Jamaican inner-city youths to meet Tiger

KINGSTON: Close to 200 youngsters from inner-city schools in Kingston will benefit from an alliance between the Jamaica Golf Association and the Tiger Woods Foundation. From August 12 to 14, 150 young Jamaicans will be taken through the fundamentals of golf at the Cable and Wireless National Golf Academy in New Kingston. Although Woods, the leading golfer in the world, will not be attending the three-day coaching clinic, his father, Earl, is expected to make an appearance.

“Earl really went to bat for Jamaica when the bid packages were  received,” Dennis Burns, director of the Tiger Wood Foundation, told reporters. “The JGA really put together a great package and this will be the second time we have gone outside the United States after Puerto Rico last year.” After the clinic, 15 of the budding golfers will be flown to California on August 26 for three days at Disneyland before a special training camp, where Tiger will personally tutor three of them. “This is all about supporting youth, supporting dreams,” Burns said. “Tiger and Earl always talk about having big dreams. How life goes nowhere without dreams and it is important that we come here and I don’t care if it’s one, five or 500 Jamaican youth, if we can instill that belief then we have done our jobs and so has the JGA.”