PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Some 44 years after shuffling on to the stage of “The Mike Douglas Show” as a 2-year-old and entertaining Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and the host by hitting golf balls into a net and rolling a few putts, Tiger Woods was at PGA Tour headquarters Wednesday night for his rightful induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“He is the rare athlete who not only exceeded the hype,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said of Woods, “he transcended it and continues to this day to have a massive influence on the game and the PGA Tour.”
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After winning three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur titles and three consecutive U.S. Amateur championships, Woods, 46, turned pro in 1996. He promptly won three times on the PGA Tour in his first 10 starts.
Then he won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots, a historic victory as Woods became the first man of color to win at Augusta National Golf Club. He also, at 21, became the youngest winner of the green jacket.
Woods became the needle that moved the sport. Purses began to significantly rise, TV ratings surged upward. His presence spurred more athletic, stronger players to pick up the game. His peers followed him into the gym and the game became one featuring more power.
His influence on advertising and fashion for the sport was striking. Minorities became attracted to golf. And a generation of youngsters wanted to be like Tiger.
The list of his feats stretches out as long as one of his drives from his heyday. The record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, the 15 major championships. A record 142 consecutive cuts made, a record 683 weeks – 13 years – atop the Official World Golf Ranking. A record 11 PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards.
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He’s the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam, doing so at age 24 when he won the 2000 British Open at the Home of Golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews. En route to becoming the only player to win four consecutive professional major championships – known as the Tiger Slam – he won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15, the 2000 Open by 8, the 2000 PGA in a playoff, and the 2001 Masters by two. And he won on a broken leg at the 2008 U.S. Open and captured his fifth Masters in 2019 following spinal fusion surgery (his fifth back surgery, to go along with five surgeries on his left knee).
The list goes on and on and on.
“What can I say about Tiger that we haven’t said already?” world No. 1 Jon Rahm said. “Besides entertaining all of us for 20 years and doing unbelievable things, he inspired the generation of players that you’re seeing today.
“You have at the top of the world a lot of 20-some-year-olds and early 30-year-olds that grew up watching him and trying to copy him, and I think that’s why the level of the game is as high as it is right now.
“Aside from everything that he did, I think it’s a testament to what he was able to accomplish and how many people he was able to inspire.”
“We’re committed to the World Golf Hall of Fame through 2023,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Buried in the shadow of the World Hall of Fame is a time capsule containing one item of significance contributed by each golf organization supporting the World Golf Hall of Fame, and each organization’s vision for golf in 50 years. Johnny Miller, in his NBC Sports blazer, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead were among the dignitaries that attended the ceremony to honor the game on March 26, 1997.
On the night that Tiger Woods will receive golf’s highest honor, a question has emerged: Will the World Golf Hall of Fame still be a monument to the game and its greatest players and contributors in 2047 when it’s time to open the time capsule? There’s an Augusta National green jacket down there, for goodness sakes!
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addressed the elephant in the room during his news conference at the Players Championship on Tuesday.
“We’re committed to the World Golf Hall of Fame through 2023,” he said, noting a date that marks the end of its 25-year lease and bond agreement with the state of Florida. “We’re looking at all of our options as we go forward. We’re fortunate to have been in St. Augustine for 25 years and are proud of the presence that we’ve created there.”
But… “The business of the Hall of Fame and the way that people consume Hall of Fames has changed, and we just want to make certain that any decision that we make about the next 25 years maximizes our ability to showcase the incredible careers and impact that every single member that’s in the Hall of Fame has had on our game,” Monahan added.
Hall of Fame golfers posing at the site of the future World Golf Hall of Fame on March 26, 1997. From left: Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller. (Photo: John Pemberton/The Florida Times-Union)
In other words, the World Golf Hall of Fame is officially on the clock.
Back when it opened in May 1998, it would’ve been unimaginable to think that the Hall could have failed. Yours truly was there for the grand opening, a lowly publications and website coordinator, but a fly on the wall to witness Hale Irwin apply lipstick to Nancy Lopez in the ‘green room’ and to hear Gene Sarazen pronounce the Hall as “beyond my wildest dreams.”
With a brand-new interchange off Interstate 95 and a location 20 miles south of Jacksonville, one million visitors were projected to pull off and attend the Hall and IMAX Theater, the 400,000 square feet of shops anchored by a 32,000-square-foot golf shop, golf-themed restaurants and two championship courses that would host a PGA Tour Champions event and episodes of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf.
As my original boss recalled not long ago, “it was like building Las Vegas in the middle of the desert, but without the gambling, the people and the desert.”
LPGA Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley, who attended the first induction when Nick Faldo and Miller joined the exclusive membership, summed up what it meant to have a place where the greats of the game were celebrated: “It’s thrilling to know that long after I’ve left this world, people can gather and see the history of golf in this facility.”
Pat Bradley attends the 2017 World Golf Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City. (Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
But will they? While the real estate that was built around it sold out and grew into a thriving community, the other commercial aspects of the World Golf Hall of Fame languished. The PGA Tour Stop? It closed and became office space for the First Tee until those employees moved into the new PGA Tour headquarters last year. It’s now leased by Reverb Church, a non-denominational megachurch. No truth to the rumors that the property owner shouted hallelujah to have found a new tenant.
The only remaining restaurant along the Walk of Champions is the Murray Bros. Caddyshack. The Hall has closed its putting course and snack bar and the Tour is currently building a new facility for PGA Tour Entertainment in Ponte Vedra Beach next to its Global Home that should be ready in 2023, meaning more empty commercial space is coming to the Walk of Champions. Given that World Golf Foundation CEO Greg McLaughlin, who earned more than $700,000 according to the non-profit’s Form 990 in 2018, is working out of the Global Home and not at the Hall of Fame that he runs, the writing is on the wall that the Hall, which suffers from low attendance, will be next to depart.
The Slammer & Squire at World Golf Village and the World Golf Hall of Fame in Florida. (Courtesy of the World Golf Village)
Monahan, to his credit, told me that figuring out the future of the Hall is a priority. Golf deserves to have its own version of Cooperstown, a shrine to celebrate the global game under one roof. It was an ambitious project that was supposed to be supported by all of golf’s participating organizations, but the bill ultimately was footed by the PGA Tour. (According to the World Golf Foundation’s Form 990, the induction ceremony costs nearly $1 million to put on, but some of that expense will be offset by charging a “donation” of $5,000 per ticket to attend Tiger’s ceremony on March 9.)
If it is to continue as a going concern, it should be considered a marketing expense. During the same news conference, Monahan noted that the Tour’s reserves total $221 million. Time to pump some of that money into breathing new life into the exhibits, which were cutting edge when I worked there but no longer are cutting it. (And, please, do us all a favor and make a new commercial!) Those exhibits should be interactive and heavy on Jack, Arnie, Gary and Nancy but even more so Tiger, Phil and Annika. It’s also time for the U.S. Golf Association and PGA of America, which have their own respective museums, and others who profit off the PGA Tour stars, to pony up too. Either that, or the Hall needs a white knight such as a Herb Kohler or Mike Keiser type that loves the game.
Maybe the uncertain future of the Hall at the World Golf Village shouldn’t be that surprising. After all, the previous version of the Hall closed at Pinehurst, North Carolina, where the only attendance spike was on rainy days. Here’s hoping history won’t repeat itself. There has been talk about a virtual Hall of Fame, and while that may make good business sense – a lot cheaper than the current lease – the men and women who have earned plaques deserve better than that. The Hall needs a reboot, but another home? The clock is ticking.
“Every player out here on Tour owes him a huge debt of gratitude.”
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Growing up amid the prairies of Kansas, Gary Woodland was a standout on the baseball field and basketball court.
Held his own on the golf course, too. But back in the mid-1990s, while his proud community of Topeka knew what he could do with a baseball and a basketball, very few had any idea what he could do with a golf ball.
“Golf wasn’t cool. And I played by myself,” Woodland said.
Then Tiger Woods exploded off the TV screen in the 1997 Masters.
“I was going to be 13 and it was the first golf tournament I ever paid attention to,” said Woodland, who has gone on to win four PGA Tour titles, including the 2019 U.S. Open. “I got the VHS tape; I’ve watched it 400 million times.
“It was a turning point for me. Tiger made the game cool. He was athletic, he was exciting, he could send the golf ball a mile. It’s not like I had to hide playing golf. But all of a sudden, I didn’t have to associate with just being a basketball player or a baseball player. I could associate with being a golfer. And that was cool.
“And Tiger did that.”
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He did so much more. The public got a glimpse of Woods for the first time when as a 2-year-old the mixed-race kid from a middle-class background waddled onto the stage of The Mike Douglas Show and wowed Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and the host by hitting golf balls into a net.
Less than 20 years later he was must-watch TV and became the needle that moved all things golf. Purses significantly rose – Woods led the Tour’s money list in 1997 with just over $2 million; the winner of this week’s Players earns $3.6 million. TV ratings spiked. Madison Avenue perked up. Wardrobes changed – think the swoosh. Power became the game’s calling. Minorities began to think they could have a place in the game.
And youngsters across the globe have tried to follow his lead ever since while his peers have followed him into the gym.
Woods didn’t just leave an impression on the old stately game, he changed it. Testament to his brilliance inside and outside the gallery ropes takes place Wednesday night when he steps on to the stage at PGA Tour headquarters for his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, where he’ll be introduced by his 14-year-old daughter, Sam.
“He’s done everything for the game,” said six-time Tour winner and 2014 FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel. “There isn’t one aspect of the game that he hasn’t had his hand in in changing.”
Woods’ considerable feats on courses the world over will be well documented on his plaque, although there won’t be enough space. There are the record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, 15 major championships, a record 142 consecutive cuts made, a record 683 weeks – 13 years – atop the official world rankings, a record 11 PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards.
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He won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15, the historic 1997 Masters by 12, the 2000 Open Championship by 8, the 2006 PGA Championship by 5. When he won the 2000 Open on the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, the Home of Golf, he became, at 24, the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam.
Less than a year later, he won the 2001 Masters, becoming the only player to ever win four consecutive professional majors. It’s better known as the Tiger Slam.
And he won on a broken leg at the 2008 U.S. Open and captured his fifth Masters in 2019 following spinal fusion surgery (his fifth back surgery, to go along with five surgeries on his left knee).
And Woods will tell you the best times he’s ever had on the golf course since turning pro came the past two years when he played with his 13-year-old son, Charlie, in the PNC Championship.
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Off the course, his heralded handiwork can be seen in the TGR Learning Lab on 1 Tiger Woods Way in Anaheim, California, a brick-and-mortar behemoth of educational opportunity created by his foundation, which has raised millions over the years for numerous charities. Opened in 2006, the Learning Lab is the backbone of his goal to provide kids a safe place to learn, explore and grow.
Talk to those kids and they’ll give you different reasons why he’s a Hall of Famer.
As time has marched on, and the injuries have taken their toll, a different Woods has emerged as he’s become a statesman of the game. The once relentlessly intense player who kept to himself and kept his thoughts close to the vest for most of his career has expanded his audience and been freer with his advice and guidance.
He has taken to many youngsters in the game, including Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler. The players were excited and proud to play for him when he was a playing captain for the USA’s victorious 2019 win in the Presidents Cup.
Woods is still recovering from a near-fatal, one-car accident in February 2021 in the Los Angeles area. If he’s to return to the PGA Tour, he will do so on a limited basis. We were lucky to see Woods at his zenith. We’d be lucky to see him there again.
His peers sure hope so.
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“He came out dominating. It was just a different ballgame. And what he’s done for the Tour is undeniable,” 2012 FedEx Cup champion and nine-time Tour winner Brandt Snedeker said. “The Tour wouldn’t be in the position it’s in without him.
“He’s been an unbelievable icon of sport, and to have him in golf has been extremely important for the sport’s growth. Every player out here on Tour owes him a huge debt of gratitude.”
In 1954, she sold her two horses for $150 to buy a car so that she could drive to the golf course.
Perhaps Judy Rankin said it best: Anyone who has played golf competitively views winning the U.S. Open three times as an eye-popping feat, whether male or female.
“We know the difficultly of that,” said Rankin, “and there are so few people who have done it.”
A dozen players, in fact, have won three or more U.S. Opens: Mickey Wright (4), Jack Nicklaus (4), Betsy Rawls (4), Ben Hogan (4), Willie Anderson (4), Bobby Jones (4), Babe Zaharias (3), Tiger Woods (3), Annika Sorenstam (3), Hollis Stacy (3), Hale Irwin (3) and Susie Maxwell Berning (3).
As of Wednesday evening, all 12 will be members of the World Golf Hall of Fame as both Woods and Maxwell Berning will be inducted into the class of 2021. They’ll be joined by pioneering architect Marion Hollins and former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.
Susie Maxwell Berning during the 1968 U.S. Women’s Open Championship which was held at the Moselem Springs Golf Club, Fleetwood, Pa. She was the winner of the event. Copyright Unknown/Courtesy USGA Archives.
Maxwell Berning might be the most underrated inductee in quite some time. A four-time major winner and mother of two, Maxwell Berning won four of her 11 LPGA titles, including two U.S. Opens, after giving birth to her first child in 1970.
This was decades before the LPGA began providing daycare for its members.
“I withdrew from a tournament in San Diego because I couldn’t find a babysitter,” said Maxwell Berning, who began playing the tour part-time after 1977 once eldest daughter Robin reached school age.
It was a horse that got Maxwell Berning started in golf. While out walking nine-month-old Joker around a bridal path in Oklahoma City, the colt suddenly got loose and bolted across the fairways and greens of Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma City.
Maintenance workers threatened to call the cops on 13-year-old Maxwell Berning, but ultimately the head pro said if she’d teach his two young children to ride, they’d forget the whole thing ever happened.
And so it began, Maxwell Berning picked up U.C. Ferguson’s kids every Saturday to teach them to ride. One day, Ferguson convinced Maxwell Berning to tie up her horse behind the pro shop and take a walk down the hill to where a group of golfers stood in a semi-circle having a grand old time.
“It was Patty Berg giving a clinic,” she recalled. “They were having so much fun.”
That did it. Maxwell Berning was 14 ½ when she first picked up a golf club. Ferguson, who in 2012 was inducted into the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame, would walk by on the range every once in a while and give her a five-minute tip.
In 1954, a 16-year-old Maxwell Berning sold her two horses for $150 to buy a car so that she could drive to the golf course.
A three-time Oklahoma City Women’s Amateur champ, Maxwell Berning became the first woman to earn a golf scholarship at Oklahoma City University, where she played on the men’s team.
When an opposing coach asked Abe Lemons about S. Maxwell, “Is it Steve or Sam?” Lemons said, “Sam will do.”
“I played under Sam Maxwell during my college days,” said Susie, who looking back feels a bit sorry for the young boys she played against, even though she didn’t win many matches.
Susie Maxwell Berning (Oklahoma City University Archives)
Maxwell Berning wasn’t sure about her plans after college, but after seeing Betsy Cullan and Betsy Rawls enjoy success on the LPGA, Maxwell Berning figured she should give a shot because she’d beaten both players in state amateur tournaments.
“I don’t know what you did in 1964 to turn pro,” she said. “How did you even know who to call?”
She figured it out somehow, earning $450 in her first LPGA event, the Muskogee Civitan Open, in her home state.
A petite player at 5-foot-2, Maxwell Berning took pride in making pars, winning four majors on the strength of her short game and tenacity.
“There’s something to be said for the people who you put in the category of played many very difficult courses well,” said Rankin, who will introduce her friend at the World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony on Wednesday night. “I always have a special regard for those people.”
Maxwell Berning’s first major title came at the 1965 Women’s Western Open, where she edged out Marlene Hagge at Beverly Country Club in Chicago.
Her second major title came in 1968 at the Moselem Spring Golf Club, where she defeated Mickey Wright by three strokes. Maxwell Berning said she overslept the first time she was scheduled to play with Wright and nearly missed her tee time.
When she won the 1973 USWO at the Country Club of Rochester, her husband had to wake her up at noon on Sunday. Not much seemed to rattle her.
“I was raised on a public golf course,” said Maxwell Berning, “and when I entered the Open and they said ‘Play away, please’ in their fancy blazers, it gave me a sense of formality, and for some reason, I took every shot a little more seriously. I wish I could’ve taken that attitude into every tournament I played in.”
Rankin, whose son Tuey grew up with Robin on the LPGA circuit, said the most difficult thing about raising a family on tour back then was finding reliable childcare. Players would call ahead to tournaments and hope that someone could help.
“I’m sure at the time it probably kept some people from playing professional golf,” said Rankin, “but as time went on, it’s become so great for players. … I’m not saying that we walked to the golf course in snow barefoot, but it was very different.”
Maxwell Berning gave birth to daughter Cindy seven years after Robin and during the summers, Tuesday afternoons and Wednesdays became the days they’d do something together as a family unit. The chocolate factory tour in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian museums in D.C. were among their favorite stops.
Berning worked with a few First Tee junior golfers at the 15th tee during a fundraising event for the program. Golfer Susie Berning, 1968 Women’s US Open champion, revisits Moselem Springs Golf Course on Saturday, July 7, 2018 where she won her first Open title. Photo by Jeremy Drey (Photo By Jeremy Drey/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
One of the great family travel snafus was the time a 12-year-old Robin and 5-year-old Cindy, flying alone, got on a plane to Columbus, Ohio, rather than Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Once everyone was finally together in Tulsa, Maxwell Berning joked that the next time the sisters get on the wrong plane, they should travel to London or somewhere more exciting.
“I tell you what,” said Maxwell Berning of life on the road, “they grow up fast.”
Robin took up golf at age 14 and played on the boys team in high school on the Big Island in Hawaii before starting her college career at San Jose State. The competition was so stiff there, however, that she transferred to Ohio State to play for former LPGA player Therese Hession.
In 1989, Susie and Robin became the first mother-daughter duo to play the same LPGA event at the Konica San Jose Classic.
After Robin later Monday-qualified for the Rochester Invitational, where Cindy caddied for her, she wasn’t prepared for the amount of press that followed her and her mother that week.
“That was my jumping off point to try and figure out something else to do,” said Robin.
LPGA ‘Founders’ Shirley Spork, Marlene Hagge Vossler and Susie Maxwell Berning sit off the 18th green during the third round of the Bank Of Hope Founders Cup at Wildfire Golf Club on March 17, 2018, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
For the past 20 years, Maxwell Berning has worked as an instructor at The Reserve Club in Palm Springs, California, and about 10 members are making the cross-country trip to Ponte Vedra for the induction ceremony, along with her two daughters and two grandkids.
At first, Robin wasn’t quite sure what to make of her mother being in the same Hall of Fame class as Tiger Woods.
“In all honesty, I think it is an honor,” said Robin. “That people outside of the family and outside of our small circle of friends feel that what she’s accomplished in her life, that it validates, it stands tall enough in the eyes of others that she belongs standing next to Tiger.”
On Wednesday, Woods will team up with his other child, daughter Sam.
Woods chose his daughter to introduce him for his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, which will be held beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday at PGA Tour headquarters within the shadows of TPC Sawgrass, home to this week’s Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship event.
Also being inducted into the Hall of Fame is former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who will be introduced by Hall of Fame member Davis Love III, and three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Susie Maxwell Berning, who will be introduced by Hall of Fame member Judy Rankin.
Trailblazer Marion Hollins will also be inducted posthumously.
Sam, 14, was born the day after Woods tied for second in the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. She was at Southern Hills in Oklahoma later in the year when Woods won the 2007 PGA Championship.
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Woods, who has won a record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles and 15 major championships, played alongside Charlie, 13, at the PNC Championship for the second time. This year, it was the first time Woods played in a tournament since his near-fatal car accident in February in the Los Angeles area.
Woods is still recovering from injuries sustained in the crash.
Feherty will serve as emcee of the World Golf Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony scheduled for March 9.
The World Golf Hall of Fame announced that NBC and Golf Channel analyst and funnyman David Feherty will serve as host of the 2022 induction ceremony, which will air live on Golf Channel at 7 p.m. ET on March 9.
The ceremony on the eve of the Players Championship at the PGA Tour’s ‘Global Home’ headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, will honor the Hall’s four newest members who were chosen in 2020: Susie Maxwell Berning, former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, the late Marion Hollins and Tiger Woods. The ceremony was postponed for one year due to the global pandemic.
“As someone who has been around golf practically my entire life, I know firsthand that the highest possible honor in our sport is the immortality that is reserved for members of the World Golf Hall of Fame,” said Feherty, the former host of “Feherty Live” and beloved for his irreverent sense of humor. “I’m thrilled to contribute in some small way to what will be a historic evening as the Hall of Fame honors its new inductees.”
The addition of these four individuals will bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 164.
The addition of four new members, including Tiger Woods, will bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 164. (Bob Self/Florida Times-Union)
As part of the ceremony, the Hall of Fame also will display its new induction trophy for the first time. Designed by Tiffany Co., the arc of the trophy handle embodies the golf swing and represents the global nature of the sport.
In addition to honoring the 2022 induction class, the ceremony will recognize Peter Ueberroth and the late Dick Ferris as recipients of the inaugural lifetime achievement to honor their contributions to the sport. Renee Powell also will be honored for her spirit in advancing diversity in golf as the first recipient of the Charlie Sifford Award.
The ceremony will take place in Northeast Florida for the first time since 2013, with most recent ceremonies held in California (2019), New York (2017) and Scotland (2015).
Now’s the time to see memorabilia from Tiger Woods’ historic career.
One room isn’t big enough for Tiger Woods – even the World Golf Hall of Fame’s spacious Exhibit Hall, reserved every two years for a display honoring the incoming induction class.
That’s why the memorabilia honoring the star of the Class of 2022, which will be inducted on March 9 at the PGA Tour’s Global Home in Ponte Vedra Beach, is spread out all over the 75,000 square-foot structure just off I-95 in central St. Johns County.
The Hall of Fame will open the exhibit featuring Woods, who took golf by storm as a rookie in 1996 and still hasn’t fully let go, former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, four-time LPGA major champion Susie Maxwell Berning, and golf course architect and developer Marion Hollins to the public on Saturday.
The Hall of Fame and Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. The exhibit for the incoming class, which will increase membership in the Hall to 164, will be open for approximately six months.
The date for the opening of the exhibit was not intended to coincide with Woods making his first public appearances and interviews this week, 10 months after a near-fatal car accident in Los Angeles.
Garry Smits/Florida Times-Union
But it will certainly remind fans of the scope and breadth of his contributions and achievements in golf.
Hall of Fame spokesman Jeff Szlinski said Woods was “hands-on,” during the process of deciding which of his personal items would be lent to the Hall of Fame.
Woods had most of the items at his Jupiter home. Some, including those from his junior golf days, were at his mother’s home.
“Anyone who has listened to Tiger’s interviews over the years knows that he has a great appreciation and knowledge of golf history,” Szlinski said. “He was very involved with the Hall of Fame staff members who went down there to work with him.”
The main exhibition honoring the 2022 inductees includes some items fans of Woods and golf might want to see with their own eyes, such as the red shirt, shoes, and player badge he wore during the final round of the 2019 Masters, where he won his 15th major championship and 82nd PGA Tour title to tie Sam Snead for the all-time record; the hat he wore in winning his third U.S. Amateur in 1996 at Pumpkin Ridge; and the putters he used in winning his first two U.S. Amateurs, including 1994 at the TPC Sawgrass.
Garry Smits/Florida Times-Union
Also in the display case are Woods’ trophies for being named player of the year, rookie of the year, winning World Golf Championships, his ESPY Award, his Wheaties box, and one humble yet special item: a hole-in-one plaque for acing a par-3 at a course in Long Beach, Calif., when he was only 6 years old.
But that’s not the only place at the Hall of Fame to find all things Tiger.
It begins at the main entrance, where items commemorating his time at Stanford University are in a small display case.
There’s also a significant corner of the Hall of Fame’s “Major Moments,” exhibit honoring golf’s four major championships: a display case with the trophies Woods won when he held the titles from the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship at the same time in 2001.
The room dedicated to the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup also has Woods-related items, such as Ryder Cup bags and uniforms, plus two gifts he received in Australia when he was the 2019 Presidents Cup captain: a boomerang and an Australian Rules football.
A contribution from Tiger Woods’ mother was a plaque commemorating a hole-in-one he made at 6 years old. Garry Smits/Florida Times-Union
There are Woods-related items in the rooms honoring The Players Championship, contributions made by minority golfers, his locker in the Hall of Fame locker room, and in another area reserved for unusual items difficult to categorize, “Tales from the Collection.”
That room contains Woods’ oversized check for winning his first PGA Tour event, the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational.
Woods’ impact on golf can be seen in the amount on that check, then and now. He earned $270,000 that year. When Sungjae Im won that event in October, he earned $1.26 million, more than four times what Woods banked.
As Woods won more and more, his charisma, popularity, and talent dominated professional golf, and TV networks and title sponsors began to pay more and more to be a part of his ascension to a level occupied in the past only by his boyhood idol, Jack Nicklaus.
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Golf fans will also be able to see the contributions made by the other three inductees through their exhibits, such as the garage-sale putter Berning used to win the 1973 U.S. Open; the set of knives given to Finchem as a gift from the Ryder Cup; and blueprints and drawings by Hollins, who was one of the first women golf-course architects and developers.
The induction ceremony on March 9 will be at 7 p.m. and aired by Golf Channel. It marks the first ceremony on the First Coast since 2013 at the Hall of Fame. The induction has been rotated since, going to St. Andrews, Scotland, Pebble Beach, and New York.
The award’s inaugural recipient will be Renee Powell, the second Black woman to compete on the LPGA in 1967.
It was on this day in 2004 that Charlie Sifford was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame. As a way to honor the first Black player on the PGA Tour, on Monday the Hall of Fame announced the creation of the Charlie Sifford Award presented by Southern Company for those who advance diversity in golf.
The award’s inaugural recipient will be Renee Powell, who became the second Black woman to compete on the LPGA in 1967 after Althea Gibson in 1964. Powell will be honored as part of the Hall of Fame’s 2022 induction ceremony on Wednesday, March 9, during the Players Championship. Tiger Woods, Susie Maxwell Berning, Tim Finchem and the late Marion Hollins comprise the 2022 class, and will bring the number of Hall of Fame members to 164.
“As a youngster my parents fought to get me into tournaments when I was not welcomed because of the color of my skin, which instilled in me how important it is to get young people into the game to help build their self-confidence,” said Powell via a release. “I’m honored to be the first recipient of this award and to see Charlie Sifford be recognized for breaking down barriers that never should have been put in front of him and all others of color who strived to play this game. I was taught early on by my parents that golf should be a sport for everyone, and we can all diversify this game in so many ways.”
During her professional career Powell played in more than 250 tournaments. Since 1995 she has been the head PGA/LPGA professional at Clearview Golf Club in Ohio, established by her father, William Powell, in 1946 as the first golf course in the country designed, built, owned and operated by a Black person.
“The creation of this award will establish a platform for celebrating the significance of Charlie Sifford’s contributions to golf in the face of adversity,” said World Golf Hall of Fame CEO Greg McLaughlin. “In partnership with Southern Company, the Hall of Fame is committed to ensuring his legacy endures for future generations by recognizing others – like Renee Powell – who are devoted to making the sport a welcome environment for all.”
“On behalf of the Sifford family, we are immensely proud and honored to have this award established in my father’s name,” said Charles Sifford Jr. “My father, my number one hero, simply wanted to play the game he loved so much and – in this pursuit – endured enormous challenges as an African American golfer. His skills, perseverance, grit, and determination propelled him to continue his dream. He was successful despite having to overcome multiple barriers of discrimination. His hard-fought efforts paved the way for other minority golfers to pursue their career. This award is honorably illuminated by having a longtime family friend and successful African American female golfer, Renee Powell, as the first recipient. This really is something special.”
The Cat is back to hunting down golf trophies, just not on the course.
Tiger Woods is back to hunting down golf trophies, just not on the course.
The 82-time winner on the PGA Tour and 15-time major champion shared on Twitter that he’s seeking out his favorite trophies for his World Golf Hall of Fame exhibit and included a photo of his 1996 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year hardware.
It was 25 years ago that Woods stormed on the professional scene, winning two events in his first full season on Tour. Woods claimed the five-round Las Vegas Invitational at 27 under after a playoff with Davis Love III and two weeks later took home the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic at 21 under, one stroke ahead of Payne Stewart.
I was trophy hunting trying to pick out some favorites for my Hall of Fame exhibit and found this guy. Excited to see it all come together soon. pic.twitter.com/MNPK7Q7iTt
The World Golf Hall of Fame announced in December of 2020 that the induction ceremony for the 2021 class would be postponed to March 9, 2022 during the week of the Players Championship. Joining Woods in the hall will be four-time major champion and 11-time LPGA winner Susie Maxwell Berning, former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and female golf pioneer Marion Hollins (posthumously), bringing the total member total to 164.
The stretch of Florida known as the First Coast offers tons of options, with TPC Sawgrass and Hammock Beach leading the way in the rankings.
Florida is synonymous with golf. It’s the Sunshine State, where fairways roll for miles and there’s always another course to sample – more than 1,250 of them in all.
Want to play where the top PGA pros live? These days, that’s Jupiter on the southeast coast. On vacation with the family? Plenty of tee boxes are available around Orlando and Disney World. Looking for a retirement home where you can tumble out of your own bed and land on a fairway? Naples and its surrounding towns are ground zero for those fortunate transplants. Three top-ranked courses in one comprehensive, golf-focused resort? Streamsong, just southeast of Tampa, ticks that box nicely.
Just about anyone who travels to play Florida golf is at least somewhat familiar with those regions. But what if you’re looking for something different, maybe a coastline where the game is on an uptick? Keep reading, because the region south of Jacksonville has something for any golfer, ranging from elite PGA Tour courses to municipal standouts with long histories and cheap green fees. And it doesn’t hurt at all that this First Coast, as it is called, is the first bit of Florida that anybody driving south on I-95 will reach.
The pool scene at Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa (Courtesy of Hammock Beach)
Golf in Northeast Florida roughly can be categorized as three geographic areas along an 80-mile stretch of coast starting at the Georgia state line. There’s the smaller area north of Jacksonville proper, with the resorts at Amelia Island and a handful of courses. Continuing south, there’s Jacksonville itself, the largest city in Florida by population and the largest in the contiguous United States as measured by land mass. And then there’s south of Jacksonville all the way down toward Daytona Beach, a stretch that includes Ponte Vedra Beach, home to the PGA Tour.
The top-rated courses in the Golfweek’s Best public-access rankings are found in this stretch south of Jacksonville, so this story takes us to this region dotted with beach resorts, high-end gated communities, daily-fee destinations and even a recently revamped municipal that shouldn’t be missed. The full scope of green fees and amenities to suit any budget. Oceanside holes. Inland holes. Old layouts and renovated tracks. Even one course with three, six, 12 or even 18 holes, depending on how you want to play it. Options abound.
Mention the region and most golfers flash right to TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. Completely understandable. The Players Stadium Course – and, of course, its famed par-3, island-green 17th – hosts the PGA Tour’s Players Championship each year. It’s the top-ranked public-access layout in Florida, home to one of Pete Dye’s monsters.
But just as there is more than one island green along this stretch of coast, there is much more to the region.
“People are always aware of TPC Stadium and the Players, but they are often surprised by everything else,” said David Reese, president of Florida’s First Coast of Golf, a non-profit organization established nearly 30 years ago to promote the region. “Once people set foot in northeast Florida, they are blown away. … You’ve got the beaches, of course, but there’s a lot more to do. I could go on for hours, so many courses.”
