AT&T, Congressional come through for veterans for Tiger Wood's AT&T National

A few days ago I wrote about Charles McKay, a Sergeant First Class in the Army and an Iraq veteran. He was looking for how to go about getting tickets to go to the AT&T National at the Congressional Country Club.

In that post I called out to the Tim Finchem, Tiger Woods, AT&T, and the Congressional to see what could be done for McKay, who served 15 months in Iraq and received a Combat Action Badge for his courage under fire. The sound of crickets ensued for the next couple days.

That is, until AT&T got on the case. Paul Dalessio of Fleishman-Hillard, who does work with AT&T shot me an e-mail and today we discussed some of the possibilities for McKay. While much is up in the air still, he assured me that AT&T would like to give McKay a special experience the AT&T National.

One thing Dalessio pointed out to me was that military personnel can get in free to the tournament. Doing some research on the subject, I found out how this could be done.

First off, if you are in the military and want tickets, you need to be based within a 150-mile radius of Washington, D.C.

Second, current members of the military can receive tickets for every day of the AT&T National, which is to be held July 2-6). Former members of the military can receive tickets for the first two days only.

Now, if you’re in the military and want to take advantage of this offer, you’ll need to go to either your installation or the installation closest to you to get the tickets. You can find a list of the installations and phone numbers for how to go about getting tickets by clicking here. (Note: This is a PDF file.)

You can also find more information about this offer, as well as a personal note from Tiger Woods at the AT&T National Web site by clicking here.

For all military personnel or former military personnel looking to acquire these tickets, I’d suggest to act sooner rather than later, as they have a limited amount of tickets (though it seems they have plenty available at the moment).

So a big thank you to AT&T for their help (I’ll keep you posted on how things work out for Sgt. McKay). Also, a thank you to Dalessio, a really good guy who didn’t seem to mind one bit that I had fun with him in a blog I did a while back about Gatorade Tiger.

While I’m on the subject of AT&T, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the AT&T Blue Room. It’s a great, stylish site that showcases all the sporting events that AT&T sponsors. For golf fans, here’s a special treat - a video of Charley Hoffman and a hobbled Tiger Woods (recovering from knee surgery) having some fun and giving some valuable golf tips. It’s a more personal look at the two of them hanging out and talking golf ("I try and play a lot of tournaments that Tiger doesn’t play. I’ll be playing a lot in the next month,” said Hoffman.)

Click here to see this lengthy, entertaining and educational video. It really is a treat to watch.

The AT&T blue room also has exclusive behind the scenes coverage of Tiger Jams XI, a fundraising event hosted by Tiger. See interviews from celebrities, including Julius Irving, Olympic and Dancing with the Stars champ Kristi Yamaguchi, and Eddie Van Halen.

So thank you to AT&T and the Congressional, and I’ll keep you updated on this story as it develops.

–WKW