Tiger Woods has been in the spotlight more than any professional golfer in history. But his TV days started long before he was winning millions on the PGA Tour.

It started Oct. 6, 1976 when Woods, then just 2 years old, appeared for the first time in national TV on The Mike Douglas Show with his father, Earl, Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart.

Just a few months shy of his third birthday, Woods displayed his incredible golf skills off an artificial turf mat. 

Fast forward 18 years, to the day.

Not long after a 20-year-old Tiger Woods uttered "Hello, world" signifying his arrival on the PGA Tour, the baby-faced amateur standout made it known he wasn't an amateur anymore; he was ready to chase greatness.

At the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational (now called the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open), Woods' fifth professional tournament, he fired a 2-under 70 in the first of five rounds, but found himself eight back of leader Keith Fergus.

Woods' second round was much more typical of who the young professional turned out to be. With eight birdies and an eagle, Woods vaulted up the leaderboard after a 9-under 63. Rounds of 68-67 in the third and fourth rounds set him up for a final-round 64, good enough to get him into a playoff with Davis Love III.

It only took one extra hole for Woods to edge Love III and claim his first professional win of his young career. But it certainly wasn't his last victory.

In fact, just two weeks later, Woods would another another trophy to his collection with a one-shot win over the late Payne Stewart at the Walt Disney World Golf Classic in Orlando.

Since then, Woods has added 79 more victories, including 15 majors, with the most recent one coming back in April at Augusta National for his fifth career green jacket.

But on that Sunday in Vegas back in 1996, no one could have imagined what kind of foreshadowing that win would be for Woods. Or even on Oct. 6, 1978, when baby Tiger, at just 2 years old, was displaying the beginnings of an eventual Hall-of-Fame career.

Crazy how things work out.