Tiger Woods and 15-year-old son Charlie ran off five straight birdies on the back nine as a 13-under 59 gave them a share of the lead in the PNC Championship in Woods’ first competition since back surgery in September.
Woods said he scheduled that surgery – the sixth on his lower back in the last 10 years – to be sure he recovered in time to play with his son for the fifth straight year.
This is the first time they have shared the lead after the opening round, joined by the last two champions – Bernhard Langer and son Jason, and Vijay Singh and son Qass.
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Woods hit an array of good shots, including a wedge to inches on the short par-four seventh, but otherwise downplayed his game by suggesting he still had a lot of rust.
This was more about spending a brisk day at the Ritz-Carlton Club Orlando with his son, a sophomore at Benjamin School in North Palm Beach.
His daughter, Sam, caddied for her father for the second straight year, while their mother, Elin, was among those in the gallery in a tournament that is all about family.
“We’re trying to pull off each and every shot for each other, and to ham-and-egg,” Woods said. “And I think we did that great pretty much the entire day.
“We picked each other up, which was great, and Charlie made pretty much most of the putts today.”
It helped playing in the same group with former British Open champion Justin Leonard and his son, Luke, a senior and team-mate with Charlie at Benjamin School.
Langer extended his astonishing record on the PGA Tour Champions this year by winning for an 18th consecutive season. He and his son made eight birdies in a nine-hole stretch in the middle of the round, and they had an eagle on the 14th hole.
Singh and his son, who won this event in 2022, shot 28 on the back nine.
“There’s so many teams in the hunt,” Langer said. “It’s anybody’s game that is within three or four shots of the leaders, which is most of the field.”
Padraig Harrington and son Paddy, and Tom Lehman and son Sean, were at 12-under 60. The Lehmans looked to be leading when they were around the green on the par-five 18th, but then it took them four shots to get down in the scramble format, taking bogey.
