Tiger Woods Lookalike Just A Regular Guy From Jersey

Herme Chua, 43, lives a rather orderly lifestyle, coaching his daughter’s elementary school track team, married for a decade. He’s a native of New Jersey, a Rutgers University graduate who lives quietly in a suburb of Los Angeles and works as a database administrator for a nonprofit that does cancer research.

All is mundane in Chua’s life that is, except for those times when he takes on the persona of one of the world’s most famous athletes.

Chua (PICTURED FRONT LEFT), of Filipino, Chinese and Spanish descent, resembles one Tiger Woods, golfer, as any other human being on the planet. He has a $10,000 prize for winning a celebrity lookalike contest on the “Live Regis and Kelly” show as proof.

It all happened when Chua was pretty much minding his own business as a fan in the Battle at Bighorn when the real Tiger Woods was pitted against Sergio Garcia in August of 2000.

Chua was inundated with so many autograph requests that he finally thought that maybe he should contact an agency and play the role of celebrity double.

Nearly 15 years and close to 100 gigs later, Chua is pretty well known as the No. 1 Tiger Woods impersonator. His website “tigerwoodslooklike.com” pretty much says all that.

Since then, he has appeared at everything from business conventions to Bar mitzvahs to birthday parties to TV shows, videos and golf tournaments. He even was flown to The Netherlands during the KLM Open and given a script to read in front of a large audience.

And all he has to do is pull down a Nike golf hat real low and wear a red polo shirt. Sometimes he even swings a golf club.

“During high school (Sacred Heart in Vineland) I worked at Buena Vista Country Club as a cart attendant. I cleaned clubs and had other menial duties. That was my first exposure to golf. I played about once a week then, but not as much in college.

“Once I moved out here to California 15 years ago, I picked it up again because the weather is so great. You don’t have to worry about the cold winters. I’ve gotten down to an 18 handicap. “

It came in handy for Chua when he was asked to hit balls off the driving range at the KLM event. What also has helped Chua professionally is all the glad-handing and posing for photos he has done as the pseudo-Tiger.

“Normally, I’m a shy guy. It has helped me more with public speaking. The only time I had to get up in front of a crowd and deliver a speech was when I was valedictorian in high school. With the Tiger thing, I’m often asked to give speeches and talked to people, although I’m never asked to pretend to speak for Tiger.”

Tiger Woods’s personal scandals have put a damper in Chua’s extracurricular work. Although at the time the scandal broke late in 2009, Chua was a pretty hot property.

In those crazy days, he was asked to appear at a nightclub with several of Tiger’s former mistresses and also to do a walk-on role in an adult film. Both he turned down.

“I didn’t want to be part of it. I’m Catholic and I’m a track coach at a Catholic school, St. Philip the Apostle in Pasadena,” said Chua, whose daughter actually practices with her cross country team outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

He said one of his funniest memories of playing the Tiger role came at a bar mitzvah when one attendee actually believed Chua was the real Tiger Woods.

“He thought it was real cool having Tiger Woods at this particular bar mitzvah. It showed how much the guy knew about golf since Tiger was playing in a tournament several thousands of miles way that weekend,” said Chua, who often is asked at golf events to stand at a par-3 hole and have his picture taken with a foursome.

Another time, Chua was in a mock video playing against a young man who was celebrating his bar mitzvah. When the youngster “defeated” the fake Tiger, Chua presented him with a green jacket.

Chua says his faux fame has enabled him to meet some real-life celebrities like Jim Belushi, Miss America, Patricia Heaton (the wife in Everybody Loves Raymond), and Family Feud host Richard Karn.

On Family Feud, Chua was part of a week-long special pitting male lookalikes against female lookalikes. All of the prize money was donated to charity, with Chua designating his prize share to the Tiger Woods Foundation. Chua said they filmed all five episodes in one day.

He is paid the going rate of $250-$300 per hour for his appearances.

“It’s a fun thing. For me, it’s great because I can earn additional money on the side and travel to places I normally wouldn’t see. I’ve met some interesting people along the way,” he said.

Chua was born in Passaic General Hospital. He lived in Paterson for five years until his family moved to Bridgeton. After graduating Rutgers, he worked at South Jersey Hospital in Bridgeton and the Press of Atlantic City, both times as a programming analyst.

Not much later, he got a job offer to move to California where he has been ever since.

At his very first appearance in 2000, Chua was flown to San Francisco to appear at a housing convention in a hotel. The line to take photos with him was out the door. But such success hasn’t lasted.

Who knows what’s in store for Herme Chua – and Tiger Woods.

“People always ask me how Tiger is doing these days. They think I follow his every move,” said Chua, who would someday like to meet the real Tiger.

“I still go to the driving range and try to hit as long as Tiger. It’s a never ending quest. I have no problem hitting the ball off the fairway like he does sometimes.

“When you look like Tiger, people expect you to hit like Tiger. But this Tiger is just a regular guy from New Jersey.”