FACTBOX: World number one Tiger Woods

(Reuters) - Factbox on Tiger Woods, who on Thursday said he would return to the PGA Tour at next week''s WGC-Match Play Championship after being sidelined by injury since his U.S. Open victory last year:

MAKING HIS NAME

* Born in Cypress, California on December 30, 1975.

* A child prodigy, he won three consecutive U.S. junior titles and three successive U.S. amateur championships before turning professional in late 1996.

* Ended that year with PGA Tour victories at the Las Vegas Invitational and Walt Disney Classic.

EARLY MAJOR IMPACT

* Became the youngest Masters winner with a tournament record aggregate of 18-under-par 270 at Augusta National in 1997. His victory margin of 12 shots was the biggest in the tournament''s history.

* After a lean spell in 1998, when he revamped his swing with coach Butch Harmon, Woods won eight titles in a golden run on the 1999 PGA tour, including his second major at the PGA Championship where he held off a charging Sergio Garcia.

* In 2000, Woods produced one of the most successful seasons in golfing history. Romped to victory by a record 15 strokes in the U.S. Open, coasted home by eight shots in the British Open and claimed his second PGA Championship.

* Became the fifth and youngest player to win a career grand slam of all four majors. Ended the year with nine titles on the PGA Tour, having completed his sixth in a row at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February.

* Woods won his second Masters crown in 2001 to become the first player to hold all four professional major titles at the same time.

LOSES NUMBER ONE RANKING

* Over the next four years, Woods piled up four more major victories after embarking on the second revamp of his swing since turning professional.

* He broke Greg Norman''s record for most weeks as world number one with a combined tally of 332 but his five-year reign at the top finally ended in September 2004 when Fijian Vijay Singh took over.

GLOBAL DOMINANCE

* In 2005, Woods won his fourth Masters title, a second British Open and reclaimed the world number one ranking in June, which has held ever since.  Continued...