ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods turns 49 on the finish of the month, and he has one urgent purpose that pertains to his golf. He desires to lengthen the inevitable day when his son beats him over 18 holes.
They are going to be taking part in with — not towards — one another this week for the fifth straight yr on the PNC Championship, a 36-hole event so significant to them and everybody else within the discipline that Woods was decided to play for the primary time since a sixth again surgical procedure in September.
Phrase acquired out, nonetheless, that 15-year-old Charlie lastly beat his 15-time main champion dad.
“He beat me for 9 holes,” Woods mentioned, an vital clarification to him. “He has but to beat me for 18 holes. That day is coming. I am simply prolonging it so long as I probably can.”
As for the small print, Woods talked concerning the typical banter between them and the way a lot enjoyable they’ve. It was clear he was not going to share the hole-by-hole of the loss.
Successful is a purpose, however not the precedence, on the PNC Championship. It is a blissful finish of the yr for all 20 groups on the Ritz-Carlton Golf Membership Orlando, an occasion that pairs the winners of majors or The Gamers Championship with a member of the family.
Woods performed 5 tournaments this yr and accomplished solely one among them, making the lower on the Masters for a document twenty fourth consecutive yr. He needed to play 23 holes on Friday at Augusta Nationwide in a raging wind, posting a 72 for his greatest spherical of the yr. He adopted that with an 82, an instance of ups and downs from a participant whose physique has been wracked with harm.
“I am not going to really feel what I am used to feeling,” Woods mentioned. “The restoration has gotten to be the toughest half. However over the course of rounds, weeks, months, it will get more durable.”
He missed the lower within the subsequent three majors after which had surgical procedure on his decrease again in September to alleviate a number of the spasms he had been feeling. The timing of the surgical procedure was associated to the PNC Championship.
Woods selected to not play the Hero World Problem within the Bahamas two weeks in the past, saying he wasn’t competitively sharp sufficient to deal with Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas amongst a 20-man discipline of gamers from the highest 40 on this planet.
This would possibly as effectively be his fifth main as a result of he performs together with his son.
“That was one of many the reason why I had the surgical procedure achieved earlier, in order that hopefully I might give myself the very best likelihood to be with Charlie and have the ability to play,” Woods mentioned. “I am not aggressive proper now, however I simply need to have the ability to have the expertise once more. This has all the time been one of many greater highlights of the yr for us as a household, and now we get to have that second collectively once more.”
The surgical procedure was on his again, however Woods mentioned his proper leg, which was mangled in a February 2021 automobile crash exterior Los Angeles, stays the largest bodily impediment.
Even so, he selected to stroll the pro-am on Friday as an alternative of using a cart, which is allowed for gamers as a result of the event is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour Champions.
Group Woods has but to win since they started taking part in in 2020. They completed second the next yr by two photographs to John Daly and his school son, when Charlie was 12. He’s including inches to his peak yearly, filling out and pounding the golf ball. Woods plans to depend on his son’s tee photographs within the scramble format.
They’ll play the opening spherical Saturday with Justin Leonard and son Luke, who goes to The Benjamin College in North Palm Seashore with Charlie and goes to Villanova subsequent yr.
Charlie Woods went by way of U.S. Open qualifying for the primary time this yr and did not advance out of the primary stage. He certified for the U.S. Junior Novice at Oakland Hills however did not come shut to creating it to match play.
Woods appreciated that his son is below a highlight few others his age face.
“I used to be all the time reminding him, ‘Simply be you.’ Charlie is Charlie. Sure, he is my son. He’ll have my final title and it should be a part of his core. However I simply need him to be simply himself and be his personal individual. That is what we are able to solely do,” Woods mentioned.
“I all the time encourage it, for him to carve his personal title, carve his personal path and have his personal journey,” he mentioned. “I feel he is doing an excellent job. These days the place everyone seems to be mainly media, with all of the telephones, being continually filmed and continually individuals watching, that is simply a part of his era, and that is a part of the world that he has to maneuver by way of.”
