Tiger Takes Fox Harb'r

One of the highlights for me last year was watching Tiger Woods play at Fox Harb'r.
Bob Weeks also enjoyed the day and descibes it here.

Last week, I had a chance to spend some time with Tiger Woods at the Nike Golf Invitational out at Fox Harb’r. The event was a fundraiser for the Tiger Woods Foundation and the Canadian Junior Golf Association, and included Tiger’s coach, Hank Haney and good buddy Charles Barkley.

Tiger came in from New York on the Thursday evening, flying in to Halifax and then making the two-hour trek to Wallace, N.S., via bus. His pilots, apparently, were a little hesitant to land his plane on the Fox Harb’r runway in the dark (wonder if Ron Joyce’s crash there last year had anything to do with it? The plane did come to pick him up the next day).

Tiger stayed in a private house on the property that came complete with his own chef. His diet is obviously precise; one person with the resort told me that he required three heads of steamed broccoli at precisely 3 p.m. the next day.

Tiger’s first appearance before the gathering came at breakfast where he walked in, welcomed everyone and then slipped off to the range to warm up. I had a chance to chat with him briefly there but he seemed more interested in checking out Barkley’s swing, to see if there were any improvements. It looked rather smooth, without that stutter he normally shows. Tiger whispered to me to wait, that the old swing would show up on the course.

The day consisted of nine holes of a Barkley-Haney scramble ball vs. Tiger. As Rod Black announced, that meant it would be almost like Haney vs. Tiger.
True to Tiger’s word, when Sir Charles got up to swing, the hitch returned, although he hit a decent shot. And he followed it up by hitting the green about 12 feet from the pin. That was good for a half.

A couple of holes later, Tiger told me that Barkley’s swing would get worse as the round went on. He said it reminded him a lot of a hockey slapshot going to a wrist shot. “How strong is he,” Tiger asked me rhetorically, “to be able to hit the ball like that.” He shook his head in amazement.

As the round went on, Tiger asked me a number of questions. He wanted to know how Ron Joyce made all his money. I explained that he co-founded Tim Hortons (which I described as like Dunkin’ Donuts only better) and sold it to Wendy’s for about $1 billion. Tiger had no idea that Tim Horton was a hockey player, but he didn’t seem surprised when I told him. “Everything’s about hockey up here isn’t it?” He laughed at his own joke.

He wanted to know about Joyce’s boat, which was out in the waters off the course, and about his plane. Mostly, though, Tiger just wanted to have some fun. He really interacted with the fans a great deal, asking them to read putts and tell him about the hole he was about to play.

Glenn Greenspan, who worked as the media honcho at Augusta National for years, has taken over as Tiger’s media guy and was walking around Fox Harb’r. He said he didn’t think Tiger had played before this small a gallery in a long, long time. It was intimate, maybe 100 people or so.

After the nine holes, Tiger had lunch then visited out set for a lengthy interview with Rod who got a lot out of him, most of it having nothing to do with golf.

He then ventured back on to the course to play nine holes with two different foursomes, both of which paid handsomely for the opportunity. Tiger fired the course record 63, no surprise there, came in to chat with the guests, went back to his house to get cleaned up and then jetted off for his next adventure.

Overall, this was a great opportunity for folks to see another side of Tiger, the laughing, smiling, joking Tiger. That side doesn’t reveal itself much when he’s on Tour, but he’s really an engaging, likeable fellow.

This event went off seamlessly, too, in no small part to the folks from Nike and Fox Harb’r. A remarkable day with a remarkable guy.