his maturity.

No wonder. This was a kid who at 13 sent a letter to the Stanford golf coach saying he wanted “to obtain a quality business education.” When he was 15, Tiger told his father he wanted to learn to manage the people who manage his money.

“He said he wanted to be able to open the books, understand them and hold people accountable,” Earl Woods said. “You see the difference in maturity?”

14th Hole

At 14, Tiger began assuming more control of his golfing career, making travel arrangements, handling caddies and reserving practice times. This was Dad’s strategic plan, to teach Tiger how to be a professional player, how to be independent, how to be the boss.

“By the time he was 16, he took over full responsibility, and there was a role reversal,” Earl Woods said. “On the road, I became the child and he became the parent. He’s in charge. He tells us what time to get up in the morning, when we go to the course, when we come home, where we’re going out to dinner. The one thing he doesn’t tell us is when to go to bed.

“As soon as the last ball was hit in the tournament, the roles would be reversed again automatically.”

15th Hole

Tiger was playing touch football a few years ago when, while looking over his shoulder to catch a long pass, he smashed into a tree and suffered a concussion.

Woods loves going to football games, playing video games at Chuck E. Cheese, going to movies and frat parties at college, hanging out with friends.

“The public thinks of him as a full-time golfer, but he does everything normal kids do,” said Bryon Bell, Woods’ teammate and friend from high school. “The only difference is, he has to go out to the golf course every once in a while.”

16th Hole

As the only black kid in the kindergarten class, he was tied to a tree. His house in an all-white neighborhood was pelted with limes. And someone threatened his life before the 1992 L.A. Open.

“He was silent for about 10 minutes after I told him,” Earl Woods said. “Then he said, ‘Hmmm, 16 years old, and I’ve already had my first death threat.’ ”

Tiger doesn’t want race to be an issue. He simply wants to be the best golfer on the pro tour, not the best black golfer. But, as his father said, “Obviously, his race can’t be ignored.”

Fact is, there have been only a handful of black professional golfers, so race will probably be mentioned with every milestone.

“The media loves it because they like controversy,” Tiger said. “They like to have something to write about besides the normal blah-blah stuff.”

When a reporter asked Woods the significance of winning last fall at Alabama’s Shoal Creek, an all-white club until 1990, he replied: “The significance is our team won, and I was the individual champion.”

17th Hole

The 1994 U.S. Amateur, Tournament Players Club Sawgrass Stadium Course, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., No. 17, par-3, 139 yards. Woods’ tee shot lands on the fringe, two feet from water, 14 feet from the hole.

“That was the kind of moment Tiger thrives on,” said Don Crosby, his high school coach. “He had battled back to get even (with Kuehne), and when he was on the fringe, I knew he’d make the putt.”

Woods then sealed the victory with a par on the 460-yard 18th.

“I’ve watched the pros play that course for years, and he hits a 2-iron and 7-iron to the green,” Crosby said. “He hit a 7-iron 200 yards! He told me later he was a little pumped.”

The victory earned Woods the right to play in three major pro events this year--the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. He said he hasn’t had time to think about his trip to Augusta, Ga., in April, but it must be in the back of his mind.

“One day in September he had a stomachache, and I asked what was wrong,” Earl Woods said. “He said he had just watched a tape of the Masters. He always watched the tape with the view that he might play there someday, but this time he watched it knowing he will play there, and it hit him.”

18th Hole

After a blistering performance to win the Pacific Northwest Amateur, there were victories at the Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur, the Western Amateur and the U.S. Amateur, plus the great college start. Tiger Woods was named Man of the Year by Golf World magazine, and he has been nominated for the Sullivan Award, which recognizes the top amateur athlete in the nation. The winner will be announced Feb. 27.

“If he gets that, I don’t know how he can ever top a year like this,” Earl Woods said. “What do you do? Go back to the U.S. Amateur, get eliminated in the semifinals and you’re a failure? It puts an inordinate amount of pressure on him.”

Not to worry, he said:

“To get that far at the Amateur would be a great accomplishment. It would probably be more of a disappointment in the media realm than anything. But everyone around the country who understands golf would understand what an accomplishment that would be.”

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Where does he go from here?

There is already speculation that Woods, who has been in college only long enough to do a few loads of laundry, will leave school early for the riches many believe await him on the PGA Tour.

Don’t count on it. “If you know me, you know I’ll stay in school four years,” said Woods, who recently had surgery to remove a benign tumor and cyst behind his left knee.

His focus now is on finding enough study time to keep up with classmates. That hasn’t been easy. Woods, who had a 3.7 grade-point average in high school and received the prestigious Dial Award for being the nation’s top scholar-athlete, said he’s “doing fine” in school, but he had to drop calculus when he fell behind in the first quarter. He’ll take it again.

“Nobody sleeps around here. There’s so much work and you have to stay up late,” said Woods, who lives in a dormitory. “But it’s easy to blend in here because everyone’s so special. You have Olympian swimmers, baseball and football players who are going to be in the pros . . . and I’m not the brightest one, either. There are geniuses here.”

Woods is committed to earning a degree, but then what? Although he has surpassed the amateur golfing exploits of many of the game’s greatest players, he knows that other post-amateur careers have fizzled.

For every Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, there is an Eddie Pearce, who won a U.S. Junior championship but lost his card after a few years on the PGA Tour.

“But his is not a fleeting ability,” Duran said. “Tiger knows how to golf. He’s not going to lose that.”

What separates Tiger, many believe, is a tremendous desire to succeed, a love for practice, a knack for getting out of trouble and an innate feel for the game.

“Everyone hits bad shots,” said Bob Livingstone, Long Beach State golf coach, who has followed Woods through the amateur ranks. “But you won’t ever hear Tiger say he hit a dumb shot.”

Woods’ strengths are his irons and short game. He’s sometimes erratic with his driver but can improvise his way out of danger.

“He has all the shots,” former coach Anselmo said. “He can hit it low, hit it high, hit rough shots, finesse shots. He’s a tremendous player out of the sand trap, and he knows how to get out of the woods. You don’t learn by hitting down the middle all the time. You learn by getting out of those spots.”

And you never stop learning, a fact Woods fully grasps and appreciates. When asked what aspects of his game he’d like to improve before defending national champion Stanford resumes competition later this month, he replied:

“Everything. Even if you’re the best in the world at one aspect of the game, you can always improve on it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Eldrick (Tiger) Woods Age: 19

Background: Grew up in Cypress; now attends Stanford University.

Family: His parents, Earl and Kultida, and three half-brothers.

Passion: Conducting golf clinics for inner-city kids. “I think he’d rather put on a clinic for kids than play in a tournament,” says Stanford golf Coach Wally Goodwin.

On his childhood infatuation with professional wrestling:

“I didn’t realize it was fake then.”

On the media’s penchant for mentioning his race:

“They like to have something to write about besides the normal blah-blah stuff.”

On trying to keep up with the Einsteins at Stanford:

“There are geniuses here.”