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Report: Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus among richest-ever athletes

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“To me, it was the greatest comeback I’ve ever seen.” - Michael Jordan said about Tiger Woods winning his fifth green jacket at the 2019 Masters.

It’s a fond refrain to say that Tiger Woods never earned his worth on the course. But that can’t be said for off-course earnings as one company has him as the second highest-paid athlete of all-time

Woods has amassed $2.1 billion in inflated-adjusted earnings, according to a report from Sportico, a digital sports business publication. The report (click here for details on how the dollars were configured), has Woods only trailing Michael Jordan ($2.62 billion) among all sports figures through their careers.

Notably, Nos. 3 and 4 on the list are also golf legends: Arnold Palmer ($1.5 billion) and Jack Nicklaus ($1.38 billion). Again, these are inflation-adjusted numbers.

Phil Mickelson ($1.08 billion) lands at No. 11 and Greg Norman ($815 million) is ranked 15th.