Local volunteer gets a taste of Tiger
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

DAN WOLOWICZ/Acorn Newspapers GREAT GIG—Charlie Elledge of Thousand Oaks watches as golfers complete the 18th hole at last week’s Target World Challenge. Elledge, a long-time volunteer for the Tiger Woods Foundation, served as a scorekeeper throughout the tournament.

“Good morning, Mr. Woods.”

Standing just off the first tee of Lake Sherwood Country Club’s pastoral golf course, Thousand Oaks resident Charlie Elledge started Sunday morning by greeting 16 of the world’s best golfers on the final day of the Target World Challenge, including the host and winner, Tiger Woods.

Elledge spent the next four hours following Woods, who shot a 6-under-par 66 and finished the tournament at 16 under. U.S Open champ Geoff Ogilvy followed at four shots back.

Few on the course were keeping track of Woods’ score as closely as Elledge. That’s because the 52-year-old Newbury Park business owner was Woods’ official scorekeeper and one of the 325 Tiger Woods Foundation volunteers who helped stage the eighth annual tournament. Woods donated the $1.35 million he received for his win, more than doubling the $1 million the event raised for the Southern Californiabased charity.

“I love it,” Elledge said of his past seven years of volunteer work. “It’s my vacation.”

Elledge was one of a handful of longtime volunteers whose name was drawn from a hat to keep score for the tournament’s pro golfers.

Elledge carried a small wireless computer to transmit the players’ scores back to the main scorekeeper in the media clubhouse so the results could be kept in real time. He also kept score for 2006 European Tour Golfer of the Year Paul Casey—who paired with Woods in the final round.

It was one of five twosomes Elledge kept score for during the week—which included a pro-am and four days of tournament play.

Rob Pelzman, a businessman from Thousand Oaks, has volunteered at professional golf tournaments for more than a decade. He’s been working the Target World Challenge for the last three. On Sunday, Pelzman was standard bearer for the Woods-Casey twosome, helping a teenager from the Tiger Woods Learning Center carry the sign that tells the gallery the players’ scores.

“It’s a great gig,” said Pelzman, who added that the best day of the tournament is the pro-am, when the pros play with amateurs and are typically more willing to offer advice and chat with the crowds.

“It’s a day with one of the world’s best golfers,” Pelzman said. “And it’s not his payday, so they’re all relaxed.”

Both Pelzman and Elledge said they love volunteering for the tournament but they admit keeping pace with the pros can be a challenge.

“With (Jose Marie) Olazabel, we were almost running the entire time,” Elledge said. “We finished 18 holes in three hours and 40 minutes.”

The two landed the plum assignments because they’re both longtime volunteers. Experience, Elledge said, has taught them what to do and where to stand so that they don’t interfere with the players.

“My primary goal is for the athletes not to know you’re even around,” Elledge said. “We have to be invisible.”

Pelzman and Elledge enjoy working alongside teenagers from the foundation, who also volunteer at the tournament each year.

The foundation, started by Woods in 2000, helps provide scholarships to underprivileged college-bound teens and makes grants to 150 youthbased charities throughout the United States.

Last year, the foundation opened the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Irvine, Calif. The 35,000-square-foot center offers computers and tutoring programs for youngsters who otherwise wouldn’t have access to such assistance.

“Some of these kids were going down the wrong path and now these kids have turned it around and now they’re going off to college, which is something they never thought about doing before,” Woods said Sunday.

Of the tournament, Woods said, “You know it’s going to help kids. And that’s the beauty of it, is that this entire tournament—all the people that came out and supported it and all of you guys who came out and are basically covering this event—enhance what we’re trying to do to help kids.” He said he hopes to see the foundation grow significantly in the next five years.

“The learning center is one small stepping stone toward what we’re trying to do in building the overall foundation; trying to grow it globally,” Woods said.

Stacy Stark, events and tournament manager for the foundation, said the event is so popular that nearly 50 volunteers sign up to work the four-day tournament each year.

“New volunteers typically have to wait a year just because we have so many returning volunteers,” Stark said. “All the volunteers that are here this year will be invited next year and depending on how many we still need, that is when we go to the waiting list.”

Volunteers are required to work all four days at a variety of tasks, serving as hole marshals, scorekeepers, drivers and ticket takers.

For more information about the Tiger Woods Foundation, visit www.twfound.org.