Tiger and Charlie Woods within the opening spherical of the PNC Championship.
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The final time Tiger Woods held a share of a first-round lead in knowledgeable golf event was greater than 5 years in the past. The setting: the 2019 Zozo Championship in Chiba, Japan, the place Woods and Gary Woodland shot matching 64s to co-lead after 18 holes. Woods would go on to win by three that week, claiming his 82nd PGA Tour title, which tied him with Sam Snead atop the Tour’s all-time wins record.
Nobody would or ought to mistake the PNC Championship — a PGA Tour Champions-sanctioned occasion that pits 20 parent-child groups in a 36-hole scramble — for a full-field 72-hole PGA Tour occasion just like the Zozo, however, man, solely essentially the most grizzled cynic couldn’t be moved by seeing WOODS again atop a leaderboard, because it was Saturday on the PNC.
When the mud settled at Ritz-Carlton Golf Membership in Orlando, Tiger and his 15-year-old son, Charlie, had made 12 birdies and never a single bogey or worse. Their ensuing 59 has them in pole place on the midway level, knotted with groups Langer and Singh, with the Lehmans and Harringtons nipping at their heels.
There was cause to consider the Woods boys, resplendent of their matching Solar Day Crimson gear, wouldn’t be aggressive this week. For one, Tiger remains to be recovering from a September again surgical procedure — his sixth — and nonetheless has “an extended technique to go,” he stated Friday. He added, ‘I’m not going to really feel what I’m used to feeling. The restoration has gotten to be the toughest half. However over the course of rounds, weeks, months, it will get tougher.’” Woods’ proper leg, which he badly injured in a 2021 automotive wreck, additionally stays a major impairment. Taking part in 18 holes is one factor, strolling 18 is kind of one other.
There’s additionally the questionable state of Woods’ recreation, which he described to Golf Channel Friday as “very rusty,” including, “I don’t have my feels and my trajectory is off.”
Right here’s the factor, although: There was additionally cause to consider the Woods boys would be aggressive this week, and never simply because Tiger is among the fiercest rivals to ever stalk the earth, the state of his recreation be damned. For one, Tiger and Charlie aren’t precisely staring down Scottie, Rory and Bryson this week. Their opponents embody the likes of 13-year-old Will McGee (Annika Sorenstam’s son) and 89-year-old Gary Participant; Tiger and Charlie even have solely 19 groups to beat, and the scramble format permits Tiger, ought to he really feel the necessity, to take off a swing and there.
Workforce Woods additionally has one thing else going for it: Charlie, who’s enjoying in his fifth PNC this week, is a yr older and wiser than he was in December 2023. A yr higher, too. Charlie is a sophomore on the Benjamin College, in South Florida, the place he performs on the golf staff alongside Justin Leonard’s son, Luke. A yr in the past, the staff received the state title. This yr, Charlie lowered his stroke common by 4 photographs, to 70.75, his coach, Toby Harbeck, informed me the opposite day. Harbeck stated that if something holds Charlie again, it’s his decision-making on the course, however he performs with a drive and depth proper out of his outdated man’s playbook. Charlie burns to win.
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On Saturday, Charlie and his father made it look simple, although neither participant appeared awed by their performances. “Felt fairly good,” Charlie stated. “I didn’t hit it nice, however Dad saved me on a few them and I rolled them in.”
Unsurprisingly, Tiger was additionally fast to provide his enjoying companion credit score. “We’re attempting to tug off each shot for one another, and to ham-and-egg, and I believe we did that nice just about all the day,” Tiger stated. “And Charlie made just about many of the putts.”
Tiger reiterated that his personal recreation is “rusty,” however there was not less than one extremely encouraging signal: Tiger walked all 18 holes, simply as he’d executed in Friday’s observe spherical. He’s permitted to make use of a cart on the PNC however elected to not. When you’re on the lookout for indicators that his restoration is progressing, certainly this improvement qualifies, even when the flat Ritz-Carlton format isn’t precisely Augusta Nationwide.
“Making ready for aggressive play is totally different,” Tiger stated Friday. “That takes months, weeks. Nevertheless it begins with each day. You simply do the little issues accurately, and so they add up. From the second you stand up, simply do all of the little issues, the mundane, the issues you understand you must do.”
If we all know one factor about Tiger, he doesn’t take these little issues evenly. The identical will probably be true of how he prepares for Sunday’s second and last spherical on the PNC. Tiger has been saying all week that he’s simply right here to have enjoyable, and Charlie echoed an identical sentiment after his spherical Saturday. However make no mistake, the Woods’ additionally traveled as much as Orlando to win. And now that they’re nicely positioned to take action, the aggressive juices are flowing. The nerves are there, too. Tiger stated he felt butterflies on the primary tee Saturday.
Towards the top of he and Charlie’s post-round press scrum, Tiger was requested, now that and his son are deep within the hunt, whether or not his competitiveness would kick in.
Anybody who has even a passing information of Tiger’s method to the sport knew precisely how he’d reply, however, gosh, in spite of everything these years of off- and on-course struggles, it felt good to listen to him say it anyway.
“It’s at all times there,” Tiger stated.
