Kultida Woods, mother of Tiger Woods, dies at age 80 Emergency USA

Kultida (or “Tida,” as she was often referred to) became known as the matriarch of one of the most famous families in golf, but before that, she was Kultida Punsawad, the youngest of four children of an architect and a teacher. Kultida was born in 1944 in Kanchanaburi, Thailand (about 75 miles west of Bangkok). As a young adult, she moved to Bangkok and worked as a civilian secretary doing clerical work for the U.S. Army base during the Vietnam War. It was there, in 1966, that she met Earl Woods, a Green Beret who served in the 6th Special Forces Group. Earl and Kultida married in 1969 and moved to the U.S., first living in Brooklyn, New York, before moving to Cypress, California. In December 1975, Tida gave birth to her only son, Eldrick Woods.