Tiger, Charlie Woods wrap up memorable weekend at PNC Championship
ORLANDO, Fla. – Tiger Woods and his 13-year-old son, Charlie, donned their traditional red on Sunday at the PNC Championship, fired up to try to win a tournament together. The Willie Park belts awarded the champions each year – thick red leather surrounding a fancy gold medallion – would have accessorized nicely.
It just didn’t happen.
Instead, Tiger and Charlie would walk away with another bushel of great father-son memories, lots of laughs, some quality learning moments, and, for Charlie, anyway, the knowledge that in this game, you lose a whole lot more than you win.
“When you’re playing well, it’s easy,” said Justin Thomas, who, with his father, Mike, played alongside Team Woods for two days. “It’s probably a great learning opportunity for Charlie of just being in competition with him and also for himself of, ‘Hey, I didn’t have my best stuff, and maybe what was I thinking differently today than I was normally?’”
Team Woods, having started Sunday two shots out of the lead, shot 7-under 65 and tied for eighth at 20-under 124 in the 36-hole scramble event. Winners Vijay and Qass Singh finished six shots better after a Sunday 59, finishing at 26-under 118.
Tiger did not seem to have the pep he had a day earlier, and Charlie, though he appeared to be in less pain than he was a day earlier with a balky left ankle he injured earlier in the week, had trouble summoning the same magic he had a year ago, when he and his dad finished runner-up. Hey, give him time. He is 13, after all.
Tiger called his weekend inside the ropes with his son, good friends Mike, Jani (Mike’s caddie) and Justin Thomas, as well as the caddie tag-team of Joe LaCava (Tiger) and Joe Jr. (Charlie) and Justin’s caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, an “amazing” experience.
“Charlie and I, we played great yesterday,” Tiger said. They had combined to shoot 59 in easier conditions. “Today we were both like walking penguins out there. It was all good, though.”
There were moments. Charlie rolled in a 15-footer for eagle at the par-5 fifth – he has become an eagle machine at the Ritz-Carlton layout – and made another birdie at the 158-yard 12th, where the team used his tee shot, then decided to switch the batting order on the greens. Tiger missed, but he had a great teammate; Charlie drained the 18-footer before pumping the air with his right fist. Sunday, it was just too little to keep pace with a handful of others firing low numbers.