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:
But Tiger’s eldest child, 16-year-old Sam Woods, was also part of the tournament and was caddying for her dad in the first round at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on Saturday.
Here are eight photos of Sam caddying for her dad at the PNC Championship:
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.”
“I asked two questions only, that was it. Where was the first tee, and what was the course record? Not complicated.”
Much of Tiger Woods’ World Golf Hall of Fame induction speech sounded like it could’ve been written for an audience of two – his teenaged kids, Sam and Charlie.
Woods went “retro” as he called it, telling delightful and meaningful stories from his childhood in a 17-minute speech that came from the heart rather than the teleprompter. Woods mostly told family stories. Many were relatable. Some were extraordinary. None involved a major championship.
All helped lay the foundation of the most impactful player the game has ever known.
Too young to play as a dependent at the Navy Golf Course in Long Beach, California, a 6-year-old Woods played in Saturday tournaments at Heartwell Golf Park, a local par-3 course. Woods said he spent the week preparing at the park down the street with his dog Boom-Boom, named after Fred Couples.
“I’d hit balls in the dark, in the grass, through trees, in the sand, through the hula hoops, everything,” said Woods. “So my dog, I’d only hit two golf balls. He would go lay down next to each one of them. Well, that’s kind of how I learned to play the game of golf.”
By age 8, Woods had learned how to turn the 75 cents his mother had given him to buy a hotdog and call home into a profit. Once his father, Earl, noticed that he started coming home with extra quarters in his pocket, Tiger was told no more putting contests for quarters.
“Fine, done, I won’t putt for any more quarters,” Woods told his father.
The next week he came home with a pocketful of dollar bills.
After promising that he wouldn’t putt for money again, Woods once again came home with a wad of cash.
“He said, ‘I thought I told you never to putt for money again,’ ” recalled Tiger. “I didn’t. I went out and played skins.”
Tiger Woods, mother Kultida Woods, children Sam Alexis Woods and Charlie Axel Woods and Erica Herman pose for a photo prior to his induction at the 2022 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction at the PGA Tour Global Home on March 9, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
From age 8 to 10, Woods would sneak onto the Navy Golf Course after his father got off of work just after 4 p.m. Woods’ mom would drop him off at the entrance of the course, and he’d make his way down what they called “The Ditch,” picking up golf balls until his dad came riding up on the third hole.
“So I would sneak down the first hole to the second hole,” said Woods, “but dad taught me how to always grab a piece of foliage, cover yourself up, listen for noise. If you hear anybody coming, lay still (laughter). Part sniper.”
In the wintertime, darkness would close in fast and Earl had a rule that if someone lost a ball, it was time to drive in.
“Part of understanding how to shape shots and knowing where I hit it on the face, where I would hit it all started then,” said Woods. “So if I hit it, Dad, I pulled it left, it’s up the left side, it’s going to be here. We’d drive there, it’s there, we can continue playing. The furthest I ever made was 17 holes in the dark. Never quite got to 18.
“One of the things that drove me was his passion to play the game of golf. I was never going to be denied to play. I loved it. I had this burning desire to be able to express myself in this game of golf.”
Woods, who named his son after Charlie Sifford, the first Black member of the PGA Tour, said his father instilled in him the need to be twice as good to be given half the chance. It’s the reason why Tiger made practice so difficult it hurt.
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As he got older, junior tournaments put on by the Southern California Junior Golf Association took the eager youngster to courses that had “CC” in the title for country club, which for Woods translated to an upgraded experience with fresh greens.
But Woods said not all of those clubs welcomed him because of the color of his skin color. As he got older, those prejudices drove him even more.
“So as I was denied access into the clubhouses, that’s fine,” said Woods. “Put my shoes on here in the parking lot. I asked two questions only, that was it. Where was the first tee, and what was the course record. Not complicated.”
Tiger Woods and his mother Kultida Woods react as they pose for photos prior to his induction at the 2022 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction at the PGA Tour Global Home on March 9, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Woods also touched on the financial hurdles his family faced, noting that when he was 14 ½ and wanting to compete on the AJGA, his family took out a second mortgage. The 46-year-old, 15-time major champion got emotional as he talked about his parents’ sacrifices and the work ethic they instilled.
When Woods turned pro, he immediately used the sponsorship money from Nike and Titleist to pay off his parents’ mortgage.
“I know that golf is an individual sport,” said Woods. “We do things on our own a lot for hours on end, but in my case, I didn’t get here alone.”
Before Woods pulled back the curtain on what shaped him into one of the world’s greatest athletes, daughter Sam introduced him and shared snippets of an intensely private family life that’s still being shaped by Earl’s “train hard, fight easy” philosophy.
With a good dose of fun, too, apparently.
“It’s been at the soccer fields and golf tournaments over the years that Charlie and I have begun to realize how famous he actually is,” said Sam. “I mean, how can a guy who still FaceTimes his friends to discuss Marvel and DC timelines and who goes to Comic-Con dressed as Batman be one of the greatest golfers that ever lived?”
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Some 44 years after shuffling on to the stage of “The Mike Douglas Show” as a 2-year-old and entertaining Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and the host by hitting golf balls into a net and rolling a few putts, Tiger Woods was at PGA Tour headquarters Wednesday night for his rightful induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“He is the rare athlete who not only exceeded the hype,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said of Woods, “he transcended it and continues to this day to have a massive influence on the game and the PGA Tour.”
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After winning three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur titles and three consecutive U.S. Amateur championships, Woods, 46, turned pro in 1996. He promptly won three times on the PGA Tour in his first 10 starts.
Then he won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots, a historic victory as Woods became the first man of color to win at Augusta National Golf Club. He also, at 21, became the youngest winner of the green jacket.
Woods became the needle that moved the sport. Purses began to significantly rise, TV ratings surged upward. His presence spurred more athletic, stronger players to pick up the game. His peers followed him into the gym and the game became one featuring more power.
His influence on advertising and fashion for the sport was striking. Minorities became attracted to golf. And a generation of youngsters wanted to be like Tiger.
The list of his feats stretches out as long as one of his drives from his heyday. The record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, the 15 major championships. A record 142 consecutive cuts made, a record 683 weeks – 13 years – atop the Official World Golf Ranking. A record 11 PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards.
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He’s the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam, doing so at age 24 when he won the 2000 British Open at the Home of Golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews. En route to becoming the only player to win four consecutive professional major championships – known as the Tiger Slam – he won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15, the 2000 Open by 8, the 2000 PGA in a playoff, and the 2001 Masters by two. And he won on a broken leg at the 2008 U.S. Open and captured his fifth Masters in 2019 following spinal fusion surgery (his fifth back surgery, to go along with five surgeries on his left knee).
The list goes on and on and on.
“What can I say about Tiger that we haven’t said already?” world No. 1 Jon Rahm said. “Besides entertaining all of us for 20 years and doing unbelievable things, he inspired the generation of players that you’re seeing today.
“You have at the top of the world a lot of 20-some-year-olds and early 30-year-olds that grew up watching him and trying to copy him, and I think that’s why the level of the game is as high as it is right now.
“Aside from everything that he did, I think it’s a testament to what he was able to accomplish and how many people he was able to inspire.”
On Wednesday, Woods will team up with his other child, daughter Sam.
Woods chose his daughter to introduce him for his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, which will be held beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday at PGA Tour headquarters within the shadows of TPC Sawgrass, home to this week’s Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship event.
Also being inducted into the Hall of Fame is former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who will be introduced by Hall of Fame member Davis Love III, and three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Susie Maxwell Berning, who will be introduced by Hall of Fame member Judy Rankin.
Trailblazer Marion Hollins will also be inducted posthumously.
Sam, 14, was born the day after Woods tied for second in the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. She was at Southern Hills in Oklahoma later in the year when Woods won the 2007 PGA Championship.
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Woods, who has won a record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles and 15 major championships, played alongside Charlie, 13, at the PNC Championship for the second time. This year, it was the first time Woods played in a tournament since his near-fatal car accident in February in the Los Angeles area.
Woods is still recovering from injuries sustained in the crash.
