ORLANDO — Will McGee rated his debut at the PNC Championship last year with mom Annika Sorenstam a 10 out of 10. It’s hard to go up from there, but the 12-year-old, a fan favorite at last year’s event, already has quite the highlight reel at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club. First came the ace during a practice round after school alongside his father, Mike McGee, on the fourth hole. Will hit a 7-iron into the wind from 128 yards.
Then, on Saturday during the PNC’s opening round, Will drained a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-5 third hole.
“At the start it was downhill,” said Will, “and then like towards the middle you could see it was going to break right. Right as I it had it, I thought it was a couple feet short and my mom was like, get some legs, get some legs. And it kept on slowly going and eventually it dropped, and it felt nice.”
Team Annika holds a share of seventh in the scramble format after carding a 10-under 62. They trail leaders Matt Kuchar and Cameron Kuchar by eight strokes. Tiger Woods and his son Charlie opened with a 64.
Sorenstam, a 72-time winner on the LPGA, including 10 majors, is the only mother playing in the field. To be invited to the PNC, a member of each team must have won at least one major (PGA Tour, LPGA or PGA Tour Champions) or The Players Championship, while the partner must not hold any playing status on a professional tour.
“Last year we just didn’t really know what to expect,” said Sorenstam of their debut, “and I thought we did quite well last year, and then so now this year, the expectations rise for someone, so therefore, we were a little nervous just for that reason.”
Will McGee son of Annika Sorenstam of Sweden tosses a ball on the 18th green during the first round of the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 16, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
When asked how many aces he now has, Will said it’s up for debate. He doesn’t count the one he made last year at Pinehurst Resort’s par-3 course, The Cradle, while mom was competing in the U.S. Women’s Open.
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s round at the PNC Championship.
The first round of the PNC Championship is in the books, and it was a rainy one at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando.
However, Team Kuchar wasn’t affected by the weather as much as some other teams. In the first group off, Matt and son Cameron had a stellar day, shooting 15-under 57 and tying the lowest first-round score in PNC Championship history and second-lowest score in tournament history, as well. Team Kuchar has a three-shot lead heading into Sunday over myriad teams, including the defending champions Vijay and Qass Singh.
However, he has a new caddie at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, and one he’s plenty familiar with. His 16-year-old daughter, Sam.
Sam has been in the public eye with dad before, introducing Woods at his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. But this is the first time she has been on the bag, meaning a family affair on a rainy Saturday in central Florida.
“Sam was fantastic,” Tiger said. “This is the first time she’s ever done this, so it couldn’t have been any more special for all of us.
“For me to have both my kids inside the ropes like this and participating and playing and being part of the game of golf like this, it couldn’t have been more special for me, and I know that we do this a lot at home, needle each other and have a great time. But it was more special to do it in a tournament like this.”
Tiger Woods of the United States rides in a golf cart with daughter Sam Woods on the on the ninth hole during the first round of the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 16, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
Tiger is indeed still searching for a full-time caddie, as former bag man Joe LaCava is now looping for Patrick Cantlay. Two weeks ago at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, longtime friend and business partner Rob McNamara caddied for Woods.
LaCava’s son, Joe Jr., has been on the bag for Charlie the past three years. This year, it’s his high school teammate Luke Wise. The duo won a team state title last month for Benjamin.
Team Woods finished at 8-under 64 after the first round, seven shots behind Team Kuchar.
Meanwhile, how is Tiger as a caddie for Charlie in his junior events? He poked some fun at dad.
“For Dad as a caddie, his reads are hook-bias, and I don’t hook as much as he does,” Charlie said. “So all of my putts, I miss right. So I have to account for that.”
The first round of the 2023 PNC Championship got underway Saturday in a rainy Orlando at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. Twenty teams of former major champions paired with a family member got underway in the friendly hit-and-giggle to end the year.
However, plenty of eyes were focused on Team Woods, and there was no shortage of excitement from the duo early and often.
Walking in putts, waving goodbye to drives and racking up the birdies trying to keep up with Team Kuchar, which was the team setting the mark early.
“I can’t quite give him as much grief anymore because he’s close to beating me up.” JT on Charlie Woods.
ORLANDO – Tiger Woods, the father, isn’t that different from you or me. The 15-time major champ and father of two doesn’t like when son, Charlie, stares at his phone all the time.
“Put your phone away and just look around. That’s one of the things that I think all parents struggle with is most kids don’t look up anymore. Everyone is looking down,” he said when asked to name a pet peeve or something Charlie does that gets under his skin. “Look around you, the world is so beautiful around you, just look up. But everyone is staring into a screen, and that’s how people view life. It drives me nuts at times because he’s always looking down and there’s so many things around you that are so beautiful at the same time.”
“You can see how much he’s grown from last year. It’s amazing how much he has grown, has changed, and it’s a moving target with him, right? He’s grown somewhere near four inches this year, so his swing has changed, it’s evolved, clubs have evolved,” Tiger said. “And we kept trying to adjust things, and it’s been a lot of fun. But it’s also challenging for him because each and every couple weeks, things change. He just has – he’s growing so fast.”
“He’s leading the tournament in inches grown,” Justin Thomas said. “I can’t quite give him as much grief anymore because he’s close to beating me up.”
Tiger noted that Charlie is hitting it past him now, and just to keep things fair in this 36-hole competition, he’s playing one set back this year at a length of 6,576 yards.
Imagine trying to grow up as the son of one of, if not, the best ever to play a sport. And yet Charlie has fallen hard for golf and seems to be able to handle all of the inevitable comparisons. Imagine being able to learn the game from Tiger. Well, Charlie still has some mixed feelings about that. When Will McGee, the 12-year-old son of Annika Sorenstam, asked him if he listens to his dad’s tips, Charlie said, “It doesn’t happen very often. I mean, when I get desperate, yeah.
Charlie Woods warms up as father Tiger Woods of the United States looks on during the pro-am prior to the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 15, 2023, in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
“Sometimes he doesn’t see it the way I saw it, which is fun, but I think it’s the understanding of how to hit the proper shot at the proper time. And that’s what all kids have to learn is when do I hit a certain shot at the right time, or how do I take stuff off a shot, how do I hit it a little bit harder, what do I need to do.
“You can do that at home all you want, but under tournament conditions, it’s just so different. And being able to share that with him, share my experiences with him in game-time mode, I think that it was great for both of us because I think we both are able to learn from it and grow from it. I think I learned to be a better teacher with it, and I think that he became a better player because of it.”
Imagine there being a blessing in disguise from Tiger’s accident. His injuries have prevented him from practicing as much as he’d like with Charlie but on the bright side he said he has been home more and able to watch Charlie’s high school matches and caddie for him at junior tournaments, which he might not otherwise have been able to do. This week is special for Team Woods to test their games together under tournament conditions.
“We push each other, which is great,” Tiger said. “And the needle is always out. If you’re going to be able to mouth off and give the jabs, then you have to be able to take it. That’s been a lot of fun for both of us.”
Imagine being able to get a wedge lesson from the legend Lee Trevino. After the pro-am, Charlie hit the range and when Tiger joined him, they made sure to visit with Trevino, who was digging it out of the dirt at age 84 at the far end of the range. They hugged, laughed, and traded stories and tips.
Imagine if Tiger and Charlie were to win the PNC Championship this week. JT has and he took a guess where it would rank for Tiger. “It would be No. 1 for special,” he said.
“Winning majors is unbelievable, and how he’s won his majors, but seeing how much he cares about Charlie and having Sam out here and him doing that together with Charlie and as he’s watched him grow up, it would be a very, very different kind of win that doesn’t maybe come with the record books and history and whatnot,” Thomas added. “I know it would suck for us because they would really rub that in our face.”
And every year, we get the same thing: Videos of the pair showing their similar mannerisms along with golf swings that are eerily similar. That’s what we’re here to focus on after a range session before the pair teed off at the 2023 edition of the tournament.
You’ll see one moment when they both tee up wedges together, and it might give you some goosebumps when you see it.
Check out the scenes from the 2023 PNC Championship Pro-Am.
ORLANDO — When Tiger and Charlie Woods arrived on property at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, the cameras met them in the parking lot and fans were already lining the fence waiting for one of the rare sightings this year of the 15-time major winner and son, who recently helped his high school win the FHSAA Class A State Championship.
For Tiger, this is groundhog day. Another day of all eyes trained on his every shot, smile or grimace and limp. For Charlie, 14, it’s his fourth straight appearance in this event with his dear, old dad, and he has been around enough big events to know what to expect. He has shown great composure playing in front of crowds that are more interested in seeing what type of game young Charlie has compared to the Hall of Famers in the field.
“Welcome to the new Tour,” Tiger said, “where everyone has a camera phone.”
Here are four more scenes from Friday’s practice round at the PNC Championship.
The 15-time major champion is playing with his son, Charlie.
Tiger Woods made his return to golf two weeks ago at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, and now he’s back to headline the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando.
The 15-time major champion played in the 36-hole two-day scramble event with his son, Charlie, and with his daughter, Sam, as a caddie.
In 2021, Team Woods finished runner-up to Vijay Singh and his son, Qass. And last year, even though Charlie was playing hurt, the Woods boys finished T-8 after rounds of 59-65. In 2023, they finished tied for fifth. Bernhard Langer and son Jason won the event.
“It’s actually a blessing and a surprise that we’re here.”
ORLANDO – Steve Stricker never thought he’d have a chance to play in the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. After all, he never won any of the four major championships or the Players Championship, which is a requirement to be invited to the prestigious two-person scramble competition.
“So we never thought, at least I didn’t, we’d have the opportunity to play here. So it’s actually a blessing and a surprise that we’re here,” Stricker said.
How it happened is a story in itself. Rules, the saying goes, are meant to be broken. Tournament founder Alastair Johnston said there’s precedence such as the time he permitted Paul Azinger to play with Aaron Stewart, Payne Stewart’s son after he died in a plane crash or a pro such as Bubba Watson to play with a father-in-law. So, as of this year, Johnston decided senior majors are good enough to enter the field.
“I’m not denying it, I did it. As I told a couple of players who will remain nameless, I’m in charge so eat it!” Johnston said, noting that he’s not allowed to invite LIV members such as Watson and LIV CEO Greg Norman, both past participants, which limited his options.
Stricker said it has been a several-year process and recalled PGA Tour Champions rules official Joe Terry inquiring with him if he would be interested in participating.
“Joe T. mentioned that they were trying to maybe change the rules, get us in — I don’t even know what the rules are, who gets invited, right? That’s kind of a mystery to me,” Stricker said. “So Joe T. put it in my ear a couple years ago, and he asked if we would play. I’m like, ‘Well, yeah, most definitely we’ll play if we have the opportunity.’ ”
Stricker figured he’d been passed over again when he hadn’t heard any news but about a month ago an invitation from Johnston was sent directly to Stricker’s agent/brother-in-law Mario Tiziani.
“He immediately called me because he knew how excited I was going to be,” Stricker said.
Izzi Stricker, daughter of Steve Stricker, reacts after making a putt on the fifth hole prior to the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 14, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
The invite specified that he had to play with daughter Izzi, not older daughter Bobbi, who is pursuing a professional career, in the 36-hole two-person scramble competition, which begins on Saturday. (Relatives can’t have pro status.) Izzi, 17, is currently a senior in high school and a stick in her own rights, who committed to attending the University of Wisconsin and playing for the women’s golf team in 2024-25. Izzi was the Wisconsin Girls State Champion for her division the past two years and was named the 2023 Wisconsin Co-Player of the Year by the Golf Coaches Association of Wisconsin. The golf gene definitely was passed along to the Stricker girls – mom Nikki played at Wisconsin too and earlier this summer played in her first USGA championship in 31 years. But the girls haven’t beaten dear, old dad yet, who was a force to be reckoned with on the Champions Tour, claiming the Charles Schwab Cup this season.
“I start to grind if it gets close,” Steve said. “Then I start talking to them and getting in their ear and trying to throw them off a little bit if that’s going to happen.”
It will be a full family affair with Bobbi on the bag for dad and Nikki handling caddie duties for Izzi.
“We play golf, but never in a competitive setting. So to be able to team up with him and, like, analyze, come up with a game plan, it will be really fun,” Izzi said.
ORLANDO – When Lee Trevino started prepping to compete in this year’s PNC Championship, the World Golf Hall of Fame member and six-time major champion topped several balls on the range. Was arguably the best ball-striker in the game lifting his head? Say it ain’t so.
“I never, ever remember doing this in my life,” Trevino said.
His son, Daniel, 31, who is his partner in the two-person scramble format team event that begins on Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, suggested he go see renowned instructor Randy Smith, who teaches world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. But Trevino made a vow many years ago that he wouldn’t take a lesson from anybody that he could beat. Trevino dialed up Smith and when he answered he said, “Have you got 15 minutes to look at me? I think you can beat me now.”
The lesson helped. Trevino recounted on the Subpar podcast that five weeks ago he made a birdie and nine pars and shot 82 in a fundraiser at Dallas National.
“What are you complaining about?” Daniel said. “You broke your age.”
Trevino, 84, calls the PNC Championship his major and he talks about it all year. He’s played in every edition dating to the inaugural event in 1995 when 10 major winners gathered with their sons. He’s assumed the role of the field’s elder statesman, which has evolved to feature 20 major champions (including women such as Annika Sorenstam) and their relatives competing for the Willie Park Trophy. There’s a wait list just to get in the field.
“It’s like people trying to qualify for Augusta,” Trevino said.
It’s interesting that he should mention the Masters, the only one of the four majors that he never won. He’s failed to win the PNC Championship, too, but the family gathering reflects the growing importance that familial bonds have come to mean to him.
Trevino never knew his father and that absence surely affected Trevino’s outlook on life. He grew up in a household where he rarely heard an encouraging word and re-enacted his youth with his children. “I gave them the roof over their heads, but I didn’t give them the love,” he said. “I was a screamer. I’d have a few beers and get crazy with the kids.”
Rick Trevino, his oldest, recalled in a first-person magazine article that his father would fly in to visit him once or twice a year in Green City, Missouri, where Rick lived with Trevino’s first wife, Linda, and they would speak by phone once every month or two, but otherwise they didn’t have much of a relationship. In later years, Rick would serve as his father’s caddie at the Legends of Golf when it was held at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson, Missouri, not far from where he lived. Lesley, Tony and Troy — his children from his second marriage — became accustomed to a house in which their father was rarely present. It was nothing for him to be gone for eight consecutive weeks. In a Sports Illustrated article, Trevino was once asked if his son Tony had come to resent his absent father. “I think so,” Trevino said, “and I don’t blame him.
“My wives raised four kids that I did not know. I had no clue who they were. I didn’t go to a high school basketball game or a recital. I went to graduation, and that’s it,” he said. “Before I knew it, they were grown up and gone.”
Trevino credits Jack Nicklaus for demonstrating a better way. He recounted teaming with Nicklaus at the 1971 World Cup in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. When they finished a practice round, Trevino suggested that they hit the range. Nicklaus had other ideas. His oldest child, Jackie, had a high school football game. Trevino joined Nicklaus at the stadium. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever done that,” Trevino said
Only later in life did Trevino figure out how to emulate Nicklaus.
“Golf was his living, but he didn’t make it his life,” Trevino told Golf Digest’s Dave Shedlodski of Nicklaus. “I put golf first, and he taught me that was a mistake. I’m a better father now than I ever was. That’s Jack’s impact on me. It says a lot that it has nothing to do with golf.”
Trevino’s youngest children, Olivia and Daniel, were the beneficiaries of their father’s epiphany. The third time was the charm. His family with Claudia Bove, his third wife, became his priority, and nothing stood in the way of time spent with Olivia, born in 1989, and Daniel, who came along four years later. “I’ve been given a mulligan,” Trevino once said. “I was a father before, but not a dad.”
Lee Trevino of the United States reacts after a pro-am partner made a putt on the second hole prior to the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 14, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
In the early years of the team event, Trevino alternated playing with Tony in odd years and Rick in even years. But once Daniel made his debut in 2006, there’s been no rotation. Parental pride swells inside of Trevino whenever he talks about playing golf with Daniel. “You can’t separate us,” Trevino said. “He’s gonna reap from all the neglect I did my other kids.”
While Nicklaus and fellow contemporaries Raymond Floyd and Hale Irwin have all stopped competing in the father-son, Trevino shows no signs of calling it a day, even if his knees may ache, and according to tournament founder Alastair Johnston, he has a lifetime exemption into the limited field.
“He supported me in this event from the beginning and I told him, ‘You can come back for as long as you want,’ and I’ve kept my word,” Johnston said.
And so Team Trevino rolls on. Two years ago, they held the lead with four holes to go only to finish T-3.
“As soon as we get on the plane and go back we start reminiscing about where we made the mistakes and what we need to work on for next year,” Trevino said. “We talk about it all year.”
