Woods’ son makes debut as Team Thomas wins
ORLANDO — Charlie Woods is only 11 years old, but he can already fist pump on the golf course like his majorchampionship winning father.
On Sunday, Charlie rolled in a 10foot birdie putt at the 10th hole of the PNC Championship, a 36-hole team event at the Ritz-carlton Golf Club at Grande Lakes that paired 20 winners of prestigious titles alongside a family member in a scramble competition.
That’s when Charlie, the youngest player ever to compete in the tournament, unleashed a fist-pump that brought a big smile to his proud papa’s face and looked awfully familiar to former British Open champion David Duval, who was witness to many of Tiger’s heroics.
“You’ve got to love it, right,” Duval said. “I thought that was spectacular.”
That wasn’t the only one of Tiger’s mannerisms that his son has picked up. He also walked in putts, carried his yardage book in the same back pocket and twirled his club on his finish. The fist-pump birdie was one of many highlights over a weekend in which father and son teamed to shoot a pair of 62s and finish seventh in their tournament debut, five strokes behind tournament champions Justin Thomas and his father Mike, his coach and a PGA professional.
On Sunday, with sister Sam and mother Elin Nordegren walking in his gallery, Charlie often teed off first and on multiple occasions signaled with a thumbs-up or a wave that he’d hit a good one and Tiger didn’t even bother to hit.
Team Thomas combined for birdie on the first seven holes en route to shooting 15-under 57 and a 36-hole total of 25-under 119, one stroke better than Vijay Singh and son Quass, who finished runner-up for the third time.
Team Woods offset one bogey with eagles at Nos. 5 and 14 and six birdies.