For a fifth consecutive year, Tiger Woods and his teenage son Charlie will start the PNC Championship this weekend in Orlando, Florida.
The legendary Tiger will take part in a first tournament since his participation in July at the British Open, the fourth and final major of the 2024 calendar.
A Pro-Am type competition, the PNC Championship brings together stars of the PGA and LPGA circuits, young and old, who compete for 36 holes in pairs with a member of their family.
Aged 48 – he will celebrate his 49th birthday on December 30 – Woods is recovering from a sixth back operation he underwent three months ago.
In Orlando, a first triumph will certainly be a goal for the father-son duo, but it is never the priority on the fairways of the Ritz-Clarton course.
During the last year, Tiger Woods played five tournaments, and only completed one. It was at the Masters Tournament, at Augusta National, when he avoided the wave of cuts for a 24th time in a row – an all-time record.
He had to play 23 holes during the day on Friday at Augusta National, and had returned a score of 72 for his best round of the season.
Woods, however, followed up with a third card of 82, an example of the roller coaster that the legend and 110 times winner on the professional scene (including 82 on the PGA Tour) can encounter, given his fragile health to say the least.
“I will never feel like I did on a Golf course again,” Woods admitted lucidly. Recovery becomes more and more difficult.
After the Masters in April, Woods missed the weekend rounds of the next three Majors, before undergoing lower back surgery in September to alleviate the spasms that had plagued him for many years.
His decision to go under the knife in September was made based on being able to compete in the PNC Championship with his son.
He opted out of the Hero World Challenge two weeks ago, even though he's hosting the tournament in the Bahamas and many of his best friends from the PGA Tour are participating.
“I'm not competitive right now, but I wanted to give myself this chance to have this experience [avec Charlie] again,” said Woods, who views the PNC Championship almost as his fifth Grand Slam tournament.
“This meeting has been one of the highlights of our year as a family for several years. It's nice to have the opportunity to relive that again. »
Although his most recent visit to the operating table was to improve the condition of his back, his right leg, badly affected during a car accident in February 2021 in the suburbs of Los Angeles, is the part of his body that still hurts him the most to this day.
Still, he played a practice round on foot Friday rather than traveling by cart as he has done occasionally over the past three years.
Tiger and Charlie will begin their journey alongside Justin Leonard and his son Luke on Saturday morning.
Fifteen-time Grand Slam winner, Tiger candidly admits that he dreads the day when Charlie, now 15 years old, clearly beats him over 18 holes.
“He already beat me on nine holes,” Woods clarified. But that hasn’t happened yet over 18 holes. That day is coming. I'm just extending this as much as I can! »
The Woods' best finish at the PNC Championship was a second-place finish in 2021, in their second appearance, when they finished second behind John Daly and his son, who was playing in the college ranks at the time.
