Earl Woods Memorial Pro Am Tickets

'The game of golf can be a metaphor for life,' wrote Earl D. Woods in one of his books on golf. His well-known son is Tiger Woods. In 2006, the year of his death, he was 74. He is known as a father who nurtured the natural talent of his son. Subsequently, his son turned into a master golfer. Mr. Woods's training method was a mixture of the many things'”the teachings of Buddha, sports fundamentals, and stressing the need for concrete mental toughness. No doubt, the latter of these he gained from his 1960s experience as a Green Beret.

Earl Dennison Woods was born March 5, 1932 in Manhattan, Kansas. He was orphaned in his teens. Eventually attending Kansas State University on a baseball scholarship, his goal was to play in the Negro Leagues. He became one of the very first black men to play in the Big Eight Conference. (Yet, when the team traveled, they had to stay in segregated hotels, due to the racist Jim Crow laws of the time.) He joined the Army. This did not exempt him from racism. "Four of us were walking down the street, two black, two white, window shopping, enjoying ourselves. All of a sudden the police came up, threw us against the wall, handcuffed us, put us in the wagon, and drove us to jail,' Woods recalled in an interview. 'We were fined for disturbing the peace. Blacks and whites weren't supposed to mix in public'”that was our crime.' Woods worked for the Army public affairs unit in Brooklyn. There he signed-up for Special Forces, serving two full tours in Vietnam. He met Kultida Punswad, his second wife, overseas. Their son Eldrick was born in 1975. In honor of the South Vietnamese army officer who, during combat, saved his dad's life, Eldrick was given the nickname 'Tiger.' Colonel Woods had a twenty-year Army career, followed by business career as a Materials Manager. He retired in 1988.

The Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am has an uncertain future.

As a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, Earl Woods was privy to P.O.W. interrogation techniques. Whether this was part of the training to sharpen his son's focus on the game is doubtful, exaggerated, or hyperbole. Tossing golf clubs to break his son's concentration in the middle of a swing or shouting cacophonies is not remotely inflicting. Earl Woods was from an era of fathers who were direct and unabashedly non-psychological. His 'yes' meant yes. His 'no' meant no. Mr. Woods was careful to remind those who incessantly quizzed and misquoted him that it was Tiger himself who could whack a golf ball with unbelievable precision at a very young age. It is certainly believable that Mr. Woods, as he stated, first became aware of his son's magnificent talent at 10 months of age! At which time, Tiger could replicate his father's golf swing. His son immediately showed signs of mastery that can only be described as unfathomable. Not at Mr. Woods's behest, but because of pure talent, Tiger began his lifelong ambition to become a skilled practitioner of golf. Mr. Woods was famously quoted that his goal was 'not to raise a good golfer, [but] to raise a good person.' The vast media-induced misconception of Mr. Woods as a domineeringly dictatorial father persists today. Apparently the concept of toughening-up one's child is hard to understand to the modern predominant culture, which is obsessed with the faults and private lives of their heroes.