The Benjamin boys team won for the fourth time in program history — the first time since 2009
Tiger Woods and his ex-wife Elin Nordegren were among those on hand during a presentation on Tuesday as the Benjamin School golf team members received their state championship rings. The school is located in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Benjamin boys team, led by longtime coach Toby Harbeck, won for the fourth time in program history — the first time since 2009. The squad captured the Class 1A title at Mission Inn Resort and Club.
While Charlie Woods is the team’s most famous member, others on the squad include Brooks Colton, Pavel Tsar, Jake Valentine, Charlie Woods, and Tyler Bruneau.
After winning the title, Charlie Woods teamed with his dad to take fifth place at the PNC Championship in Orlando.
Greg Lovett and Emilee Smarr of the Palm Beach Post contributed to this post.
Plenty of golf fans woke up on Thursday morning thinking less about this week’s stop at the Mexico Open on the PGA Tour and more about a pre-qualifier event in Hobe Sound, Florida for next week’s Cognizant Classic.
That’s where 15-year-old Charlie Woods was attempting to play his way into a PGA debut. The odds were fully stacked against him. In order for Woods to become one of the youngest players ever to start a PGA Tour event, he needed to place in the top five (and ties) after 18 holes, then finish in the top four of Monday’s true qualifier. Perhaps unsurprisingly — because he is both still a child who is developing his game and also going against adults twice his age — the son of Tiger Woods didn’t come close to advancing to the next round of qualification. Charlie Woods shot 16 over par to finish with an 86.
It turns out there was much going on at Lost Lake Golf Club than showed up on the stat sheet. As word got out that Woods was entering the pre-qualifier, shameless “fans” stormed the course as though it were an extension of the WM Phoenix Open, accosting Woods throughout his round, according to ThePalm Beach Post:
“As a frustrated Woods made his way up the fairway, spectators began to realize that there were no ropes to bar them from the course. In turn, they walked very close to Woods on the fairway, ignoring repeated requests from tournament officials to stay on the cart path.
A disgruntled fan asked one official: “Who are you? The fire marshal?”
Another fan reportedly approached Charlie while he was putting, demanding he sign a copy of Tiger’s book. A grandmother told The Palm Beach Postshe pulled her granddaughter out of school hoping Charlie would notice her.
This behavior would feel beyond gross if it were happening to a pro golfer playing a leisurely round at a municipal course. To treat a 15-year-old child like this as he tries to measure his talents alongside some of the best players in the world is downright disturbing.
Plenty of blame surely falls on the event organizers for not being more prepared. And yes, Woods had a two-man security detail and his mom with him on the course. None of that matters if a throng of deranged fans are running out on the course to disrupt the round.
Simply put, the kid deserved better.
Charlie Woods may become a great golfer one day — maybe even a pretty good pro, too. But we’ll never know when entitled losers like those who showed up in Hobe Sound refuse to give him the space to grow and develop without worrying about his safety on the course.
Jordan Poole, please be a better teammate
(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
As a Wizards fan, misery is my middle name. I completely understand that my favorite basketball team is going to be bad. But does it also have to be so embarrassing? The basketball gods are cruel.
Jordan Poole, who legitimately might be the worst player in the NBA, had the nerve to complain about going to the bench after shooting a cool 4-17 against the Nuggets on Thursday in a 20-point loss that somehow wasn’t even that close.
Spoke to a displeased Jordan Poole postgame about the Wizards' moving him to the bench: "If there’s any common sense, with the situation, you should know how I feel. But I’m just going to come out, do what I can do to help the team, keep it moving."
“If there’s any common sense, with the situation, you should know how I feel. But I’m just going to come out, do what I can do to help the team, keep it moving.”
And I sat there and watched the entire game, man. Being a fan is so stupid. Never do it.
A quintuple-double for Christmas
I didn’t even know it was possible to put up a quintuple-double, but here we are.
Kieonna Christmas, a senior at Fonda Fultonville High School in New York, posted a quintuple-double on Thursday, according to Max Preps. That’s double figures in five statistical categories, folks.
This is such a rare accomplishment. Only 13 players in the history of prep basketball have ever posted a quintuple-double. Fam. That’s quite a stat. Millions of people have played this sport. Christmas is now in a class of 13 after her game.
I don’t care what level it’s on — that’s one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen on a basketball court.
Photo Friday: Sunset drive
(Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
This is Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda ripping the Bahrain International Circuit during day three of F1 testing.
This sunset is EVERYTHING. F1 is such a beautiful sport.
Quick hits: Sleeper NFL free agents … Weird NBA Emirates patches … and more
Would anyone say these things about your child if he or she had been on a state championship team?
The swing and follow-through happened around 8 a.m. ET Thursday morning at a pre-qualifying event in Florida. The PGA Tour quickly captured it.
It was a nice swing, one we have seen before. How could we miss it?
It was Charlie Woods’ first attempt at qualifying for a tour event. Users on social media sensed the moment, too, but they weren’t nearly as nostalgic.
“You know you guys have an actual event starting today,” came the first comment on X, formerly Twitter.
“Leave the kid alone,” said pro tennis star and golf aficionado Mardy Fish.
Some wondered why Woods wasn’t in school. Others wanted to know where they could watch him on television. Some even used profanity, stated or implied, in an effort to tamp down the expectations, or even to take a cheap shot at Woods.
Back the efff off
Garbage ass swing and score …
Kid is trash!!
Would anyone say that about your child if he or she had won the high school golf state championship?
Tiger Woods’ son is 15. He wound up shooting a 16-over-86, finishing 64th in the field. He won’t advance to Monday’s open qualifier and, mercifully for now, his first event on the PGA Tour will have to wait.
If you are a parent, and you have attached expectations to your kid’s sporting achievements, you can exhale. Your son or daughter, perhaps no one’s son or daughter, is facing the pressure to succeed — or to fail — the way Charlie Woods is.
He has shown us he is a strong player, playing on the winning state championship team in Florida and putting up highlight-reel shots playing alongside his father in the PNC Championship.
And yet, it may not ever be good enough for us.
Forget unrealistic expectations. These expectations are impossible.
They can serve as a reminder for all sports parents of how lucky we are. We have the opportunity to see our kids play every week, sometimes every day, without the world watching his or her every move.
If Charlie Woods was your kid, and you knew the pressure he was facing, would you be critical of him? Would you tell him the things he might do differently in all those games you watch? Or would you cherish every moment you had to watch him proudly following in your enormous shadow?
The best example we can set for our kids isn’t necessarily in doing what we’re best at. It’s how we act and behave and carry ourselves on a daily basis. It’s in letting our kids be kids as long as they can, no matter how far their careers take them. And it’s laying off of them when they don’t play up to our expectations.
Yes, this is Tiger Woods, winner of 15 major championships and 82 PGA Tour events. But as far as being a dad, he seems a lot like any of us in looking out for his son.
“I just don’t like the fact that he stares at his phone all the time,’’ Tiger Woods said in December, according to Sports Illustrated. “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.
Charlie Woods hits a shot from behind the green during pre-qualifying for the 2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida. (Photo: Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via via AP Images)
“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.”
When you observe the relationship, even in the snippets of it we get to see in public, you see that they are two exceptional golfers but a father and a son first.
Woods kept his son away from interviews at the PNC Championship, but Charlie stopped at the turn to answer questions from Will McGee, the 12-year-old son of two other golfers, Mike McGee and Annika Sorenstam.
“My mom was wondering, because she gives me advice on my swing but I don’t listen often. … Do you listen to your dad on swing tips?” Will asked.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” Charlie responded. “I mean, when I get desperate, yeah.”
One thing that Charlie Woods and Will McGee have in common … reluctantly taking advice from @TigerWoods & @ANNIKA59 😂
Woods hasn’t put any external pressure on Charlie or his older sister, Sam, who plays soccer. Sam also caddied for her dad and brother at the PNC Championship.
“It couldn’t have been any more special for all of us,” Tiger said. “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.”
“I drove the ball really good today. I didn’t miss a fairway,” Charlie said at the same event. “I didn’t miss a fairway and we still managed to shoot eight under. We just suck at putting.”
His father, listening thoughtfully, cracked a smile.
“That summed it up right there,” he said.
There could be a moment in Charlie Woods’ future when he plays and even succeeds on the PGA Tour. There will be a day when his career playing the sport ends. Your child will have that moment someday, too.
The end came in 1972 for Yogi Berra’s oldest son, Larry, who had a dream of playing major league baseball. It was a dream that was independent of his father’s decorated career until he approached Whitey Herzog, the director of minor league development for the New York Mets.
Larry Berra told Herzog if he wasn’t meeting the team’s standards, he needed to let him go. His request was granted. Everyone thought he got released anyway.
He was dealing with injuries in the minor leagues but, like with Charlie Woods, he has always dealt with that shadow.
“When I was playing in the Appalachian League, we went to one town, and I was in the on-deck circle,” Larry Berra told author Mark Braff for the book “Sons of Baseball.” “Some guy kept yelling at me, saying, ‘You’re not as good as your old man.’ And I turned around and I said, ‘Listen, if I was as good as my father, I wouldn’t have to listen to you and I wouldn’t be in this little town of yours.’ And I got yelled at by my coach.”
Yogi Berra, like many former major league baseball players, didn’t put pressure on his son to follow in his footsteps. Those expectations came by themselves.
We have to resist, no matter how alike the swings of Tiger and his son are, to put them on Charlie Woods.
We wouldn’t do it to our own kid, would we?
Ask yourself that question the next time you drop your son or daughter off at a tryout for a travel team, and no one is watching.
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now loving life as sports parents for a high schooler and middle schooler.
Charlie Woods’ pro debut will have to wait a bit longer
Charlie Woods attempted to become one of the youngest players ever to tee it up in a PGA Tour event when he entered into Thursday’s pre-qualifier for next week’s Cognizant Classic in Florida.
Unfortunately, he will not be moving onto the next round after a rather ugly 18 holes at Lost Lake in Hobe Sound, Florida. The 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods finished with a 16-over-par score of 86.
In order to reach the qualifier round for the Cognizant, Woods needed to finish in the top 5 (and ties) after his round. He would’ve then had to finish in the top four on Monday in order to earn an entry into the PGA Tour event.
Hopefully the younger Woods is able to take this as the learning experience it is and grow from it. Had he made it into the PGA field, Charlie would’ve made his pro debut at 15 years, 21 days old and nearly a full year younger than Tiger was when he first teed up at a PGA Tour contest during the 1992 Los Angeles Open.
Woods had a gallery of people following his round alongside longtime mini-tour professional Olin Browne Jr.
Charlie Woods teed it up in a pre-qualifier for the PGA Tour’s 2024 Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches on Thursday but didn’t advance.
The 15-year-old son of 15-time major champion Tiger Woods shot a 16-over 86 at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, in an attempt to reach the Monday qualifier for the upcoming Tour stop at PGA National, Feb. 29-March 3. Woods, who had a gallery of people following his round alongside longtime mini-tour professional Olin Browne Jr., made four bogeys, two double bogeys and a 12 on the par-4 7th hole.
After competing alongside his father in the past four PNC Championships, Woods has gained social media fame due to his Tiger-esque mannerisms. It was a lofty goal to try and qualify for a PGA Tour event at such a young age and with little big-tournament experience, but would you really expect anything less from the son of the 82-time PGA Tour winner?
Tiger’s son has taken the first step towards making his PGA Tour debut
Diehard golf fans who have been waiting patiently to see Charlie Woods — yes, the son of Tiger Woods — tee it up on the PGA Tour may not have to wait much longer.
The 15-year-old has entered into Thursday’s pre-qualifier for the 2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and could become one of the youngest golfers ever to qualify for a PGA Tour event if he makes it through.
The Cognizant Classic runs from February 29-March 3 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, and it’s a course the younger Woods should be extremely familiar with as it’s located in his hometown.
But there’s a long way to go before we can start predicting how Woods will fare against the pros out there. He will have to play a perfect round this Thursday at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, which is one of four pre-qualifier sites. The top 25 players and ties after 18 holes will then move to Monday’s true qualifier for the Cognizant Classic, where only the top four will earn an entry into the main event.
Should Charlie Woods make his way into the field, he would be 15 years and 21 days old, making him the eighth-youngest golfer to start a PGA Tour event on the men’s or women’s side, and the youngest since Andy Zhang qualified for the U.S. Open in 2012.
While the PGA Tour has seen nine golfers under the age of 16 make it into the field for an event, only one has made the cut. Guan Tian Liang finished 58th at the 2013 Masters, then finished 71st at the Zurich Classic the following month.
Tiger didn’t play his first PGA Tour event until he was 16 years old at the 1992 Los Angeles Open — an event that is now hosted by the Tiger Woods Foundation and known as the Genesis Invitational. The elder Woods also missed the cut in his first PGA event.
Charlie Woods will compete in a pre-qualifier for the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches – formerly known as the Honda Classic – on Thursday.
Woods will play Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, one of four pre-qualifying sites, and tee off at 7:39 a.m. ET. Approximately 25 players and ties from each site will advance to the event’s Monday qualifier, and four players will earn a spot in the field at PGA National.
Charlie, the son of 15-time major champion Tiger Woods, has played in the PNC Championship with his father since 2019. If Charlie makes it through both stages, he’ll make his first start on the PGA Tour at 15 years, 21 days old.
If you know golf history, Charlie will most likely win as many major championships as your ol’ man.
Will Charlie Woods be the next Tiger Woods? Dare we ask if he’ll ever win as many major championships as dear ol’ dad?
Charlie hits it a mile and employs an athletic and fundamentally sound swing, as well as many of his father’s on-course mannerisms.
But if you know golf and know its history, well, let’s just say Charlie will most likely win as many major championships as your ol’ man.
Maybe that’s a bit harsh. It’s not like second-generation golfers haven’t succeeded at the highest levels. Come on, it was just 130-some years ago that Willie Park Jr. won his second British Open and ran the combined total for father and son to six.
That was just 15 years after another second-generation champ, Young Tom Morris, won his fourth.
So, yes, we’re saying there’s a chance.
Charlie Woods has drawn plenty of praise for his golf game over the past few years, most recently at the annual silly season tournament, the PNC Championship in Orlando, where he and his dad tied for fifth in a field of 20 teams.
This came a month after Charlie’s high school team won the Class 1A state championship. Charlie tied for 19th individually with rounds of 78-76.
At 14, he’s a quality high school golfer. But at this stage there’s no way to know if that’ll eventually translate to a professional career in golf or, say, professional life as a lawyer or banker with a single-digit handicap and occasional use of the “Reserved for Club Champion” parking spot down at the club.
Jack Nicklaus is the standard by which Tiger Woods has long been measured. Of Jack’s four sons and one daughter, Gary was the best golfer. When he was just 16 and playing for the same school Charlie Woods now attends, Sports Illustrated put him on the cover with the headline, “The Next Nicklaus.”
Not quite. Gary did reach the PGA Tour and stayed a few years, which is no small feat, but the closest he came to becoming the “Next Nicklaus” was a playoff loss to Phil Mickelson at the 2000 BellSouth Classic.
Just ten father-son combos have won PGA Tour tournaments: Julius and Guy Boros, Al and Brent Geiberger, Craig and Kevin Stadler, Bob and Kevin Tway, Joe Kirkwood Sr. and Jr., Jack Burke Sr. and Jr., Clayton and Vance Heafner, Jay and Bill Haas, Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris and Willie Park and Willie Park, Jr.
The number of second-generation tournament winners seems a bit low when you consider how many second- and even third-generation stars you see in other sports. One reason seems rather obvious. In team sports, where you get a Ken Griffey Jr. or a Christian McCaffrey, the son of a former pro, especially a former star, is likely to get more consideration and more reps at an early age, and therefore more opportunities to succeed.
Yes, genetics also help.
But in golf and the other individual sports, results tell the story. It doesn’t matter how much cachet your name carries. Sure, the name will help a fledgling pro get a sponsor invite into a tournament field here and there, and one of those opportunities might trigger a breakthrough. But most likely, if the professional quality is there, you’re not leaning on sponsor invites very long.
Charlie Woods is obviously set up to go as far as his talent and desire allow — the best equipment, access to the best practice facilities and courses, and a pretty fair instructor across the dinner table.
That instructor defied a lot of odds along the way and did many things never considered likely, and some things never thought possible. Odds and history, however, also pack a formidable punch.
The PNC Championship is the highlight of golf’s silly season and the annual hit-and-giggle delivered again in 2023.
ORLANDO — With Paddy Harrington in the midst of college exams back home in Ireland, Ciaran Harrington took his older brother’s place at the 2023 PNC Championship. Six weeks removed from breaking his left leg playing high school rugby, 15-year-old Ciaran joined his father Padraig – in his first competitive round – at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in front of thousands of fans on live television. Ciaran found that he hit his best shots in front of packed grandstands, when he could feel his stomach in his throat.
“You know, it was always going to be a bit of a push to get him ready for this,” said Padraig, “and then when he broke his leg, it was like he’s had 10 days of a crash course in how to play golf. And he’s done brilliant.”
Padraig Harrington pictured with his son Ciaran at the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 14, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
This year’s PNC field featured 11 former world No. 1s, nine World Golf Hall of Fame members and eight Ryder Cup captains. The field of 20 teams – one of the most sought-after invitations in golf – combined for 62 major championship titles.
Lee Trevino, 84, has teed it up in all 26 editions of the event, while 12-year-old Will McGee, the youngest in the field, made his second appearance with mom Annika Sorenstam. McGee cried down most of the 18th hole just thinking about the fact that he’d have to wait a whole year to do this again.
There’s so much to enjoy about the PNC. Pros smile more this week inside the ropes than they do all year. It’s a chance to talk about something other than the weekly grind. In fact, it’s often a pro’s favorite subject: family.
There were seven teenagers in this year’s field, plus 12-year-old Will. Tiger Woods’ son Charlie, of course, generated the most buzz for a fourth consecutive year, but there were plenty of worthy storylines in rain-soaked central Florida.
Cameron Kuchar, 16, has been holding a golf club since he was in diapers and one day dreams of winning the Masters. He plays on the South Florida PGA Junior Medalist Tour with Charlie and Justin Leonard’s son, Luke, who was also in the field.
Steve Stricker, 56, was invited to the PNC for the first time after a rule change was made to allow PGA Tour Champions major winners. He partnered with youngest daughter Izzi, 17, who will follow in the footsteps of her mother Nicki and sister Bobbi on the golf team at Wisconsin beginning in the fall of 2024. Izzi is a two-time state champion and the 2023 Golf Coaches Association of Wisconsin State Co-Player of the Year.
Last May, Izzi was inside the ropes with her father when she debuted as his caddie at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, where Steve beat Padraig Harrington in a playoff.
The PNC offered a new twist in that the Strickers strategized together over shots that she’d hit as well.
The Strickers played alongside world No. 1 Nelly Korda on Saturday and Team Woods on Sunday, and Izzi called it the coolest week of her life. When asked if she chatted much with Charlie on Sunday, Izzi said briefly.
“We were both really dialed,” she said. “Not much came out of our mouths.”
The Stricker clan is close and highly competitive. When questioned if his daughters had ever bested him on the golf course, Steve said maybe in a three-hole stretch.
“But if it’s 18 holes,” he continued, “I can honestly say I don’t think either one of them – because I start to grind if it gets close. 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.”
Like Ciaran, golf isn’t even Tanner Furyk’s main sport. The 19-year-old son of Jim Furyk plays lacrosse at The University of the South, where he’s majoring in economics.
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.
Brady Duval watches his tee shot on the first hole with his father David Duval during the first round of the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on December 16, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
David Duval and his son, Brady, finished runner-up to the Langers this year. It marked a record-tying fifth time that Berhard Langer has won the PNC with one of his sons. Brady calls the PNC by far the best week of the year.
David teaches Brady, a freshman on the golf team at Coastal Carolina, to swing the same way he has all his life.
“It’s all our teacher (Shan LeBaron) now teaches him now, too, and there’s a reason for it,” said David. “Because it makes it easier. You don’t have to pound balls all the time. You don’t have to work on timing. Somebody told him last year – slow down a little bit. The way I tell him to swing a club, if you’re doing it right, speed up. It’s only going to go straighter and further.”
Early in the week at PNC, David asked longtime friend Peter Jacobsen to come over and explain a move he’d been trying to get across to Brady. In less than 10 minutes, Brady understood.
“Because we’re saying the same thing,” said David, “but you sometimes have to say it in six or seven ways until the person, the individual, understands it.”
Ciaran doesn’t consider himself a golfer, but he left Orlando certainly hungry to get better. With Paddy still in college next December, Ciaran will likely get the nod again from dad and wants to be ready.
For years, Will McGee asked his mother if he could play with her in the PNC. But Sorenstam and her husband, Mike, wanted to be sure that Will was ready for this kind of spotlight. They wanted to make sure that the emphasis was on fun.
Will is undeniably addicted to golf, but certainly not because he was pushed into it. If anything, Sorenstam has worried that Will might get burned out because he rarely shows an interest in much else.
That’s certainly the recipe Padraig Harrington prescribes for those interested in getting their children involved in the game.
“Just let the kids just have a bit of fun and just no pressure, no stress,” said Harrington. “They’ve loads of time, you know, you don’t need to be good at this game at six years of age, or eight years of age or even 12 years of age. It could be even a burden to be good at that age. So, you know, let them enjoy.”
Here are five takeaways from a soggy but festive Sunday at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.
ORLANDO — Bernhard Langer and his son Jason entered the final round of the PNC Championship trailing by three strokes and wound up winning by two after a final-round 59.
“That’s just steamrolling people,” said runner-up David Duval.
The Langers finished at 25 under in the two-person scramble. For Bernhard, it’s his fifth title at the PNC – twice with his eldest son Stefan (2005 and 2006) and now three times with his youngest son, Jason (2014, 2019, 2023).
“Very special,” said Bernhard, who has competed in the PNC with all four of his children. “It’s always special whether you win or not, just being here is like the Olympics. They only take 20 teams and there’s probably 25 on the waiting list that would love to be here.”
Bernhard Langer and son, Jason Langer, celebrate winning the PNC Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on Dec. 17, 2023 in Orlando. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
Rain and wind that gusted more than 30 mph couldn’t the dampen the spirits of teams at the family-focused event. And with Tiger Woods and son Charlie back for a fourth consecutive year, plenty of fans braved the weather to catch a glimpse.
Here are five takeaways from a soggy but festive Sunday at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club:
