Tiger Woods Up Close And Personal

Golf Superstar Talks To Ed Bradley About Planning A Family

(CBS) 
As devoted as Tiger is to the game of golf, he says he gets more satisfaction from another part of his life.

Tiger Woods' power and skill on the golf course is unrivaled, but at the age of 30, he says he's ready to make as big an impact off the course, just as his father Earl had predicted before he died in May. This February, Tiger opened the first Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim, Calif., close to where he grew up.

The center gives fourth to 12th graders from different backgrounds learning experiences they don't get in their own schools, experiences that help prepare them for college and careers. On the golf course, in front of millions of people, Tiger is cool under pressure. But last February he wasn't so cool when Bradley was with him the first time he saw kids in his learning center.

"God, I'm nervous about this," he admitted, as kids streamed into the center. "I am. It's a dream come true to finally have kids in here."

For their part, the kids seemed to take meeting a living legend in stride.

It's been more than four years from dream to reality.

How cool was it?

"It was really cool," says Tiger. "I mean, to see those kids, those smiles on their faces. And they’re totally into it. It’s more than I ever expected."

What the kids are into is a curriculum and a facility that’s nothing like their own schools. The 35,000-square-foot center is more like an educational funhouse filled with computers, flat screens, and video and music production facilities, and of course, a driving range and putting green. Kids can take robotics, forensic science, creative writing and rocketry, courses the kids themselves said they wanted. And all of it’s free.

"We built this for them. If they want to learn and grow, we’re going to provide an atmosphere that’s going to be exciting for them. So, we decided to let them be the bosses," says Woods.

Tiger says he came up with the idea from scratch. "I just thought we weren’t doing enough. I wanted something substantial, something bricks and mortar, something that kids could feel and touch and call their own," he says.

"Why are kids so important to you? Where does that come from?" Bradley asked.

"I guess because I had so many people influencing my life. I wanted to cater this foundation to mentoring and guiding. Because that’s ultimately, how I got here," Tiger replied.