Golf: Like father, like son? Charlie Woods is taking Tiger trail to the top

Tiger Woods (L) and son Charlie made an impressive team at the PNC Championship. Photo / Getty

Charlie Woods had visited Augusta National before, but last week the 13-year-old had his set of personalised clubs in tow for a lazy knockabout with his famous father and world No 7 Justin Thomas. It certainly beats an afternoon of double chemistry.

Charlie was in attendance when his dad, Tiger, completed one remarkable sporting comeback by winning the 2019 Masters, and could be about to watch him attempt another at this week's tournament just by teeing it up.

The pair's embrace behind the 18th green on Sunday three years ago prompted unavoidable comparisons with Tiger and his father Earl's emotional celebrations on the same spot in 1997. When footage of Charlie's swing first emerged in January 2020, some wondered if the Woods saga was about to turn dynastic by Tiger repeating his father's trick of raising a phenom.

"Not only do I not want to be around when Charlie is a professional golfer but I don't want my future kids to be either," joked European Tour player Eddie Pepperell on Twitter in reaction to Charlie's effortlessly athletic action.

When Tiger and Charlie finished second in the PNC Championship last December, an exhibition event for father-and-son pairings, predictions of future glory became more fevered. The likeness of their on-course mannerisms - the club twirls, hand-on-hip pose and crouched stance to read putts - charmed. Charlie's play was impressive too, spinning wedges back to within tap-in range and curving his ball against the Florida breeze like a chip off the old block.

"Charlie has got a lot of talent, certainly a lot more than I did at the age of 12 [he turned 13 in February]," said Masters favourite Jon Rahm a few weeks later. "If he keeps working hard, which I'm sure he will, I wouldn't doubt for one second we'll see him one day maybe sitting here."

Those hastily looking up Charlie's odds to win the 2032 Masters should heed caution, however.

While he broke 80 for the first time last summer at Medalist Golf Club, and recorded scores of 75 and 72 at the Disney Junior Open two months ago, his official handicap is unknown. He is ranked T-33 on the Hurricane Junior Tour with a stroke average 74.75 in the 11-13 category.

While Charlie may be improving at a fast rate, he lags, understandably, behind his father at a similar age. Like Jason Day and Rory McIlroy, Tiger was down to a scratch handicap aged 13 and was already two-handicap aged 11. Tiger had also won three of four International Junior World Championships by the same age, and would go on to win the first of three US Junior Amateur Championships aged 15 in 1991.

While motivation need not come from hardship, there is the question of whether Charlie has the same fire to succeed, before even considering whether it is desirable to pursue a career in his father's shadow. At his unveiling at golf's Hall of Fame last month, Tiger described how his parents took out a second mortgage to fund his efforts on the junior golf circuit and his satisfaction when he was able to pay it off for them. Woods the younger will have no such concerns.

Tiger has been described as a golfing machine, engineered by father Earl and mother Kultida. The dynamic between he and Earl has been delineated as more complex, to put it mildly, than the official version once claimed but was nevertheless integral to the athlete Tiger became. Tiger's relationship with Charlie, who he co-parents with ex-wife Elin Nordegren, is altogether different with nothing like the same pressure.

There was even surprise that Tiger was happy for his son to play so much golf in the public eye. The competitive gene has been passed down though, with Thomas revealing he had inherited a talent for "talking trash".

How far can Charlie take his talents? Competition is fierce, ironically, due to the generation of youngsters his father inspired. The odds are against him keeping the letters W-O-O-D-S on Augusta's giant scoreboards for decades to come. Like Tiger's own Masters history though, the story may not yet be finished.

- The Daily Telegraph