Monday, December 17, 2007

TIGER WOODS SAYS WORK FOR CHILDREN
GIVES HIM A BIGGER THRILL THAN
WINNING A MAJOR TOURNAMENT

FROM THE BBC SPORTS WEBSITE:
Tiger Woods is hoping that he will be best remembered for his contribution to society rather than as one of the greatest golfers in history.
Woods, 31, has won virtually every major honour in the sport, but wants to leave a legacy that is not just about his achievements on the fairway.
"As far as my tombstone is concerned, hopefully it will read more of what I am trying to do for kids," he said.
"That would be so much more ultimate than winning any golf tournament."
Shortly after turning professional in 1996, he created the Tiger Woods Foundation with his late father Earl.
That paved the way for the first Tiger Woods Learning Centre, where children can develop life skills and, since the first centre opened in Anaheim, California in February 2006, 16,000 students have passed through its doors.
Woods plans to open a second centre in Washington DC within the next five years and says that it is the reaction he gets from the children, rather than his success, that makes it all worthwhile.
"Golf is something I do selfishly for myself," he told Reuters.
"I have a competitive side and that's how I express it.
"But the joy I get from winning a major championship, doesn't even compare to the feeling I get when a kid writes a letter saying: 'Thank you so much. You have changed my life'.
"Or: 'I have turned my life around because of you. I was in a gang and now I'm going to college. No one in my family has ever gone to a college and now I'm the first one to do it.' That, to me, is what it's all about."
Woods's weekend triumph at the Target World Challenge was his eighth of the season and the winner of 13 major titles said he would have jumped at the chance of going to a learning centre when he was younger.
"It would have been incredible," he added. "I didn't even know how to turn on a computer at that age.
"To see these kids and the enthusiasm they have for school, you don't normally see that until you get to college.
"But these kids create their own curriculum and it's pretty cool to see them that excited and that enthused about learning and developing their own future."

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