If Charlie Woods wanted an early insight into what life would be like for Tiger Woods’ son playing professional golf, then he’s certainly getting a crash course in it by all the media attention surrounding what tee boxes the 13-year-old will play off at the PNC Championship.
He’s not just any 13-year-old playing golf with his dad though, or even a 13-year-old playing with his Major champion dad in this special PGA Tour event – no, he’s the 13-year-old son of arguably the greatest golfer to ever stride the fairways.
And while you can argue the point on whether Tiger is the true GOAT of the game or not, nobody has even garnered as much attention or felt that burning glare of the spotlight more than the 15-time Major champion.
Now, young Charlie is getting a taste of it as it became big news that he was reportedly moving back two tee boxes from where he played the PNC Championship from last year, to tackle the course at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando at 6,754 yards in length.
That would’ve put Woods teeing off on the same tees as the likes of John Daly and Nelly Korda, but it then emerged that he was in fact just going off the tees made for his age group, some 300 yards shorter at around 6,452 yards.
However, it now seems that it was all a storm over nothing, as the PGA Tour’s chief referee Joe Terry says the plan was always for Charlie Woods to play off the shorter tee boxes – and that the previous report was ill-informed speculation.
“The thing is, there’s no change,” Terry told GOLF.com. “We had heard that Tiger might wish for Charlie to play a longer golf course. But I had scheduled Charlie to play the tee box for his age with the 13-year-olds. So there’s been no change — he will play from the 13-year-old tees.
“If Tiger requested it, we would certainly honour that request. The committee does have the authority to allow a change if someone wants to play a longer golf course. Just because he’s playing better and he’s Charlie Woods - we’re not going to punish him because he’s 13.”
Social media had been all over the tee box saga, especially given Tiger’s recent revelation that Charlie had outdriven him off the tee for the first time ever in a recent round.
Charlie will, then, tee off on Saturday at the PNC Championship where a 13-year-old should be teeing off from, but this mini-saga all over where he puts his peg in the ground serves as an early reminder, if anyone needed it, that this is no ordinary 13-year-old young golfer starting out.
Tiger has already talked about how he’s preparing Charlie for life on tour and dealing with mind games from competitors, but dealing with the constant stream of media coverage will be another major life lesson his legendary golfing father will have to teach him.
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