Triple Crown golf champion Tiger Woods and his father Earl Woods will be in the Tidewater area on September 23 and 24, providing clinics and workshops for inner-city youth from Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia. The Tidewater Youth Golf Association (TYGA) scheduled this two-day event with the Tiger Woods Foundation well over a year ago not knowing at the time that Tiger Woods fame and career would have catapulted even further to his current multi-record breaking status. One thing that was known was that the Tiger Woods Foundation and the Tidewater Youth Golf Association shared like purposes-to expose inner city, disadvantaged youth to the game of golf.
Billy Thompson and Alton Hatten, who is also head golf coach at Elizabeth City State University, founded the Tidewater Youth Golf Association in 1989. Hatten, a native of Norfolk who now resides in Portsmouth, and Thompson also of Portsmouth were first in the area to develop such an organization for inner-city, disadvantaged youth. Eleven years ago when TYGA started, Hatten and Thompson were addressing two concerns. Avid golfers themselves, they were bothered by the fact that they never say any minority children on the golf course. Secondly, they saw no place for minority children to learn. They decided to do something about it. TYGA started with seven children in 1989 and this year, since partnering with the City of Portsmouth, they have served about 500 children.
Several of these children and student-athletes of the Elizabeth City State University golf team will have an opportunity this weekend to meet and learn from both Tiger and Earl Woods. On Saturday, September 23, five classes that make up that day's workshop will be held at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk. One of the classes, "How to Build a Tiger," will be taught by Earl Woods himself. That evening a dinner-auction, which is already sold out, is being held at the NOVA Theatre in Downtown Norfolk. The dinner-auction is expected to raise approximately $200,000, which will benefit junior golfers of the Tidewater Youth Golf Association, the Tiger Woods Foundation, and other junior golf associations in the Tidewater area.
On Sunday, September 24, the clinic plus an exhibition featuring Tiger Woods will be held at the Ocean View Golf Course in Norfolk. The clinic will be divided into two sections- one for about 100 beginners and the other for approximately 25 advanced players. Tiger Woods himself will instruct the advanced group. After the clinic, Tiger Woods will participate in an exhibition that will include a hole-in-one contest. An added attraction will be Dennis Walters, a golf trick shot artist. The children in the clinic will have front row seats at the exhibition and will have the opportunity to ask Tiger questions. Sunday's activities will end with proceeds raised being awarded to the selected junior golf associations.
"This event is going to be worth its weight in gold," said Hatten. "Golf requires discipline of mind and body and Tiger exemplifies those two principles. Tiger is the perfect role model for these young people. The timing couldn't have been better."