ORLANDO, Fla. – For the second time this month Tiger Woods is poised to test his surgically-rebuilt right ankle in competition, although this week’s PNC Championship will not be nearly as demanding as the Hero World Challenge.
While Woods walked Friday’s 18-hole pro-am alongside his son, Charlie, he will use a golf cart for Saturday’s opening round at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. So will the rest of the 20-team field as officials moved up tee times and will send groups off the first and 10th tees in an attempt to complete the round before a cold front brings heavy rain and wind to Central Florida.
“I felt like I was physically fit to do it and, also, walking is always better for my back. I just wanted to keep it loose and keep it going, and we’re just having so much fun, it doesn’t really matter,” Woods told a pool reporter when asked about his decision to walk during the pro-am round.
Like he said earlier this month in the Bahamas, Woods is confident with his swing and is getting his touch back with each competitive round, following ankle surgery in April that had sidelined him since the Masters.
“It’s better. Today was definitely a bit better. I was able to knock a lot of the rust off there at Hero, and felt my hands felt better with control hitting shots,” he said. “Especially today with the wind blowing as hard as it was, I was able to hit flighted shots nicely, which was not quite on par or as sharp as I was, as I wanted to be at Hero.”
Woods finished 18th out of 20 players at the Hero World Challenge but he showed signs of improved health by navigating 72 holes. By comparison, this week’s team event with a scramble format will feel more like recreational rounds.
Woods and his son finished tied for eighth place, six shots off the pace set by last year’s winning team of Vijay Singh and his son, and the 15-time major champion said Charlie’s game continues to evolve as he grows.
“His speed has gone dramatically up since last year. But I think that more than anything, it’s just the fact that he’s grown so fast. The aches and pains of growing, just teenage life,” Woods said of his 14-year-old son. “He’s one tee further back [than last year]. He’s just one tee ahead of me, which is fine because he’s hitting it past me now. We still have an advantage out there, but we both have to hit shots well at the same time.”
This is the fourth year Woods and his son have played the PNC Championship with the duo’s best finish a runner-up showing in 2021 to John Daly and his son.
Team Woods is scheduled to tee off for the first round Saturday at 8:22 a.m. (ET) alongside the team of Justin Thomas and his father, Mike.
Stream each day of the PNC Championship live on Peacock. Click here to learn more and sign up to watch 20 family teams, including Tiger and Charlie Woods.
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