What Tiger Woods is saying about son Charlie's game after PNC Championship pro-am
ORLANDO — The onlookers moved from the fence by the parking lot, to the range, to the first tee as Tiger Woods, and his son, Charlie, made their way across the Ritz-Carlton golf course.
Tiger, in all black including a Nike pullover to protect himself from the cool winds, stepped onto the tee box to the typical Tiger applause and hit the first shot for Team Woods during Friday's pro-am ahead of the PNC Championship.
The reaction was reserved as Tiger missed the fairway to the left.
Up stepped 14-year-old Charlie, a Benjamin School freshman, who is fresh off helping the Buccaneers win the state high school championship.
Hitting from the same tees as his dad on the first hole, Charlie rocketed his drive down the middle of the fairway. Playing a scramble, Team Woods used Charlie's drive. It was Charlie who stuck the approach to within 10 feet and Charlie who drained the birdie putt.
At least for the first hole, the 15-time major champion was just a well-paid spectator.
"His speed has gone dramatically up this year," Tiger said when asked for the biggest difference in Charlie's game. "He's hitting it past me now."
Tiger and Charlie are back for their fourth PNC Championship. They have never finished out of the top 10, including runners-up in 2021. Organizers have adjusted Saturday's schedule hoping to complete the first day of the 36-hole event before the predicted rain and tropical storm conditions. And it's not a stretch to say the most accomplished golfer of the two in the past few years is Charlie.
While Tiger, 47, has been forced to withdraw from two of his last three majors — he missed the cut in the third — and finished 18th in a 20-man field two weeks ago at the Hero World Challenge as he continues to recover from ankle surgery eight months ago, Charlie has started forging his own golf identity.
Charlie shot a career-low round of 66 to win his age group's regional qualifier for the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championships and carded a 78-76 during Benjamin's Class 1A title run.
Tiger was on Charlie's bag during the junior national championship and part of the gallery during the state tournament.
"I enjoyed caddying for him and being there with him, just to talk through shots with him and have him understand what I would see or … the thought process I would have going through," Tiger said. "He would bounce things off of me, and (I would) give him my take on certain things."
Tiger protects his young
Tiger shields Charlie when it comes to the public spotlight — he did not allow him to be interviewed following their round Friday — but when it comes to golf, he is not going to be that overbearing father, aka "Quarterback Dad."
Tiger says he'll provide the guardrails but give Charlie his space.
"I let him go," he said.
Like midway through their round Friday. As the golfers were slamming a quick box lunch, Charlie and Will McGee, the 12-year-old son of Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, were interviewed by SiriusXM. As Tiger trailed along, Charlie asked him if he was going to be interviewed, too.
"No," he said, before telling Charlie he just wanted to hear what he said.
Annika then asked, "How's this going to go?"
"It's going to be great if Tiger stops throwing chicken tenders at them," she was told.
"There's so much of the noise in our lives that people are always trying to get stuff out of us," Tiger said. "And my job as a parent is to protect him from a lot of that stuff.
"(But) as a teenager I want him to try and become his own man at the same time. So it's a challenge as a parent and to provide that atmosphere for him to learn, to grow, and have that freedom, meanwhile understanding that there's so much noise looking into our lives at the same time."
One of those challenges for Tiger is the same for any parent of a teenager: getting that child to put down his or her cellphone.
"I just don't like the fact that he stares at his phone all the time," Tiger said. "Put your phone away and just look around."
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Videos of Tiger and Charlie through the years at this event are stark. Charlie barely came past his dad's waist when the two first entered this event. Now, he's one more growth spurt from catching his 6-foot-1 dad.
Tiger says Charlie grew 4 inches in the past year.
"He's leading the tournament in inches grown," close family friend Justin Thomas said. "He's not a little tyke anymore. I can't give him grief anymore because he's close to beating me up."
Tiger and Charlie plotted some strategy for the weekend. Charlie is playing back one tee box this year, which is about 20 yards in front of Tiger. With the wind, and rain that's coming, they are figuring out who should hit first from which holes.
"I think today on 10, 12, 13, I got one in play and he's able to go for the green," Tiger said. "I can't get there. But you know, those are things that we have to make up on the fly because of the weather that's coming in and how the golf course is going to play. We were both open about that. We're going to have to make those decisions in real time and try to figure that out."
PNC Championship
Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Orlando
Saturday, 1:30 p.m., GOLF; 2:30 p.m., NBC
Sunday, 12:30 p.m., GOLF; 1:30 p.m., NBC
Defending champs: Vijay and Qass Singh
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: What Tiger Woods is saying about son Charlie's game
