Charlie Woods got his hands on his first ‘major’ victory earlier this week, after the son of the great Tiger Woods won the South Florida Junior Cup.
Woods Jr shot rounds of 73, 68, 73 to ensure he was the only player under-par throughout the tournament at BallenIsles Country Club’s East Course. This proved enough to crown him as the tournament winner, with the title one of the eight major events on the South Florida Junior Tour schedule.
“I wanted it so bad,” said the youngster in the aftermath. “I felt focused, and I knew what I had to do to get it done. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do better.”
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“I feel like it was a compilation of a lot of hard work this summer. I wanted to redeem myself, and I feel great about how I played.” His victory came just a week after he endured a tough time at the US Junior Amateur, as he missed the cut with his dad watching on.
Tiger himself had been in action a week prior, making just his fifth start of the season at The Open Championship. He too fell to the same fate as his son, as Woods missed the cut for the third time in four events, after battling in tough conditions at Royal Troon.
Woods is playing a part-time schedule on the PGA Tour, as he continues to battle a number of fitness issues on the back of injuries sustained in a car accident back in February 2021. Outside of the four majors, Woods has played just one regular Tour event this year; the Genesis Invitational in February.
This too ended prematurely though, as Woods was forced to withdraw from the event due to illness partway through the second round. And his missed cut at The Open in July brought a curtain down on his competitive season, after he announced he would be taking a break from action.
As a result, he confirmed in the aftermath of his missed cut that his next PGA Tour start will come in December when he hosts the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. “I’m not going to play until then [the Hero World Challenge],” Woods said. I’m going to just keep getting physically better and keep working on it.”
He did however confirm that he also plans to compete in this year’s PNC Championship alongside his son Charlie, which comes in the aftermath of the Hero. “Hopefully just come back for our, what is it, our fifth major, the Father/Son [PNC Championship], so looking forward to it.”
The Woods duo have competed in the last three editions of the parent-child event at the Ritz Carlton in Florida, with their best finish coming back in 2021 when the pair ended the 54-hole tournament in second, two shots behind eventual winners John Daly and John Daly Jr.
