Congrats and major kudos to Tiger. He won his tournament yesterday and did a fabulous job playing host. In just three short years, Woods has turned the AT&T National into a special tournament. Jim Nance kept praising it and rightly so.
Washington hates to lose Tiger’s Tourney for the next two years, but we’ll have to hang in their until the U.S. Open comes here in 2011. If you’re like us, you’re debating over whether or not to drive up to western Philadelphia next year. Greg McLaughlin, President of the Tiger Woods Foundation, has sweetened the deal by announcing that “anyone with a Maryland, Viriginia or D.C. driver's license will be admitted free to next year's tournament.”
As far as going forward to 2012 and beyond, Tiger wants to build the AT&T National into a first-class tournament. He’s getting there, as noted by Doug Ferguson who said the AT&T National was one of the best run on tour.
There’s still the question of the date. I think it is very tempting for Tiger and his advisors to keep the Fourth of July weekend. It matches up perfectly with his honoring the military. But the wildcard is the weather. This time around it was unbelievably great. But a week like what we just saw may not happen for another 10 years.
Tiger wants to emulate what Jack has, a tournament where all the top players want to come and play. The only way he can achieve that is to have a date that doesn’t conflict for the European and International players who stay overseas in order to get ready for the British Open.
It’s going to take a while, but Tiger will get what he wants. Good luck to Philly.
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