Charlie Woods ready for his US Junior Am debut at Oakland Hills. Just ask his coach.
Charlie Woods was just trying to play golf this past February in an effort to cement his dream and qualify for his first-ever PGA Tour event.
But a swarm of fans had other ideas. The 15-year-old experienced something few other teenaged athletes are subjected to.
“People were walking in the fairway with him, talking to him while he’s trying to play and he didn’t play well at all,” Toby Harbeck, Charlie’s high school golf coach at the Benjamin School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, told the Free Press on Wednesday.
“Some of the things that happened to this poor kid, sometimes it’s just unfair.”
Charlie on that day shot 16-over 86 in a qualifying event in Hobe Sound, Florida, for the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic. The ordeal was another learning experience as he prepared for a big test in the summer that’s now here.
The one person who can relate best? That would be Charlie’s dad: 15-time major-winning golfer Tiger Woods — one of the most well-recognized athletes in the world.
This has forced Charlie to grow up quickly as he further embarks into the public eye starting Monday, when he makes his first United States Golf Association championship appearance in the U.S. Junior Amateur at historic Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township. Charlie tees off at 8:28 a.m. Monday on the North Course, and at 1:48 p.m. Tuesday on the South Course.
Even more impressive was how he did it, overcoming a bogey, double-bogey start to win the qualifier at 1-under-par 71, beating out 86 other players competing for three spots.
“It feels amazing to qualify for my first USGA championship,” Charlie told reporters afterward. “The USGA means a lot to me. I want to win USGA championships and hopefully one day the U.S. Open.”
While Charlie is relatively new on the golf scene, he has quickly captured fans’ fascination, showing the same mannerisms and posture as his dad. He swooped into public view as a 12-year-old in 2021, playing with his father in the PNC Championship, which pairs pros with family members in a two-day, 36-hole tournament.
He helped his high school team win a state title last year as a freshman, with four senior teammates picking him to be their fifth player.
Now, Charlie is beginning to experience similar ordeals to Tiger, albeit on a far smaller scale, with more and more people following his every move.
“We kind of got our first real taste of it last season and that was when I took the team to Naples,” Harbeck said. “If you’ve watched Tiger play, you know the throngs of people that follow him. If you were standing on a tall porch or deck, and you could see the whole golf course, you can always tell where Tiger was exactly by the amount of people. Charlie’s the exact same way. You can tell where Charlie is because he’ll have 30 or 40 people following him.”
That number should grow exponentially beginning Monday, with USGA and Oakland Hills officials preparing for spectators in the thousands for the free, ticketless event that will span six days to find the best among the 264 participants who are all under 19 years old.
It will provide another test for Charlie to show his mental fortitude, as he is expected to again have the largest following, with fans set to have a “minimal ropes experience.”
Another distraction? To no surprise, Tiger is expected to roam the familiar Oakland Hills grounds to watch his son compete. (Tiger last played in competition at the club during the 2004 Ryder Cup on the South Course.)
“I’m sure Tiger is gonna be there,” Harbeck said. “He’s gonna fly I’m sure straight from England from the British Open over there to be with him. I know he can’t caddie for him, because parents aren’t allowed to caddie (at this event), but his caddie is another one of my players, Luke Wise.”
Charlie has high expectations: Tiger made the U.S. Junior Am semifinals at 14 in 1990, then won an unprecedented six consecutive USGA titles, with three U.S. Junior Am championships and three straight wins in the U.S. Amateur.
The pressure of parents in coaching youth sports is already high, but in the case of celebrity parents like Tiger, Harbeck has the least amount of trouble. And he has experience coaching high-profile young golfers over his 40 years as varsity golf coach at the Benjamin School, including teaching Jack Nicklaus’ sons and Greg Norman’s son.
“Getting to know Tiger a little bit last year like I did,” Harbeck said. “He is very non-pressured with Charlie, if Charlie wants to learn how to do something or play better or whatever. He goes to dad and says, ‘Hey, you know, I want to do this or I want to do that,’ and then Tiger absolutely takes him under his wing, to help him become better. Tiger is not Tiger Woods. Tiger is ‘Dad’ and that’s the way we treat him when he’s out watching, he just wants to be a parent. Elin (Nordegren, Charlie’s mom) and Tiger have been a great support for Charlie.”
The Benjamin School varsity golf team is a difficult one to make. But Charlie impressed Harbeck even before he tried out, as well as during tryouts. It was a significant step because Charlie “didn’t start playing (more seriously) until about two years ago.”
“I could see at that point, this was last summer, that he had made great strides in his game,” Harbeck said. “He had been working really hard to improve a lot of things. The one thing I was worried about, I thought about eighth grade, was his length because he, well, he wasn’t that long (a hitter). Now he is just phenomenal, but he’s got a lot bigger. He qualified No. 1 in his group last year to make the team.”
It hasn’t been all gold stars for Charlie, who is ranked the 763rd junior golfer in the world, according to The Universal Golf Rankings.
He shot 21 over par in his American Junior Golf Association debut in March, finishing tied for 32nd out of 50. And his longshot quest to qualify for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst came up well short in April, when he posted an 81.
The pressures of being Tiger’s son are enormously high, especially on the golf course, with overplayed narratives.
But with his mannerisms resembling those of his father, and a sudden upward trajectory with the ability seen at the PNC Championship last winter to mash long drives (he bombed one 335 yards), dial in approach shots and a burgeoning short game, it’s easy to understand the excitement.
“He is a great kid,” Harbeck said. “I just got to watch his mannerism. He was very quiet, he was almost like trying to find where he’s gonna fit in with the rest of the guys that had been on the team before. The thing about him is he never came in with any hype. But as I said to a lot of guys, they got to earn the respect and hype that they get. He came in, you know, really under the radar. Charlie kind of worked himself into becoming one of the guys by being himself. By the middle of the season, he was just one of the guys like he’d been on the team for a few years.”
The U.S. Junior Am at Oakland Hills, with two courses designed by the legendary Donald Ross and opened in 1918, will provide perhaps Charlie’s stiffest test yet, both from a competition and course standpoint.
Players must stay out of trouble on tee balls to avoid lush rough, and stay patient with approach shots to the big, undulating and fast greens. Most of all, Charlie must avoid compounding mistakes, Harbeck said.
Each player will play one round on the North Course and one on the world-acclaimed South Course — reopened in 2021 after a $12 million renovation of “The Monster” — in stroke play Monday and Tuesday.
The top 64 will advance to match play, beginning Wednesday, on the South Course. The final is next Saturday in a 36-hole match, with the champion exempt into the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania.
“I think he’s got the capability to win it,” Harbeck said. “The goal I’ve always set for my kids at the U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur, if they can get there, is to get to the match play, so match play will probably (be) the top 64. If he hit the match play, that is a heck of an accomplishment. He’s got the capability to win it. I mean, Charlie can shoot low, he can shoot real low. If he gets it going, he can go low, he’s just got to stay away from making consecutive bogeys or doubles or a bogey and double or a bogey and a triple or something like that. He’ll be fine.”
