Tiger Woods says the future success of his foundation and the AT&T National is not connected to his success — or lack thereof — on the golf course.
I’m not sure about that.
When Tiger’s tournament made its debut in the D.C. area in 2007, he was royalty. He was coming off a season in which he won eight tournaments, including six consecutive tour events. He had 54 career wins, with 12 of them majors, and was on top of the world.
Just the idea of Tiger walking a golf course in the area created buzz, let alone getting a glimpse of him.
Fast forward to the 2012 media day Tuesday for the AT&T National, which will return to Congressional Country Club from June 26 to July 1. The last two years it was at Aronimink in Philadelphia because Congressional hosted the 2011 U.S. Open.
Tiger competed with fans in a chipping contest and a closest to the hole competition Tuesday.
From what we know about the warm and fuzzy Tiger, there was a time he would have rather stuck needles in his eyes than participate in that kind of promotional event.
But that was before the Thanksgiving car crash in his driveway and the revelation that followed that he had a harem on speed dial, from porn stars to a Perkins waitress.
That was before his Dr. Feelgood, Canadian physician Anthony Galea, was arrested in 2009 and indicted on five drug related charges, centering around smuggling HGH across the border.
That was before Tiger was questioned by federal authorities.
And that was before Tiger went nearly two years before he won a PGA Tour event. And after he finally won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Tiger finished in a tie for 40th at the Masters, missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship and had to fight to avoid missing a second straight cut at the Players Championship.
None of this matters, Tiger says, for the future success of his foundation.
“Right now the great thing about that is they are not together,” he said when asked about any connection between his play and the foundation’s future. “That’s the way I wanted it to be. I could be dead here in the next 30 seconds, but I want this foundation to live on. I want this foundation to have the ability to continue send kids off to college to make their lives better.
“We have impacted a number of kids around our country, the world,” he said. “They don’t need me to play golf tournaments. They don’t need me on the golf course, period.”
I hope so. The Tiger Woods Foundation appears to have helped lot of kids, and a good amount of them are here in the D.C. area, with two learning centers established.
But if Tiger Woods isn’t Tiger Woods anymore — well, then his foundation may wind up just another well-intentioned charity battling for limited funds out there.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
