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Woods, who begins play Thursday in the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club, said Tuesday he's comfortable with his contributions to society though his Tiger Woods Foundation, located in Irvine, Calif.

"I want to do it right and not just do it, " he said. "That takes time. You just don't jump into something. You want to do it right. You want to have a plan, and I think what we've done so far has been very good, very efficient. It has helped a lot of kids."

Greg McLaughlin, director of the Tiger Woods Foundation, said Wednesday that Woods' success in golf is understood by the public, but his true focus is not.

"When the foundation started in 1996 our goal was to provide opportunities for disadvantaged kids," McLaughlin said. "His focus is on educational resources for disadvantaged children."

To that end Woods created the Tiger Woods Learning Center in California, and he's currently planning another in Washington, D.C. The foundation is considering three locations, and Woods hopes to have a decision on the site this year.

Like the learning center in California, it will have a limited component of golf and will not be a place where students learn to play golf. The focus will be on academics.

"Our only real involvement with junior golf was in the early years when Earl (Tiger's father) and Tiger did golf clinics," McLaughlin said. "Earl didn't want to have a golf foundation."

The learning center focuses on teaching children science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These are introductions to careers that most of the students, because of their background, do not recognize as possible careers. McLaughlin said 8,000 students have participated in the program to date.

When Earl Woods died, Tiger asked that those interested donate money to honor his father. He matched the donations to seed the Earl Woods Scholarships for disadvantaged students to use in college. They're worth $5,000 and are renewable for four years.

Currently 25 students have received scholarships. Ten are from Washington, D.C., three are from Boston and 12 are from California.

"We're just getting started," Woods said. "We're here for the long haul. We're trying to help as many kids as we possibly can, but do it right."


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CGB MAX Irons