In a plot twist no one saw coming, Tiger Woods announced his romance with Vanessa Trump. “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side! We look forward to our journey through life together. At this time we would appreciate privacy for all those close to our hearts,” he captioned the cryptic Instagram post, featuring two photos of the love birds cozying up together. However, Woods’ splashy Vanessa dating reveal had everyone talking for the wrong reasons.

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Why is he asking for privacy as if he’s in mourning? Why is he writing in the third person? Fans had so many questions, but despite the unlikeliness of the pairing, the golf legend and Donald Trump Jr.’s ex-wife have a lot in common. For starters, they’re about the same age, which means they have kids who are about the same age. Also, Vanessa’s oldest child Kai Trump — the oldest of President Donald Trump’s 10 grandchildren — is a talented golfer. In fact, Kai and Woods have seemingly been using each other for clout for some time.

Through her daughter, Vanessa has been around Woods for years. As Kai has been golfing since she was a young child, she has rubbed shoulders with Woods, who has also been close to Donald, for a while. Besides, Kai attends the same Palm Beach country school as Woods’ son, Charlie, a golfer in his own right who often plays in the same tournaments as she does. Being in the same stage in life seems to have facilitated Woods and Vanessa’s romance.

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Tiger Woods was born on December 30, 1975, while Vanessa Trump made her debut earthside on December 17, 1977. That puts their age gap at two years minus a few days. After their respective divorces, Woods and Vanessa stayed in their age group, unlike Donald Trump Jr, who has an eight-year age gap with girlfriend Bettina Anderson. For the most part, Woods and Vanessa tend to go for people around their age when it comes to long-term relationships. Vanessa and Don Jr. are only two weeks apart.

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Before him, Vanessa was reportedly in a committed relationship with Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, a Saudi Arabian prince born the same year as her. She was also linked to Leonardo DiCaprio, who is four years her senior, though he denied ever dating her. (The age gap does seem out of DiCaprio’s preferred range, tbh.) For his part, Woods’ ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, is four years younger than he is. 

However, Woods has also dated women with significant age gaps. After Woods’ cheating scandal that ended in divorce, he was in a relationship with alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn, who is almost a decade his junior. Like with Vanessa, Woods also made a splashy announcement of their romance. “Over the last few months we have become very close and are now dating. We thank you for your support and for respecting our privacy,” he wrote on Facebook. As confusing as it might be, this seems to be his thing. 

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