Why Is Tiger Woods Creating a Golf Education Center in Philadelphia?
Cobbs Creek Golf Course in West Philadelphia is about to receive a significant revitalization and some touches by celebrity golfer Tiger Woods.
After opening in 1916, Cobbs Creek Golf Course was one of the only courses in the area to permit participation from all ethnicities, genders, and races.
The Cobbs Creek Foundation assumed control over the property in recent years and raised more than $100 million to rebuild the course. Eventually, the facility will host a state-of-the-art, two-story driving range with a restaurant and an 18-hole course that can host PGA events.
Additionally, a nine-hole short course is nearly complete.
The cornerstone of the Cobbs Creek Golf Course project is the TGR Learning Lab, built with Woods’ help. Upon opening, the lab will focus on STEAM, educational enhancement, career and college readiness, health, and well-being. However, it will be a free community resource for more initiatives.
Here’s how Cobbs Creek convinced Woods to expand his TGR Foundation in Philadelphia:
“There was a very special golfer who got his start here, and he was the first Black PGA winner named Charlie Sifford,” Meredith Foote, executive director of the TGR Learning Lab, said in an interview with NBC News Philadelphia. “Charlie Sifford was friends with Tiger Woods’ father, Earl, and mentored him and became a father to him in his adulthood. And when Tiger had his second child, he named him Charlie after Charlie Sifford.”
It means everything to the people working at TGR and living in the West Philly community.
“I want to be a doctor when I grow up,” Fatima Choudhry, a TGR Learning Lab intern, said. “It’s really, really awesome how there’s courses here specifically tailored to science and engineering and math and arts and technology and all that.”
