Charlie Woods likely has a bright golfing future ahead of him, but his quest to qualify for his first PGA Tour tournament fell short on Thursday.
Woods, the 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods, was seeking to quality for next week’s Cognizant Classic in front of his mom Elin Nordegren, but shot a 16-over 86 at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida in a pre-qualifying event.
His biggest struggles came on the par-four seventh hole, where he shot a 12.
The Cognizant Classic begins on Feb. 29 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida at PGA National’s Champion Course.
A freshman in high school at The Benjamin School, Charlie Woods helped his team win a Florida high school state golf championship in November at Club in Howey-In-The-Hills and Mission Inn Resort.
Tiger and Charlie Woods have competed as a father-son duo in the PNC Championship for four straight years, with Tiger’s daughter — and Charlie’s sister — Samantha caddying for them in the event this past December.
After the exhibition event, Tiger was optimistic about this year’s golfing season.
“I’ll be able to walk and play,” Woods said of his recovery from an April ankle surgery, according to the Associated Press. “We’ve been working out hard, been able to recover. We’ve been training every day, which is great. It’s been nice to knock off a lot of rust and some of the doubt that I’ve had because, quite frankly, I haven’t hit a shot that counted in a long time.
“Having to post a score and hit shots on the right number, and hit shots with consequence, it’s been nice.”
Nonetheless, in his first event back in 2024, Woods was forced to withdraw from last week’s Genesis Invitational after battling a case of the flu.
