Former Masters champion Ian Woosnam has enjoyed considerable success in his life outside of golf since retiring from competition in the Major at Augusta National back in 2022
10:00 ET, 26 Apr 2025Updated 11:23 ET, 26 Apr 2025
Ian Woosnam has made several smart financial investments in recent years (Image: Getty Images)
Ian Woosnam achieved no shortage of success during a decorated golf career – but the 67-year-old is now doing quite well for himself in regards to his life outside of the sport.
Since turning pro back in 1976, Woosnam has gone on to amass 52 professional wins – including a victory at the 1991 Masters. He officially retired from competitive golf in 2022 by announcing that he’d no longer participate in the Major at Augusta National, which Rory McIlroy won this year by narrowly fending off Justin Rose in a sudden death playoff. That is amid the drama involving him and Bryson DeChambeau.
In the years since, Woosnam has enjoyed a quiet life in Jersey and Barbados alongside his wife, Glendryth and three adult children who live close by. Despite all that he accomplished on the greens and fairways, the former World No. 1 understood that he needed to find another source of income post-golf.
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“Back in my heyday, the prize money wasn’t the obscene amounts they get now on one of the tours, so you had to be smart and invest it properly,” he told The Telegraph’s Sarah Ewing last October. “I have a financial adviser who looks after my investments, and I make several million a year.
“I don’t need a huge payday like a lot of sports superstars these days. That’s why Jersey has been my official home for the last 30 years. I moved to save tax and to make a better life for my young family.”
Even with the considerable amount of money coming in, Woosnam conceded that he doesn’t like frivolously blowing through his earnings – in large part due to the lessons that his father taught him at a young age. “It’s great when you’re earning money, but it’s not going to last forever,” he said.
“Despite the occasional splurge on treats, I’m actually quite cautious because of what dad instilled in me. There were plenty of others on the tour spending three times as much as me.
Ian Woosnam secured his first green jacket at the 1991 Masters(Image: Getty Images)
“I’m a cautious spender. I don’t need much to be happy,” he continued. “I could drive a Rolls-Royce if I wanted to, but I just bought a Toyota – as long as it goes from A to B, I don’t care anymore. I just want to enjoy my social life and to be able to live reasonably comfortably, with my family provided for. I like simple pleasures, not flashy trappings.”
While growing up on a dairy farm, Woosnam made money on the side by working for his father, who sold his award-winning Friesian cows to help support his son’s blossoming golf career. “My dad told me to give myself five years, looking at it like an apprenticeship,” Woosnam said.
“He impressed upon me that he knew I could make money because I was good, but I had to learn how to keep it as well. He’d jokingly keep a black book of how much money he was lending me for fees and equipment, and as I won more, he’d take it out and say: “Hmm, that’s 5,000 quid you owe me now.”
