For Woods, winning isn’t everything

LAS VEGAS — Tiger Woods is doing that hackey sack thing with the golf ball.

Bouncing it in on his sand wedge. Tap. Tap. Tap. In between his legs. With his left hand. Up in the air and, wham, he sends it flying.

Gasps can be heard from the small, exclusive crowd, gathered in a tent at the driving range of the Rio Secco Golf Club.

It’s overcast and windy, and Tiger, even with his microphone cutting in and out, charms the gathered golfers — comedian Ray Romano, NFL Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen and “NYPD Blue’s” Henry Simmons among them. They’ve come for Tiger Jam, the annual fund-raising dinner and concert for The Tiger Woods Foundation.

The weekend will help steer the spotlight way from the fact that the 28-year-old phenomenon has been struggling on the golf course. Tiger’s game is nowhere near where it was in 2000, when he was at the height of his career; he hasn’t won a major tournament in 18 months. Blame has been put on everything from his equipment to having a fiancee, Elin Nordegren, to his parting of the ways with longtime coach Butch Harmon.

Just last week, fellow golfer Ernie Els told reporters in England that Tiger’s days of domination are over. “That big gap that Tiger has had, I don’t think that’s going to happen for a while again,” Els said. “The way he played in 2000, it was just impossible. He’s not playing like that anymore.”

To Tiger, however, this weekend shouldn’t be about defending himself or his game.

“The foundation is a lot more important than winning tournaments,” says Woods, sitting quietly in the Rio Secco clubhouse before the exhibition.

His allergies are bugging him, even though he has doubled up on Claritin, and he sounds a little stuffy. He’s sipping a bottle of water. And although he’s wearing a Nike baseball hat and golf shirt and is vulnerable with sinus troubles, it still feels a bit like meeting the chairman of the board.

“I’m growing, maturing and understanding what I can do,” he says.

And before now?

“I just didn’t have an understanding of that.”

He means an understanding of the power of Tiger, beyond golf.

“I’ve matured, and I’m able to have an impact with the foundation. That’s always been much more important than winning golf tournaments.

“People might think that’s not the case, but that has always been the case, even before I turned pro — to have an impact away from golf.”

His father, Earl Woods, a former Green Beret who is now chairman of The Tiger Woods Foundation (but receives no salary), has even compared Tiger to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. In a telephone interview just days before Tiger Jam, Earl declares again: “I foresee that he will make his largest contribution in the philanthropic area and humanitarian-type efforts. It will dwarf anything he has accomplished in golf.”

The Pied Piper

Father and son created The Tiger Woods Foundation in 1996. Tiger had just turned pro. The world reeled at his amazing ability to focus on the golf ball.

“The side you see so little of is his caring side,” Earl Woods says. “When I was growing up, the Pied Piper was from Germany and played his toodley-oo and the kids followed him and he was white. I have seen Tiger,” who describes himself as Cablinasian (Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian), “and he is now the new Pied Piper. The kids follow him because he trusts them and they know he’s for real.”

Says Tiger of being the new Pied Piper: “I think that’s possibly because I still am a kid.”

He smiles.

“I have a hard time taking everything seriously.”

But this is one of the most serious golfers the game has ever seen.

“That’s my job,” he says. “In order for me to function and be the best I can in my job, that’s the level of intensity that I need. Other than that, I don’t take anything seriously.”

His friends confirm that. “He’s just a guy,” says ESPN Sports Center host Stuart Scott, who recently had dinner with Tiger and some other pals. “He’s one of your boys. He dishes it and gives it back.”

So what does Tiger Woods really believe in?

“It’s a lot different from what people might think,” Woods says, “because it’s not all golf. It never has been. That’s what they see.”

A Tiger and a Prince

Prince is rocking the house. Everybody is up and dancing. Tiger is down on the Mandalay Bay arena floor, three rows back from the stage, in an area with celebrities including Holly Robinson Peete, “Alias”’ Melissa George, Richard Greico, “King of Queens”’ Kevin James, M.C. Hammer and others.

Elin is bopping around. At one point, she puts her head on Tiger’s shoulder. But they aren’t lovey-dovey in public. Most of the night he isn’t even next to her; he’s off talking to his guests, pumping his fist in the air to the music. And earlier, he tackled the red carpet press lineup without her.Tiger won’t say when exactly the marriage will be. “In the future” is his answer. In Sweden? “In the future,” he answers again. He says he plans to have kids.

“There’s no doubt about that.”

A lot of kids?

“Not too many. I was an only child. I’ve never wanted a huge family because I’ve never had that in my life. It was always me, my mom and dad. The only problem was I couldn’t get away with anything.” He chuckles.

He can’t get away with much now, it seems. Golf watchers wonder if all the changes in Tiger’s life are affecting his golf game. He’s not winning big, as he has made the world accustomed to seeing him do. And ever since he parted company with his longtime coach Butch Harmon in 2002, his swing has suffered. “We’ll always be friends,” Tiger says of Harmon. “He’s a great coach and he taught me a lot. A great coach teaches you to be self-sufficient.”

Steady progress

At the pre-concert charity auction and dinner, Romano introduced Tiger by showing a short golf highlights clip reel. Whack! Whack! Whack! One beautiful shot after another. When it ended, Tiger was at the podium: “I used to be pretty good, huh?”

The crowd cracked up.

His father swears Tiger “is a better golfer now” than he was in 2000, a stellar time for him. He won seven of 11 majors from August 1999 to June 2002 and became the first to win four consecutive. Both Tiger and his father say that wasn’t a peak, no matter what anyone says. The best is yet to come.

“He’s satisfied with what he’s doing, and what he’s doing is finding a better way to do something. He doesn’t have it down pat yet, but he’s getting there. When he’s there, he’ll explode,” says Earl Woods, a master of Tiger-spin as well as a protective and proud father.

Even Tiger hints at soon unveiling a better Tiger on the course. “It’s exciting to know the things I’m working on (in his game) are really coming to fruition. It’s a matter of time and being patient with it.

“If you look, basically from this entire spring I’ve had steady progression. I know the record doesn’t reflect it, but if you’re out there watching me every day hit shots, you’ll see the steady progress of it. Everything’s been steady progress.”

And when it isn’t anymore, he’ll stop trying.

“I’ve always said I’ll never play golf when my best is not good enough to win. I’ve been to the top and I know how it feels and I know when I play my best, I usually win. I don’t know how I would handle it if I were to play my best and my best wasn’t good enough anymore.

“I was talking to (tennis star) Pete Sampras about that yesterday. That’s one of the reasons why he quit. It was getting to the point in time where his best wasn’t quite good enough. It was close. It was borderline. So he decided to walk.”

Tiger and the kids

The weekend is expected to raise about $1 million. That’s what it has done for the past six years. The goal for the money now: Open the Tiger Woods Learning Center next spring.

It’s in west Anaheim, where there’s a large Hispanic population, not too far from where Tiger grew up in Cypress, Calif. When Tiger was a teenager, he played on the Dad Miller course right next to where the school is being built.

A private center, it will offer subsidized enrichment programs for disadvantaged children after school, during summer and when year-round school is not in session. Golf will be part of it; setting kids up for a better future is the goal.

Tiger gave the first $5 million to start the fund to build the Learning Center, which carries a price tag of $25 million, and could be the first of many, if successful. So far, $17 million has been raised.

“I wanted to have something of substance,” Tiger says. “Now we can actually see how much we can actually improve these kids’ lives.”

On Saturday afternoon, in a ballroom at Mandalay Bay, Tiger pops in to surprise five kids from the local area near the school. They were invited to the concert and to a mini focus group to get their ideas about what to offer at the school.

At first, they don’t know what to make of Tiger in a suit. But they settle in to tell him what they would like to see at the school.

After, Tiger says, “Kids are cool, aren’t they?”