Tiger Woods, son Charlie, shares lead at PNC Championship

ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods and 15-year-old son Charlie reeled off five straight birdies on the back nine Saturday for a 13-under 59 in the scramble format, giving them a share of the lead at the PNC Championship in Woods’ first tournament since back surgery in September.

Woods said he planned that surgery — the sixth on his lower back in the last 10 years — to make sure he recovered in time to play with his son for the fifth straight year.

It is the first time they have shared the lead after the opening round, along with the previous two champions – Bernhard Langer and son Jason and Vijay Singh and son Qass.

Woods hit a number of good shots, including a wedge two inches on the short par-4 seventh, but otherwise played down his game by suggesting he still had a lot of rust. This was more about spending 36 holes in a spirited day at the Ritz-Carlton Club Orlando with his son, a sophomore at the Benjamin School in North Palm Beach.

His daughter, Sam, caddied for her father for the second consecutive year. Their mother, Elin, was among them in the gallery at a tournament that is all about family.

“We try to pull every single shot for each other, and ham and eggs,” Woods said. “And I think we did well pretty much all day. We picked each other up, which was great. And Charlie pretty much made most of the putts today.”

Playing in the same group with former British Open champion Justin Leonard and his son, Luke, a senior and teammate of Charlie’s at Benjamin School, helped.

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 midway through the round and had an eagle on the 14th hole.

Singh and his son, who won this event in 2022, shot 28 on the back nine.

“There are so many teams in the hunt,” Langer said. “It’s anybody’s game to be 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 on 12-under 60. The Lehmans appeared to be in the lead when they were around the green on the par-5 18th, but then it took them four shots to get down the scramble format, takes bogey.

Having Team Woods in the mix is ​​enough to get attention.

“It’s great for the tournament and happy for them,” Langer said. “It should be fun for the crowd tomorrow to come out and watch everyone play.”

Woods has not competed since the British Open in July.

For Team Woods, it’s a matter of not looking too far ahead. The father knows this all too well with his records of 82 titles on the PGA Tour. That taught the son a lesson this summer.

Charlie Woods qualified for his first US Junior Amateur and made it to Oakland Hills, but didn’t stay very long. He shot rounds of 82-80 and didn’t make it into match play. He also fell short in Monday’s qualifier for the Cognizant Classic on the PGA Tour and the US Open qualifier.

But he said the US Junior was his biggest learning moment.

“It’s about focusing on my game,” Charlie said. “I was so focused on winning and how I played that it kind of crept into how I’m going to win instead of how I’m going to play the stroke. And it kind of built up and it caused two very , very bad rounds of golf. But live and learn.”

His father listened to the answer and nodded.

“Learn,” Woods said.

The PNC Championship is for players who have won a major or The Players Championship and a family member. Annika Sorenstam plays with her son, while Nelly Korda plays with her father. Steve Stricker – winner of seven senior majors – plays with daughter Izzy, a freshman at Wisconsin.

Korda dazzled with a fairway metal out of the sand on the par-5 14th to set up eagle. Team Korda was four shots behind.