Tiger Woods might not be teeing it up at the US Open this week as he continues to recover from ankle surgery, but his son, Charlie, is more than capable of swinging a club, as he demonstrated at yesterday Riviera Country Club near Los Angeles Country Club, which is hosting this year’s third men's Major Championship.
The 14-year-old’s swing has been a talking point ever since he made the headlines in December 2021 when he and Woods Senior fired 11 birdies in a row in their second-place finish at the PNC Championship.
That performance was not a one-off, and Woods Junior is showing plenty of signs of becoming quite the golfer. He finished tied for ninth in April’s PGA National Junior Open, and recently cruised to victory on the Hurricane Tour’s Major Championship at Village Golf Course in Florida, where he won the 36-hole tournament by an incredible eight shots.
Tiger was there to watch his son’s performance, and he would have been particularly impressed by his scoring on the par 5s. The 47-year-old has previously admitted that his son is now capable of outdriving him, and he certainly took advantage of the long holes, finishing on five-under in the eight par 5s he played.
Just like his 15-time, Major-winning father, he’s not one to rest on his laurels. Charlie’s swing was captured on social media during a practice round, and it immediately got people comparing his action to his father's once again.
Charlie Woods at Riviera today - swing looking very good 👌👌pic.twitter.com/5JQvxrEwlRJune 14, 2023
Last year, Tiger revealed that he had been trying to toughen his son up with mind games, saying: “It's non-stop, non-stop. It's trying to get him – if I can get into his head, that means someone else can get into his head. It's going to get to a point where I can't get into his head, and then no one else can get in there either. That's what my dad believed. You've got to be willing to take it."
If Charlie is to embark on a professional golf career and follow in his father’s footsteps, he’s unlikely to operate under the radar – so a strong mental game, which has always been one of Tiger's greatest strengths, will stand him in good stead.
This week's US Open is being contested in Los Angeles, Tiger's home city, for the first time in 75 years. Charlie's presence there raises speculation as to whether the pair will be at the event, a tournament Woods Senior will have been desperate to have competed in.
