Sport
Tiger Woods has a personal stake in his holiday event
Wearing a black suit and a red tie, standing tall before an audience of VIPs, Perez told of his family’s business going bankrupt during the economic downturn when he was in the seventh grade. He described himself as “frail, socially awkward and apathetic.” Upon hearing a presentation from a Tiger Woods Learning Center alum, the boy turned in his application and became a regular at the state-of-the-art center.
As a senior, he is the student body president and the school’s highest achiever. He is likely to become an Earl Woods Scholar to pay for his education at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He would be the first person in his family to go to college, not unusual for the previous 77 students in the program.
Only at the end did his voice crack when he introduced Woods, who embraced him and said to the audience, “Wow.”
“This is why we’re here, people like Edgar,” Woods said.
The message gets lost in another tournament, where the rich get richer. The 18-man field combined for about US$65 million in PGA Tour earnings alone this year, and last place pays US$120,000. Woods is not naturally gifted as a public speaker, and it’s easy to tune him out when he talks about the foundation or the learning centers. Along with the original Tiger Woods Learning Center in Orange County, there are two campuses in the Washington, D.C., area, one in Philadelphia and another in south Florida.
The foundation says 100,000 kids have attended Tiger Woods Learning Center programs, and that 73 percent of the Tiger Woods Learning Center students have a higher GPA that their school district’s average.
Steve Stricker was at the pro-am dinner and said he “got teary-eyed” when Perez spoke, which is not alarming. Stricker once donated US$100,000 of his earnings at the World Challenge to the foundation, though he was not aware how much Woods paid this year for operating costs. Nor was he surprised.
