Tournament host Tiger Woods has gone out of his way this week to honor servicemen at the AT&T National PGA Tour event. He named the pro-am in honor of his late father, a 20-year Army veteran. He donated 30,000 tournament tickets to active-duty military personnel.
Sgt. Maj. Mia Kelly of the 1st Information Operations Command at Virginia's Fort Belvoir, and Master Sgt. Andy Amor of Maryland's Andrews Air Force Base were paired with Woods for the pro-am.
But another Woods stole the show on No. 7.
Sgt. Michael Woods, a 32-year-old from DeLand, works in administration at Army Materiel Command Headquarters at Fort Belvoir and was selected to be Tiger's honorary caddie for just one hole.
As Tiger lined up his birdie putt, he turned to his caddie.
"He asked me to put the bag down and called me over to him, and he asked me: 'What do you see?' " Sgt. Woods said. "I said: 'Fairway leans to the right, you should hit it to the left.' And he said: 'Here you go.' So I took the putt."
"Show me," Tiger said as he handed his trusty putter to Sgt. Woods, who promptly knocked down the 12-footer.
The gallery went wild.
"I think it means a lot to a lot of people," Sgt. Woods said of Tiger's military support. "This is our independence and the birth of our nation, so it was really cool that he put this event on and allowed the military to be a part of it."
Sgt. Woods learned at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday he would get to caddie for Tiger.
"I knew that I would be out here somewhere with a professional golfer, I just didn't know which one," he said. "I've been playing golf a little bit, trying to get decent at it, and that was probably the best putt I've ever seen in my life.
"I'm nervous right now," he said. "I'm shaking."
The word around Congressional was that Tiger gave the putter to the soldier, but Tiger quashed that report after finishing his round.
"No, I stole it back," he said. "It's got 11 majors in it."
Either way, Tiger made this July 4 one many soldiers will never forget.
"This is a day I'll remember forever," Sgt. Woods said.
Thanks for the update- Again, he’s a great role-model and a patriot.
Sinking a putt for Tiger Woods... Using his putter! That would be a hoot!
It sounds like Tiger gets it. I don’t insist that he impoverish himself giving it all away. It looks like he put on a nice event here, and a lot of military people had a good time. A good deed all around.
And it never hurts to have some Good Karma rub off on your putter...
Love it!