Tiger Woods, Charlie Sifford and the rebirth of Cobbs Creek (with education at its core)

USA Today

11-05-2025

Tiger Woods, Charlie Sifford and the rebirth of Cobbs Creek (with education at its core)
Tiger Woods has another major on his resume.
This achievement is unlike the 15 he won with his golf clubs and has the potential to be an even bigger game changer.
At the heart of a sprawling 350-acre campus on the border of Upper Darby and West Philadelphia is a TGR Learning Lab. The 30,000-square-foot facility opened its doors on April 1, and provides local students access to educational programs and opportunities to prepare for their futures.
Created in partnership with the Tiger Woods' TGR Foundation, this is the second site nationally for a model refined over two decades at the flagship facility in Anaheim, California. It empowers students in grades 1-12 to pursue their passions through education and begin charting a life journey.
The doors may have just opened but a pilot program in Philadelphia schools during construction means that 3,980 students benefited from STEAM – an all-encompassing program focused on areas of science, technology, engineering, art and math – college access and career readiness programs during 2024.
'Our goal from the start has been to be an embedded part of the community,' said Meredith Foote, executive director of TGR Learning Lab Philadelphia and previously principal at Overbrook Educational Center for nine years. 'We didn't wait for the Learning Lab to open before engaging with students and families. From day one, we made sure they knew they were a part of this.'
Joshua Chaney, community outreach manager of TGR Learning Lab Philadelphia, said students in Cobbs Creek fell behind at least one to two grade levels following COVID. 'This Learning Lab is a game-changer because we're not just expecting the best from our students – we're giving them the best.
'You can't be what you can't see,' Chaney said. 'We're here to make sure our students see everything that's possible.'
It's fitting the second TGR Learning Lab is built in the shadow of Cobbs Creek Golf Course, which was established in 1916. It welcomed golfers of any gender, race and creed and became a gem among Phildaelphia's green space. But the course slowly fell into disrepair and it has been closed since 2020. Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner are spearheading a renovation of the golf course, which is scheduled to begin later this summer and be ready for play in 2027. But the vision is bigger than polishing an old gem; it's for golf to be a conduit for social impact.
At the core of the mission is to revitalize a community. Chris Maguire, the Cobbs Creek Foundation board chairman, has his own family foundation the Maguire Foundation, and at its core always has been education.
'That belief,' he wrote, 'led us to ask a fundamental question about Cobbs Creek: What if this historic golf course could generate revenue that directly supports the kids in its surrounding community? What if it could sustain itself while also sustaining futures?'
The board and so many donors have rallied around this vision. When the entire project is complete and up and running, it is expected to generate more than $10 million in annual revenue, which is earmarked to be reinvested in programs and the community.
The Cobbs Creek Foundation had reached out to the TGR Foundation through Notah Begay III, Tiger's former college teammate and longtime friends and TGR Foundation board member, but working together was deemed premature as both projects still were getting ducks in a row. More recently, Cobbs Creek sought the right educational partner while TGR Foundation was looking to open its second learning lab in an urban area in the northeast part of the country with a golf course. 'We were like, guess what? We check all those boxes,' said Cobbs Creek Foundation COO Enrique Hervada.
When Tiger heard the pitch for the partnership, he knew all about Cobbs Creek because of his longstanding relationship with Hall of Fame golfer Charlie Sifford, who passed away in 2015. And the Sifford-Woods bond is the other part of what makes this project special.
After leaving Charlotte under the cover of darkness, Sifford arrived in Philadelphia with little more than his determination. One morning, after an all-night poker game, he stepped outside and saw a Black man boarding a bus with golf clubs.
'Where you going?' Sifford asked.
'Cobbs Creek,' the man replied.
'We can play out there?'
Cobbs Creek was an integrated golf course without the restrictions of the Jim Crow South of Sifford's youth in North Carolina. 'That moment changed everything,' said Charlie Sifford Jr., son of the golfing great. 'From then on, my father spent every free moment at Cobbs Creek working on his game. It was Cobbs Creek that gave him the opportunity to take his game to the next level… A place where talent, not skin color, defined a golfer.'
Sifford became the first Black golfer to play on the PGA Tour and won twice. According to Sifford's son, Tiger met Sifford when he was 14 years old, hitting 6-irons into the wind, and it didn't take much for Sifford to realize he was going to do great things. Tiger looked up to Sifford, calling him grandpa, and he never forgot how Sifford blazed a trail for him to become arguably the game's greatest player ever. In 2009, he named his second child and first son, Charlie, after Sifford. 'That caught us completely off guard,' said Sifford Jr. 'It was the highest honor.' Tiger also reinstituted the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption when he became tournament host of the Genesis Invitational, which grants a spot into the signature event held in February.
A museum will celebrate Cobbs Creek's historic role as an inclusive course where players of all backgrounds played. Among the most cherished artifacts: a set of clubs used by Joe Louis, the heavyweight boxing champ, when he became the first Black to compete in a PGA Tour event at the 1952 San Diego Open. It will pay tribute to golf trailblazers, especially the Hall of Fame career of Sifford and his connection to Cobbs Creek.
'Everyone knows Jackie Robinson,' Hervada said. 'Not enough people know Charlie Sifford. We are going to change that.'
The Charlie Sifford Scholarship Fund also will be operated by the Cobbs Creek Foundation. It's fitting that both organizations bearing the names of Sifford and Woods now call Cobbs Creek home – a course that once gave Sifford a place to grow, and now stands to do the same for future generations.
"Cobbs Creek has always been more than a golf course,' Sifford Jr. wrote. 'It's a proving ground, a launching pad and a symbol of what's possible. My father's journey started here, and now, thanks to this revitalization, many others will follow in his footsteps.'