AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods’ legacy in Augusta, Georgia, will embrace greater than the 5 inexperienced jackets he gained on the Masters in his profession.
Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership chairman Fred Ridley introduced Monday that Woods and his TGR Design agency are designing a brand new nine-hole quick course on the Patch, the previous Augusta Municipal Golf Course, which is the place lots of the caddies who labored the Masters discovered to play golf.
Moreover, Woods’ TGR Basis will open its fourth TGR Studying Lab in Augusta, which is able to present entry to science, know-how, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) training and different alternatives for college students in Richmond County. Augusta Nationwide will present funding for building and ongoing operations of the training lab.
“We acknowledge the significance of deepening Tiger’s legacy in Augusta and with the Masters, and this we felt was an everlasting manner that we might be endlessly related with Tiger and all he is achieved on the Masters and now all that he’ll be doing on this group,” Ridley stated in a information convention Monday saying the partnership.
Ridley stated he was enjoying golf with Woods at Augusta Nationwide earlier than the 2024 Masters when he advised him in regards to the membership’s plan to renovate the Patch.
“It was clear after I shared the idea that it form of piqued his curiosity, and that was form of the start of a dialog, a dialogue that came about between our organizations, and after that a couple of conferences came about, and the thought simply form of grew from what we have been doing to how Tiger and TGR might be concerned,” Ridley stated. “He then form of moved into discussing the large concept of the TGR Studying Lab, which to me is simply very thrilling.”
Woods, who final gained the Masters in 2019, introduced on Could 11 that he had had surgical procedure after rupturing his left Achilles tendon whereas ramping up coaching and apply at residence to play within the Masters. It could have been his twenty seventh begin within the Masters.
“Partnering with Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership to serve its surrounding group is really particular,” Woods stated in an announcement. “My ardour for training and golf dates again a very long time, as does my relationship with Augusta Nationwide and town of Augusta. This can be a transformational alternative to empower the following era and ship significant academic programming and entry to enjoyable and inexpensive golf. I’m excited to work alongside Augusta Nationwide and see each initiatives develop into a actuality.”
Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership employed architects Tom Fazio and Beau Welling to revamp the 18-hole course on the Patch, which opened in 1928. The brand new membership’s emblem will embrace a head of cabbage; locals fondly known as the course the Patch as a result of longtime course supervisor Crimson Douglas had a vegetable backyard planted behind the 14th inexperienced and later close to the tenth tee. The brand new format can pay homage to 11 authentic holes.
The Patch renovation has already began and can embrace a brand new driving vary, quick recreation facility, clubhouse, out of doors pavilion area and classroom area for academic applications.
Woods’ nine-hole course, the Loop on the Patch, will even be on the property, which is situated on the newly named Jim Dent Method. Dent was a caddie at Augusta Nationwide and gained 12 occasions on the Senior PGA Tour within the Eighties and Nineties.
“The caddies at Augusta are a part of our legacy, and we definitely intend to proceed to honor them on the Patch,” Ridley stated. “They have been an enormous a part of that historical past. I do know that these which are nonetheless round are very excited in regards to the challenge.”
Augusta Nationwide hopes to open the Patch to the general public round subsequent 12 months’s Masters, and the TGR Studying Lab is scheduled to open on the website of a closed elementary faculty in 2028.
