Mirjam Swanson: Tiger Woods' influence felt far, wide and in the future

LOS ANGELES — Has there ever been an influencer like Tiger Woods?

Yes, that’s a rhetorical question. Because, no, of course not.

How could you even begin to quantify how many golfers are golfers because of him? How would you truly measure his impact? Gigantic seems too little.

But there’s influence and then there’s infrastructure — tangible opportunities availed, via his TGR Foundation, to Southern California kids who wouldn’t otherwise have had them.

Those Learning Lab programs that serve under-resourced communities, offering a host of STEM courses and, if youngsters are interested, golf lessons too. That’s why you could line up a direct putt on Thursday between Woods and Ariana Perez, both of them standard-bearers in their own way at the Genesis Invitational, the tournament for which Woods is host — and his foundation the beneficiary.

Woods, of course, will go down in history as the leader of a movement that changed a whole sport. Perez? She was a literal standard bearer. The 18-year-old from Placentia was the one toting the scores and walking alongside the trio of Ludvig Aberg (4-under-par 68), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (69) and Nick Hardy (76), who teed off behind Woods and spent the day playing into his substantial wake.

Woods was not the on-paper favorite entering the tournament, which this year is one of the eight PGA TOUR Signature Events as well as his first full-field event since the 2023 Masters. But he absolutely was the favorite on the Riviera Country Club grounds.

Thursday was an opportunity for the hundreds-strong swarm following along to see Woods zipper together a round, feast or famine, “a lot of good and a lot of indifferent, one or the other,” he called his five birdies and six bogeys adding up to a 1-over-par 72 – treading water while some of this generation’s stars rocketed to the top of the leaderboard.

Former UCLA star Patrick Cantlay shot 64 for the lead; and Cam Davis, Luke List and Jason Day all fired 65s.

But the leaders aren’t the headliners with Woods in the field. His presence is a gravitational pull, an opportunity for fans to witness the familiar gait, the familiar approach over each putt, the familiar application of chapstick mid-round.

A chance to feel the familiar roar when a birdie dropped, as they did on holes 1, 4, 6, 11 and 17 – that last one a 608-yard par-5 that Woods made seem shorter, reaching the green in two. Bucket-list stuff for many.

It was a chance, too, to be among the first to see Woods in unfamiliar garb: No more Nike, that recognizable swoosh replaced by his new apparel line, Sun Day Red — which will take some getting used to.

For the 48-year-old Woods, the week at Riv — a rare course on which he’s winless — is an opportunity to rev up for April’s Masters. To test his testy back and work through expected soreness. And to model the new brand. To influence.

And to give a boost to the foundation that has changed many kids’ lives — possibly in the range of 200,000 of them, Woods said this week — like it has Perez’s.

“Without the ability or availability and access to the information that is afforded to a lot of the kids who have come from more comfortable backgrounds, a lot of these kids don’t have the availability to make the leaps and transform their families,” Woods said. “That’s what our foundation is trying to do.”

The TGR Foundation didn’t just introduce Perez to the game, it offered so many STEM classes she loved. But also, the game! Since she first picked up a club in fifth grade, there were lessons, and the organization helped with equipment, range balls and tournaments, Perez said. “Because, you know, it’s not really a feasible sport for everybody.”

Without Andres Cuamani, one of her coaches there, she wouldn’t know she was a lefty golfer. She wouldn’t have played throughout her time at Troy High in Fullerton, and she wouldn’t be weighing whether to play in college now.

This young woman with drive — she’s an aspiring attorney with an interest in cyberlaw, an average drive in the 260-yard range and college acceptances rolling in — wouldn’t have found a specific source of enjoyment: outdriving older men at the range.

She wouldn’t have been hustling Thursday evening to catch a flight to Orlando, Fla., to go play the Jim Thorpe Invitational — and she certainly wouldn’t have started the day volunteering again as a standard bearer at a big-time golf tournament, as she did for multiple rounds at last year’s U.S. Open, awestruck at times by her proximity to the game’s greats. That includes Woods, whom she’s met a couple of times.

What do you say to a legend whose charitable endeavors so directly and significantly influenced your life?

Well, exactly that.

“I was literally practicing a 20-second spiel in my head and when I got up to see him, it sounded like …,” Perez takes a breath before reciting her prepared statement like an auctioneer with an exceptionally high-pitched voice: “Hi Mr. Woods I’m a student from your Tiger Woods Foundation I first started to golf there I was under Coach Roman Gonzales and I’ve taken all your classes there and thank you very much!”