Woods Name Appearing Top Of Leaderboard Anywhere First Time In Five Years

The name WOODS is appearing atop of a leaderboard for a first time in over five years with Tiger Woods and 15-year-old son Charlie sharing the lead after day one of the 2024 PNC Championship in Orlando.

Tiger and Charlie, and with daughter Sam again acting as Tiger’s caddied, gelled superbly in posting a bogey-free 13-under 58 to end the round tied with six-time winning Bernhard Langer and his son Jason while the combination of Vijay Singh and son Qass also produced a combined betterball of 58.

The effort by Team Woods was just a shot shy of their best of a second round 57 in being runner-up to John Daly and his son in 2021.

Tiger and son produced a fautless scorecard of 13 birdies including birdies at the opening three holes and then five in a row from the 12th to 16th holes on the host Ritz Carlton course and many of those birdies thanks to Charlie, who looked very impressive and saving Team Woods a few times with his accurate second-shot play.

The last occasion the name WOODS appeared atop of a leaderboard was at the October 2019 Zozo Championship and with Woods the inagurual hosting of the event by three shots from hometown hero Hideki Matsuyama.

It remains Woods 148th and last worldwide victory.

The 15-time major-winning Woods and his now grown-up son were clearly having fun and Charlie enjoying a little banter with his father which was great to hear while it was also again a real family affair as daughter Sam acted as caddy to her father.

It was Charlie who was first asked about the round:

CHARLIE WOODS: Felt pretty good. I didn’t hit it great but Dad saved me on a couple of them and I rolled them in.

TIGER WOODS: It’s a scramble. So we’re trying to pull off each and every shot for each other, and to ham-and-egg, and I think we did that great pretty much the entire day.

CHARLIE WOODS: Yeah.

TIGER WOODS: We picked each other up, which was great. And Charlie made pretty much most of the putts today.

What was encouraging to see, and despite withdrawing from the recent Hero World Challenge, was Woods’ swing and also teeing-up in just a sixth event this year, and a first since missing the halfway cut in July at Royal Troon.

And speaking of encouraging, Woods was asked if he was he encouraged by his first round effort.

“I’m just trying to have fun out here”, he said.

“I’m very rusty and as I said it’s a scramble, and so we’re just trying to have fun out there. Ham-and-egg each other. Push each other in great spots, and just root for each other to pull off the shot that we want”.

And when Woods was quizzed that he looked a little nervous, Woods said: “Of course. I’m always nervous out there. That’s the fun part. I’ve always told you guys that if I’m not nervous, that means I don’t care. I care about what I do. And so yes, I’ve gotten more comfortable over the years playing in front of people. That just happens through experience and time.

“But yes, I was nervous on that first tee shot today. It was great. It’s good to feel those butterflies”.

After going so close to the ‘W’ three years ago, Charlie was asked what it would be like to win though his answer was pure politician-like.

“I don’t know, we’ve got to figure that out first. We’ve got to get there, and then I’ll tell you”, he said.

 

 



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