When it comes to Tiger Woods, longtime caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay has seen it all — and often with the best view in the house.
Mackay, like everyone else in golf, wondered if he’d ever get a chance to watch Woods out on the course again after a horrific single-car accident shattered his lower right leg a little less than 10 months ago.
Mackay was reminded during Saturday’s PNC Championship not to put anything beyond Woods’ will and ability.
Playing with his 12-year-old son Charlie, Woods held his own much of the day and even stole the show a time or two playing alongside world No. 6 Justin Thomas and his father, Mike. After a bogey-free 10-under-par 62, Team Woods sits 3 shots behind leaders Stewart Cink and son Reagan.
Team Thomas and John Daly and son John Jr. are 12-under 60 in the 20-team event pairing professional golfers with a child or parent.
“You become so conditioned to seeing him do superhuman things,” Mackay said of Woods. “Nothing he does is ever going to surprise me.”
Mackay caddied for Phil Mickelson for 25 years, much of those when Woods was perhaps the most dominant player the game has seen — winner of a record-tying 82 PGA Tour events, including 15 majors.
Woods showed the occasional glimpse of those halcyon days Saturday at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando, Grande Lakes.
Woods singled out three shots as a few reminders of his singular talent: A 4-iron approach from 220 yards into the wind and a 5-wood from 240-50 to reach the greens of two par-5s, along with a striped 7-iron on a 216-yard par-3.
“They came off exactly how I wanted to,” he said.
Mackay called the 4-iron, on the 3rd hole, ”a shot a guy playing his best golf on the PGA Tour would hit.”
Those moments inevitably led to speculation about Woods’ future from everyone other than himself.
“I don’t have it,” he told reporters. “You know that. I don’t have the game or the speed or any of that. I’m just starting to get back into it.”
Thomas, a 14-time winner who has become close with Woods, a fellow Jupiter resident, said his friend still has all the shots. Harnessing them during the course of four days in tournament conditions might be a tall order.
“He’s not that far away,” Thomas said. “But in terms of being able to compete and walk 72 holes multiple weeks in a row, yeah, that’s a different story — and he’s the only one that can answer that.”
With his 46th birthday on Dec. 30 and a long road to recovery still ahead, Woods is just happy to be walking with a slight limp and swinging a golf club with some decent speed.
On the 11th hole, Woods caught a drive that went more than 300 yards. More often, he was catching a ride in his golf cart with caddie Joe LaCava in the passenger’s seat.
Whenever possible, the Woods pairing played Charlie’s drive, aided by the fact he could play up a tee box.
“I didn’t have to hit as many [drives],” Woods said. “Save me for the short shots and I can still hit short irons and I can still putt. That has not left me. The speed and some of the shots, the longer stuff has.”
But the PNC Championship was more about family and fun than the start of a comeback.
The ages range from 12-year-old Charlie, a junior golfer shooting tournament scores in the mid-70s to mid-80s, to 86-year-old Hall of Famer Gary Player, a nine-time major champion.
“It was just a blast,” Woods said.
The trash talk was flowing between Team Woods and Team Thomas.
“We’re extremely close, so it was a bunch of fun there, was a lot of needling going on the entire day,” Woods said. “We’re pulling pranks on each other and giving each other some under-the-breath remarks that I’m glad they didn’t capture.”
Perhaps the day’s most memorable moment came off camera.
Waiting for the 13th tee box to clear, the two teams had a putting contest on the 12th green, lining up from 60 feet. Woods left the first putt short, but Charlie then stepped up and holed it.
While a couple hundred fans cheered and his father grinned, Charlie rubbed the thumb to his fingers on his right hand — signaling for Thomas to pay up. Thomas instead answered by sinking his own putt to further ignite the crowd.
“‘Noooo ... Oh my Lord,’” one fan exclaimed.
Not to be outdone or forgotten, Mike Thomas then drained his 60-foot effort.
“What are the mathematical odds?” Mackay said. “And it wasn’t your average 60-footer; it was up and over a ridge. A really different putt to get the speed and ultimately the break ... nuts.”
The craziest part: “Best putter of all time didn’t make it.”
Until then, Woods thought he had seen it all on the golf course. At least he did have to come out of pocket for the privilege.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “I don’t think any one of us has, right? Three 60-footers going down. One tie, all tie.”
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