Tiger Woods and son Charlie beam at the PNC Championship in Woods’ return to competition

CNN
—

To say the return to competition for Tiger Woods was a success would be an understatement.

Team Woods, playing with his son Charlie and with daughter Sam as his caddy, posted a dazzling round of 13-under 59 Saturday in the first round of the two-day PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Florida.

The spectacular performance put the father and son team atop the standings in a three-way tie for the lead.

Playing a scramble format, the Woodses finished the day with 13 birdies on their scorecard in a bogey-free round. Tiger and Charlie birdied seven of the nine holes on the back nine on Saturday.

“To be ours here in this environment and have fun like this — it doesn’t get any better,” Woods told NBC after the round.

The tournament concludes on Sunday after another 18-hole round.

“This week is for each other and we’re just pushing so hard for each one of us to hit every shot we want,” Tiger Woods said.

This is the fifth time Team Woods has played in the two-day, 36-hole competition, which features 20 major champions and their family members.

Woods’ public return to golf comes after he underwent successful back surgery in September.

Before this week, Woods had not played competitive golf since The Open Championship in July. He has made just 13 starts on the PGA Tour over the past four seasons and has completed the full four rounds just twice since suffering serious leg injuries in a car accident in 2021.

On Friday, Woods revealed that after several surgeries in recent years, the physical toll often prevents the 15-time major winner from putting together a string of good rounds.

“I’ve had a lot of procedures over time,” Woods said Friday. “I’m not going to feel what I used to feel. And the recovery is going to be on the harder side. I can go a day here or there, but over the course of rounds, weeks, months, it just gets harder.”

Woods said 15-year-old Charlie had beaten him in a round of golf for the first time – although he was quick to clarify it was over nine, not 18 holes.

“Yeah, he beat me in nine holes,” Woods told reporters Friday on the PGA Tour. “He has yet to beat me in 18 holes. That day will come; I just prolong it as long as I possibly can.”

Woods said Charlie has grown “3.5 to 4 inches in height” and gotten “stronger, faster, heavier” since last year, so he hopes Charlie will do all the driving and putting while Tiger can just serve as “backup” in the tournament.

Woods also shared the advice he has given his son to handle the pressure of competing with the Woods name.

“I just always remind him to ‘Just be you.’ Charlie is Charlie. Yeah, he’s my son, he wants that last name as part of the sport, but I just want him to just be himself, you know, and be your own person. That’s what we’re always going to focus on, and we’re always going to encourage that, for him to just carve his own name, to carve out his own path and have his own journey.”

Asked how Charlie is handling the spotlight so far, Woods replied, “I think he’s doing a great job.”