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Last week, Forbes reported that Tiger Woods was the first athlete to earn $1 billion, beating out Michael Jordan and Michael Schumacher.

Woods earned more than $10.5 million in giant cardboard checks this year on the PGA Tour and added another $10 million last weekend by winning the FedEx Cup. According to Forbes, that little bonus was enough to push Woods over the $1 billion mark.

Forbes has been tracking athlete earnings since before Tiger turned pro. Woods had earned a cumulative $895 million going into 2009, by our estimates, from prize money, appearance fees, endorsements, bonuses and his golf course design business. If you add his $10.5 million in 2009 prize money, the FedEx bonus and his take so far this year from his more than $100 million in annual off-the-course earnings, Woods’ career earnings are now 10 figures.

The article points out that only Woods’s accountant truly knows if he’s a billionaire, but one thing is certain: Tiger’s money-making potential won’t slow down anytime soon.

The most stunning part is that Woods is only 33 years old–he might have 15 years of competitive golf left in him, and 30-plus years of designing courses. This is only the first billion for Woods.

Woods has been the highest-paid American athlete for years, and the competition isn’t even close. In this year’s Fortunate 50, SI’s annual ranking, Woods’s estimated total earnings were nearly $100 million, far exceeding Phil Mickelson in second ($53 million) and LeBron James in third ($42.4 million). Amazingly, Woods made even more the year before, according to SI — $128 million.

Woods Says NO

This week, Woods says he doesn’t have that much money. At a Presidents Cup news conference Tuesday, a reporter asked Woods directly about the Forbes report.

Reporter: “This last week, it was announced you hit the billionaire status. What’s that like to learn?”

Tiger Woods: [Laughs] “Well, one, I haven’t, so I don’t know where that number came from.”

Forbes cited estimates of Woods’s earnings from endorsements, tournament winnings, appearance fees and his nascent golf-course design business. Other than tournament winnings, Forbes could only guess at the other income of the famously circumspect Woods, and the business magazine admitted its figures could not be exact.

As for Woods, only his accountant knows if Tiger is a billionaire athlete yet, but if it did not happen on Sunday [after his $10 million FedEx Cup win] it is likely only a matter of months or his next check from Nike.

Woods is certain to be the first billionaire athlete, but we’ll never know when it happens. He likely won’t know right away either, and when he does learn, the only acknowledgment of the fact will probably be a private smile behind the tinted windows of a Buick SUV.

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