Tiger Woods has been making history on and off the course since he joined the PGA Tour in 1996. First up was a record $40 million contract from Nike. The following year he won the Masters by a record 12 strokes, becoming the youngest winner ever and first black player to take the title. His career has been packed full of accomplishments, including major titles (14), annual money titles (9) and Player of the Year awards (9).

Now Woods can add one more accolade to his trophy case: the first athlete to earn $1 billion. Our calculations show that the $10 million bonus Woods earned winning this year's FedEx Cup title nudged him over the $1 billion mark in career earnings, beating out Michael Jordan and Michael Schumacher.

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.