Charlie Woods on the U.S. Junior Newbie at Oakland Hills on Monday.
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Taking part in golf in a fishbowl isn’t straightforward.
Ask Tiger Woods.
“You get a lot consideration,” he as soon as mentioned. “It’s actually laborious.”
Woods was 15 when he shared that perception. The yr was 1991, and he was an ascendant junior expertise the likes of which the sport had hardly ever, if ever, seen. At 2, he already had appeared on nationwide TV with Bob Hope. At 3, he had damaged 50 for 9 holes, and, at 8, he’d damaged 70 for 18. At 15, Tiger gained his file sixth Junior World Golf Championship, carding a final-round 69 at fire-breathing Torrey Pines South. Within the wake of that victory, Dana Haddad wrote within the Los Angeles Occasions, “Don’t let his large eyes, bony arms and knobby knees idiot you. Eldrick ‘Tiger’ Woods of Cypress, only a babe at 15, is the man-child of golf.”
You recognize what got here subsequent: the three U.S. Junior Newbie titles adopted by three U.S. Newbie victories. The 82 PGA Tour wins, together with 15 majors. Not included in that stat line is one other variety of nice significance to Woods: 2, as within the variety of youngsters he has had — a daughter, Sam, who’s now 17, and a son, Charlie, 15.
Sam by no means took to golf, at the least not severely. However Charlie has, creating right into a formidable expertise in his personal proper. He’s a rising sophomore at The Benjamin Faculty, in Palm Seashore, Fla., the place alongside Justin Leonard’s son, Luke, and a handful of different youngsters who may beat the very best golfer at your membership, he performs on the boys’ workforce that final fall gained the college’s fourth state championship title. (Two of Jack Nicklaus’ boys, Gary and Michael, additionally attended The Benjamin Faculty.)
At a Florida qualifier for the U.S. Junior Newbie final month, Charlie was three over via two holes. Undaunted, he made a pledge to himself: “I simply advised myself to not make any extra bogeys or doubles.” Charlie performed the following 16 holes in 4 underneath and signed for a one-under 71. The comeback earned him medalist honors and a spot in his first U.S. Junior Newbie, at historic Oakland Hills Nation Membership, close to Detroit, the place Charlie’s father, as an newbie, made the reduce on the 1996 U.S. Open.
Golf has an uncanny approach of manufacturing full-circle moments; it’s one of many sport’s many charms. However Charlie enjoying in his first U.S. Junior feels particularly significant, given his father’s wealthy historical past within the occasion. For the youthful Woods, it’s additionally the most recent section in his coming-out get together: enjoying in a state championship match is one factor, as is pegging it in a nationally televised exhibition just like the PNC Championship or making an attempt to Monday qualify for a PGA Tour occasion. However the U.S. Junior is one other stage but: a nationwide championship run by the USA Golf Affiliation. High Gun for junior golfers. Merely qualifying is a large achievement.
Which brings us again to the fishbowl.
Charlie, at 15, now is aware of what his father knew at 15: Charlie’s aggressive rounds are totally different for him than they’re for his friends, particularly when Tiger is in attendance. Extra eyes. Extra scrutiny. Extra distractions. On the PGA Tour qualifier Charlie entered in February, followers spilled onto the fairways to be close to him, with some asking for autographs mid-round. “You possibly can’t cease anybody from coming, and if Tiger’s there, it’s crazier,” Charlie’s highschool coach, Toby Harbeck, advised me final yr of the scene at a few of his highschool tournaments. “Belief me, there are folks in timber taking footage. Microphones in his face.”
The eye round Charlie was evident at Oakland Hills Monday morning. As he teed off on the North Course’s 1st gap simply earlier than 8:30, a crowd of some hundred, telephones raised, circled the tee field — this at a match the place teams hardly ever entice quite a lot of dozen followers. Standing simply behind and to the suitable of the tee was Tiger, in a white hat and striped Solar Day Purple polo. He was laborious to overlook as a result of he was standing on a berm, which elevated him above the remainder of the onlookers. “I’ve been in a gallery like this earlier than,” Chase Kyes, a rising highschool senior from Alabama and considered one of Charlie’s two enjoying companions, would later say, “however by no means performed in entrance of a gallery like this.”
Charlie hit an iron on the par-4 1st and opened with three pars, however his regular play wouldn’t final. On the 200-yard par-3 4th, he wanted three pictures to seek out the inexperienced and made double. Tiger was in tow, wanting on from beside tees and greens. Charlie is used to his presence, however his enjoying companions weren’t. “I regarded over at him a few occasions, however I actually tried to not,” Kyes mentioned of Tiger. “There’s numerous strain together with his title.”
Charlie obtained a stroke again on the par-Fifth, however then completed the entrance 9 bogey-par-bogey-double to show in 40, the identical rating his father shot within the first 9 holes on the 1997 Masters earlier than storming again to a historic win. However this spherical, for Charlie, would produce no such fireworks. On the again 9, he made three doubles, two bogies and a lone birdie to shoot 42 and end at 12 over. With 60 gamers taking pictures par or higher Monday, Charlie greater than doubtless had shot himself out of the match.
Charlie didn’t converse with reporters after the spherical, however his enjoying companions did. Two issues appeared to strike them: the burden on Charlie’s shoulders, and the joy they felt enjoying in entrance of such a big gallery.
“The quantity of strain he has on him is unbelievable,” mentioned Davis Ovard, a rising sophomore at Baylor who was Charlie’s different associate. “I can’t picture being in his footwear.”
Ovard, who shot 73, mentioned he noticed extra of Tiger throughout Sunday’s follow spherical than he did on Monday. “He was simply strolling down the center of the fairways with us and on the greens with us, and we had been speaking in regards to the course,” Ovard mentioned. “It was loopy.”
Kyes mentioned he liked feeling the push of enjoying in entrance of a swell of followers. ”It’s nice for the sport, particularly for younger children like us,” he mentioned. “Hopefully it gained’t be the final time we’re in entrance of crowds like this. As early as you may get used to it, the higher off you may be.”
Charlie’s absolutely getting used to it. Possibly he already is. What different selection does he have?
