Tiger Woods made his regular trip to pick up the Male Player of the Year award from the Golf Writers Association of America, but this time he stayed around to receive a second honor Wednesday night at Savannah Rapids Pavilion.

Tiger Woods, winner of the Golf Writers Association Male Player of the Year Award and the Charlie Bartlett Award, speaks at the 34th Annual Golf Writers Association of America Dinner. (Mike Adams/Staff)

The world's No. 1 golfer, who has won the male award eight of the past 10 years, was also honored with the Charlie Bartlett Award. It goes to a pro golfer for unselfish contribution to the betterment of society.

In Woods' case, it was for his foundation's Tiger Woods Learning Center, which opened in February 2006 in Anaheim, Calif.

According to the learning center's Web site, its mission is to "get students thinking about the role education plays in their future" and to "show them how to relate what they learn in school to their future careers."

At the association's annual Spring Dinner and Awards Ceremony, Woods thanked the association for the Bartlett Award, calling it a "humbling honor."

It was an appropriate award because it came less than a year after his father, Earl, died from cancer.

"My father and I and my mother wanted to create something that was substantial," Woods said of the Learning Center. "It's something that reflected how I grew up, that reflected the morals and values and ideals I had as a child."

Woods said more than 5,000 youngsters will come through the program this year.

"The greatest thing about it is we're just getting started," he said.

Woods, who is seeking his third consecutive major championship victory this week in the Masters Tournament and his fifth green jacket, told the crowd about a saying his father instilled in him. It is one he is carrying on through the learning center.

"One of the things he kept trying to preach was: If you can affect one person's life each and every day as long as you live, how good of a society would we have? That's something I have strived to do each and every day I have lived," Woods said.

Judy Rankin accepts the Ben Hogan Award from Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson. (Mike Adams/Staff)

"This (the learning center) is merely a reflection of what we're trying to do. We're going to do bigger and brighter things not only here in the United States but around the world."

Among the other honorees were LPGA Hall of Famer and current golf announcer Judy Rankin. The 26-time LPGA Tour winner won the Ben Hogan Award, which goes to the individual who has continued to be active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness. Rankin has recovered from breast cancer and is back working and even playing golf.

Rankin has lived in west Texas, which was where Hogan grew up. And that wasn't the only reason she was honored to receive the award named after the two-time Masters champ who came back to play some of his best golf after a near-fatal automobile accident.

"My father was the greatest admirer of Ben Hogan, and I do not believe I would have ever played golf if that hadn't been the case," Rankin said.

She thanked her friends, and especially the golf community, for their encouragement during her successful battle to beat the disease.

"I heard from so many people," she said. "If you know someone who is sick or in dire straits, it does matter when you hear from them.

"There were days when I felt like Sally Field and thought, 'you really do care if I live.' "

Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.