Tiger Woods to emphasize military service as host of golf event

First the Tour has to secure a golf course.

All signs point toward Congressional Country Club for 2007 and 2008. The club is to vote on the Tour's request over the next few weeks, and Woods and Finchem openly lobbied members to approve it.

"Right now, the energy at Congressional is very, very positive and very supportive," Finchem said. "And we hope that carries over to the response from the overall membership."

Finchem said the purse would be at least $6 million, but he hasn't decided the size of the field. He said it likely would be comparable to other invitationals -- Memorial, Bay Hill, Colonial -- which have fewer than the 156-man fields typical of summer events.

Woods always dreamed of being host of a regular PGA Tour event -- he just didn't expect it this soon.

He started the Target World Challenge, an unofficial event held in California in December, in 1999 and spoke to his father about finding a way to earn full Tour status.

"The way the Tour is structured, it didn't look like we would have an opportunity until 2010, '11 or '12," Woods said. "But we were lucky enough that this one came up."

It came at the expense of the International, played at Castle Pines outside Denver. Woods only played there twice, the last time in 1999, and didn't return because he didn't care for the golf course.

AT&T now is title sponsor of five tournaments. The company sponsors PGA Tour events at Pebble Beach and in Atlanta, along with two tournaments on the Champions Tour. Finchem said the deal in Washington would be for at least five years, with an option to sponsor the event through the end of the TV contract in 2012.

Why couldn't AT&T work in Denver?

"For whatever reason, we couldn't find any magic for sponsors as it relates to Denver," Finchem said. "We had been trying two years."

Woods already has put his mark on his new tournament.

He said all active military and children under the age of 12 will get free admission to the tournament. Both instances are a tribute to his father, Earl Woods, who died last year of cancer.

Earl Woods spent 20 years in the military and did two tours in Vietnam with the Special Forces. Tiger Woods went through training at Fort Bragg a few years ago, and he has made trips to aircraft carriers while in the Middle East for the Dubai Desert Classic.

"I remember when I first came on Tour, my goal one day with my father was to host an event on the PGA Tour. I just wish he could be here to see it," Woods said. "I think he probably would have shed a few tears."

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