Philadelphia holds a special place in Tiger Woods’ heart, he said.

That’s why the golf superstar stood shoulder to shoulder with city teenagers on Monday, formally opening the learning lab that his foundation chose to locate at the Cobbs Creek Golf Course.

Woods chose Philly because of Charlie Sifford, his mentor, the first Black golfer on the PGA Tour.

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Sifford considered Cobbs Creek, the first course where Black and women golfers were welcome, his home course. And so Woods wanted to honor both the city and Sifford’s legacy by creating a high-tech space with cutting-edge programs, free for any city student.

Woods, speaking at a podium on the Cobbs Creek putting green, said that with the Learning Lab, he envisioned “a home, a safe place, a place that all children should be able to access, but they don’t, and now they do.”

He didn’t start his foundation “to produce golfers who hit golf balls,” Woods said. “I started the foundation to produce the greatest humans possible.”

Job done, said Fatima Choudhry, 17, a 12th grader at the Pennsylvania Virtual Academy.

“This place has been nothing short of life-changing,” said Choudhry, who is working as an intern for the TGR Learning Lab. In the six months since the lab began offering classes, Choudhry has taken psychology classes, had college and career prep, and tinkered with robots, 3D printers, and more.

“I’ve had opportunities that I never would have had access to,” Choudhry said.

The Learning Lab is part of a $180 million revamp of the historic Cobbs Creek Golf Course, at 74th and Lansdowne Avenue, for decades among the premier municipal golf courses in the country.

After a period of disinvestment, Cobbs Creek fell into disrepair and closed in 2020. The nonprofit Cobbs Creek Foundation formed to raise millions and a new complex ― the learning lab, but also a driving range, museum, community space, short course, and nine-hole and 18-hole courses.

The course renovations are not yet finished, but Monday’s ceremony was a celebration of the years of work complete, and what’s to come.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said Cobbs Creek’s history — as a refuge for those who were refused elsewhere — must be celebrated.

“We of course gather here at a time where there are some in our society who want to erase our shared history, who want to whitewash some of the stories that defined us, that helped build our great commonwealth, our great city, our great country,” Shapiro said. “But that’s not the Pennsylvania way.”

Taking it all in was Charlie Sifford Jr., son of Woods’ mentor, one of a number of members of the Sifford family who attended the ceremony.

It delights Sifford Jr. that thousands of children will have opportunities near his dad’s home course, he said.

And it means a great deal that Philadelphia kids might learn something about his dad, who became a PGA rookie at age 44, well past his prime, and only after a lawsuit was threatened.

“My dad faced a lot of adversity in his career,” Sifford Jr. said. “But he made an impact, and that’s the main thing.”

What does Woods think his mentor, whom he called “the grandfather I never had,” would say about the lab?

“He would say he’s proud of me,” Woods said.