HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. — For son Charlie, Tiger Woods has performed caddy. He’s gotten to play teammate. On Wednesday, at his 14-year-old’s first highschool state golf match, Woods merely performed dad.
Regardless of conflicting reviews from Golf Month-to-month and SBNation’s Taking part in Via that he was on the bag − which might’ve been prohibited by FHSAA match guidelines − Tiger, donning an all-black getup, was ready within the wings as Charlie celebrated his first state championship together with his Benjamin teammates.
It was about as incognito as you might get being Tiger Woods on a golf course.
The inexperienced squished and sloshed below excited spikes after Benjamin sophomore Jake Valentine, the squad’s low-scorer with a complete of 148 (72-76), left the 18th with a successful, one-stroke lead for the Bucs following his momentum-shifting birdie on No. 17. Valentine and Woods’ last scorecards had been separated by six strokes, however the roster of competitors in Class 1A, stacked per ordinary, noticed Valentine tie for eighth and Woods for twenty sixth.
Handing over his finest spherical of 76 on Day 2 at Mission Inn Resort and Membership, Charlie helped The Benjamin Faculty keep simply low sufficient to make the journey again to Palm Seaside Gardens with this system’s fourth state title in tow.
Buccaneer teammates freshman Brooks Colton (149), junior Pavel Tsar (152), and senior Tyler Bruneau (156), a College of Rhode Island commit, tied for twelfth, nineteenth, and thirty fourth, respectively.
Tiger, the 15-time main winner on the PGA Tour, stood legs crossed and leaning on his umbrella, as if he had been ready for his personal flip to sink a putt and ship a basic fist pump.
That’s what Charlie was there for.
Tiger already had his flip to run the varsity fairways when he was a scholar at Western Excessive Faculty in Anaheim, California, in any case.
‘You imply Tiger Woods performed on a highschool golf group, too?’
“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What’s mistaken with this image? This isn’t the Junior Worlds. This isn’t the Junior Nationals. It’s not a PGA occasion.”
That was an ESPN broadcaster’s introduction of a 17-year-old Tiger as he walked alongside three different gamers throughout a highschool golf match in a characteristic again in 1993.
He’d already received the World Junior title six instances and the U.S. Junior Novice Championship the final two years, carrying the title of the “world’s finest junior golfer.”
The broadcaster continued.
“This can be a highschool occasion? You imply Tiger Woods performs on a highschool golf group, too?”
Touting an above-average swing pace of upwards of 117 miles per hour with a drive that averaged between 260 to 270 yards, Charlie had already outdriven dad − “by a yard” in Tiger’s phrases − in December 2022. As of Wednesday, Charlie can thank the California Interscholastic Federation’s choice to not host a statewide championship for his newest bragging rights.
California was divided into Southern and Northern halves by the CIF when Tiger was developing within the ranks. Subsequently, his highest win in highschool was the CIF SoCal Area, which he received as a freshman in 1991. In 4 years as a Western Pioneer, Tiger was the CIF’s Southern Part particular person champ in 1991, 1993, and 1994, incomes the Orange County League’s Most Worthwhile Participant award every season.
Thirty years later, the identical questions that after surrounded a rising Tiger might be requested for Charlie, who grew up below the microscope of a golf scene ready to see if he would keep it up the legacy of his father who spent a lot of his personal youth within the public eye.
Tiger’s response then seems to be one thing he’s instilling in Charlie now.
“It’s regular. I’m a standard teenager. It’s simply that I do one factor somewhat higher than the common teenager. And that’s play golf,” Tiger stated.
Considered one of Tiger’s former teammates chimed in: “If it had been me, I’d be all cocky and the whole lot. However he’s all the time simply actual mellow about it.”
The apple didn’t fall removed from the tree.
Charlie Woods performs on a highschool golf group, too.
Extra: With Tiger Woods as his caddie, Charlie Woods sinks putt on 18 to win Notah Begay event
‘C-Dub’ retains it cool
Numerous viewers can usually be discovered on the inexperienced when Charlie Woods is coming down the green, ready in hopes of catching a glimpse of a successful fist pump that resembles his father’s. This pack gathered on the 18th at PGA Nationwide to see the 14-year-old end at a match in October.
A younger man of mellow himself, Charlie makes being adopted by teams in sizes you’d anticipate solely at skilled tournaments look straightforward.
Having the eye of the world and taking part in with Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm hasn’t deterred the teenager from cheering within the stands at highschool soccer video games. Or going via the identical four-day qualifier everybody else has to compete in to make Benjamin’s golf group. Or getting a cool nickname like “C-Dub” that transcends the hallways to the course.
Faculty was an opportunity for his dad to flee. Pictured at work behind a desk in that 1993 clip, Tiger, then a highschool junior, likened the classroom to his “sanctuary.”
Someplace “away from the media.”
“However when the media is available in, you’re not a highschool teenager anymore. You’re any individual else,” Tiger stated.
It might be argued that Charlie’s cool demeanor is one thing he inherited from his predecessor’s simple, however humble swagger that took the nation by storm many years in the past.
Charlie Woods performs his shot from the primary tee as Tiger Woods appears on through the last spherical of the 2022 PNC Championship at Ritz-Carlton Golf Membership in Orlando. (Photograph: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Pictures)
Alternatively, Charlie simply embodies the same, stunning need to only be “regular” and play golf.
His standing as a first-year freshman didn’t cease him from being a fast favourite amongst his Buccaneer teammates. 4 Benjamin seniors noticed Charlie as a straightforward choose to be the group’s fifth man to make the trek to Cypress Woods Golf and Nation Membership in Naples when the crew competed within the South Florida PGA Tour’s West Coast Excessive Faculty Match in September.
“Once we went to Naples, I informed the children I’ve been the coach of this group for 40 years and that was essentially the most enjoyable journey I’ve ever been,” Benjamin coach Toby Harbeck stated.
“Ever.”
Youthful Woods earns stripes in first 12 months on varsity fairways
“The truth that he received and we received was a bonus,” Harbeck stated of Charlie.
Charlie’s team-best scorecard of 102 noticed Benjamin come again with arms full of recent loot. That was a few week after Tiger caddied Charlie’s low-round victory on the Notah Begay III Junior Golf Nationwide Championship Final Probability Florida Regional.
On the continuing Nationwide Championship in Louisiana two weeks in the past, Tiger went viral on the march for Charlie, who tied for seventeenth (77-78-65). Having just lately began working towards once more after time away because of an ankle surgical procedure that noticed his withdrawal from the 2023 Masters, a limp-less Tiger caddying 54 holes was the main target of the media.
In the meantime, Charlie was attempting to card what might be deemed a stable few follow rounds earlier than state after not approaching the tee field for Benjamin at districts or regionals.
In keeping with Harbeck, these had been classes that include being on a group. Ones that each Buccaneer has needed to endure sooner or later or one other.
“He’s having a very good 12 months. He’s having a very good time,” Harbeck stated in October. Benjamin had simply positioned runner-up in The Traditional in The Palm Seashores Excessive Faculty Invitational and Charlie carded a 154 (79-75).
Soaking wet grounds and windy situations noticed the youthful Woods end in a tie for forty second amongst gamers from 30 colleges nationwide, encountering the anticipated rising pains most each younger golfer endures, however together with his personal finesse.
On the 14th gap at PGA Nationwide, simply earlier than the notorious “Bear Entice” begins, Harbeck scurried again by way of cart as Charlie ready to tee off on the par 4.
“My participant in entrance took his driver and he knocked it proper via the green into the hazard,” Harbeck recalled. Trying to keep away from extra havoc, Harbeck requested Charlie what he noticed on his rangefinder.
“I acquired 340,” Charlie responded. The yardage from the gold tees was 442.
Heeding a warning about Charlie’s victimized teammate, Harbeck stated: “Okay, you pull it.”
“He acquired up there and simply ripped it up the center,” Harbeck laughed.
As Charlie walked again to the tee field, he admitted defeat.
“You had been proper, Coach.”
After that match, it was Harbeck’s “hope” that Charlie would have a tee time at states. With upwards of eight high-caliber golfers to select from, Harbeck had a “heck of a choice to make” that was going to make just a few somebodies “sad” as Benjamin went on to clinch the championships for District 13 and Area 4.
“While you go to 5, it’s actually laborious,” Harbeck stated. “However all the fellows which have performed on this group for years, they’ve needed to undergo the identical factor.”
“I believe he’s actually now greedy what group golf is all about. It’s quite a lot of enjoyable as a result of he’s used to taking part in by himself,” Harbeck stated.
“Now, he’s acquired teammates that love having him round.”
The younger Tiger on Benjamin’s roster earned his stripes in his first season of highschool golf.
These simply occur to return with a championship ring for Charlie and the Bucs.
Emilee Smarr is a sports activities reporter for the Palm Seaside Publish. She could be reached by way of e-mail at [email protected].
