Tiger Woods confirms Barack Obama prompted his involvement in designing Chicago golf course

Jason Owens
·Staff writer
Tiger Woods confirmed on Saturday that a call from former President Barack Obama prompted his involvement in designing a public Chicago golf course. (AP)
Tiger Woods confirmed on Saturday that a call from former President Barack Obama prompted his involvement in designing a public Chicago golf course. (AP)

Tiger Woods isn’t making much news on the course at The Masters this week, but he did manage to break some on Saturday off it at Augusta National.

Woods confirmed with the Chicago Tribune that his involvement in designing a golf course on Chicago’s South Side was prompted by a phone call from President Barack Obama.

“He actually called me about it,” Woods told the Tribune. “I’m not affiliated with the library (Obama Presidential Center), but we’re working with the state and the parks.”

Woods’ TGR design firm is working on a public golf course in Chicago’s Jackson Park with the goal of being affordable for residents and challenging enough to attract a PGA Tour event. The site of the proposed course is near former President Obama’s proposed presidential center which would act as his presidential library.

Both projects are in the planning stages and going through rigorous approval processes with the city that come with the challenges of ambitious builds in populated urban centers.

While rumors have tied the projects together, it wasn’t until Saturday that Woods confirmed that Obama set things in motion to get Woods involved.

“To have the opportunity to work with the president on something like this in his home city … if we can pull this off, I think it can benefit so many people on the South Side. Hopefully we can do it.”

Chicago Park District CEO Michael Kelly told the Tribune that the goal for the course is to keep greens fees at a $50 threshold for residents while allowing for children 17 or younger to play for free. Organizers also hope to attract the PGA’s BMW Championship, which is a stop on the FedEx Cup playoff and has been played several time on Illinois golf courses.

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