Heritage

Charity that makes Woods a winner for all seasons

golf

PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan (L) with Tiger Woods during the Pro-Am of the Genesis Open at the Riviera Country Club. AFP PHOTO

This week, the great Tiger Woods leads a star-studded field to the Genesis Open at the Riviera Country Club, California. And whilst the golfing world is excited to see Woods tee it up for another event on the 2018 PGA Tour schedule, and hopefully see him compete at a higher level, what has got my attention was the charity aspect around this event.

The Genesis Open is organised by TGR Live, a Tiger Woods Venture that puts together premium charity events that benefit the TGR Foundation.

TGR Live organises golf and music events, golf outings and other high-end premium events whose proceeds go to funding the various charitable activities that Woods undertakes mainly in education.

In addition to the Genesis Open, TGR Live organises The National in Washington DC, the Tiger Woods Invitational Presented by USLI at the Pebble Beach Resort and the Hero World Challenge in Albany, Bahamas.

Over the years, the events organised by TGR Live have raised 100s of millions of dollars, some of which is spent on organsing the various golf events, with the inevitable high prize kitty, and the rest going to fund various charity ventures under the Tiger Woods Foundation.

The prize kitty at the Genesis Open is a huge Sh734m ($7.2m) and Woods will tee through the first two round in the company of Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy. Thomas and McIlroy are the past two winners of the FedEx Cup whilst Woods was the winner in 2007 and 2009 – making him the only multiple winner of the FedEx Cup. Woods has not played at Riviera since 2006 and he is currently reintroducing himself to competitive golf after many years out of competition due to injury and personal challenges.

Back in 2006, Woods was the number one golfer in the world, today, he is ranked 550th on the Official World Golf Ranking, an improvement of over 100 places due to his T23rd performance at the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open two weeks ago.

Woods first played Riviera as a 16-year old in 1992 after receiving a sponsor’s invite and finished 17 strokes behind the winner, Davis Love III.

“ It was eye-opening knowing that I was really not that good. I thought I could play the game, but obviously I wasn’t worth a lick compared to these guys and had a long way to go,” Woods said. “I’ve had several chances to win at Riviera, but just haven’t gotten it done. Obviously, it would mean a lot to me, even more now as tournament host,” he is quoted saying.

How Woods will fair on the golf course today and this weekend, assuming he does make the cut, is in question, however, the obvious winner will be the TGR Foundation and the hundreds of beneficiaries who are supported by the Foundation.

Incidentally, Woods has now renamed his foundation to TGR Foundation, saying he recognises that it now includes even more people.

“Over the last 21 years, my foundation has grown to be larger than just me, and I am excited to announce our new name, TGR Foundation, that reflects this growth,” said Woods. “TGR Foundation belongs to the community and the students we serve. We have accomplished so much over the years, but we have just scratched the surface. I look forward to the next stage of our journey.”