Tiger Woods has had cameras on him for as long as he can remember. He first hit the airwaves with an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show in 1978, when he was 2 years old. The public’s fascination with Tiger only grew from there.
All these years later, Tiger’s son, Charlie, and daughter, Sam, by contrast, have not lived under constant scrutiny. Despite growing up with the most famous surname in golf — and in the camera-phone era — Charlie and Sam largely have been shielded from the white hot spotlight.
That changed last week when Tiger and 11-year-old Charlie teamed up at the PNC Championship, a nationally televised scramble for former major winners and their families. Typically, the PNC is a relatively low-wattage event just before Christmas as golf recharges for the New Year. But with Team Woods in the field, golf fans perked up.
Twitter timelines were flooded with videos of Tiger and Charlie practicing, planning and goofing off. It was Charlie’s first appearance on so grand a stage, and he and his father appeared to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Charlie striped the ball over the weekend — even carding an eagle on his own ball as a grinning Tiger looked on — and the moment never looked too big for him.
Watching Charlie play was fun. His swing is sweet. His touch is deft. And his mannerisms have clearly been influenced by his father’s. Bouncing around Ritz-Carlton-Orlando, Charlie looked like Tiger’s little shadow, especially on Sunday in their matching reds.
But if Charlie’s sweet wedge shots were the only thing you got out watching of Team Woods, you weren’t watching closely enough.
The real highlight was watching Tiger be a dad.
When Charlie dropped an eagle on the 3rd hole, Tiger, for a moment, looked like any proud papa at a Little League game witnessing his kid hit a stand-up double or make a diving catch. As the two walked down the fairways, they shared laughs (especially after trolling Justin Thomas) and memories that are sure to be cherished.
Tiger’s interactions with Charlie humanized the elder Woods. We were reminded that while, yes, Tiger is a golfing machine with 82 wins and 15 major titles, he is also defined every bit as much by his relationships, just like all of us are. Everyone can relate to the companionship we saw from Tiger and Charlie.
Family is what made Tiger’s 2019 Masters win so special: The golf was great, but the celebration was unforgettable. Tiger and Charlie embracing behind the 18th hole — a near-mirror image of Earl and Tiger 22 years earlier — induced goosebumps.
“I never thought we would see anything that would rival the hug with his father in 1997, but we just did,” CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz said at the time. “That hug with his children — if that doesn’t bring a tear to your eye if you’re a parent, you’re not human.”
It’s not often that fans can relate to and connect with superstar athletes so viscerally. We might not know what it feels like to hit a 330-yard drive or slip on the green jacket, but we know what sharing a personal achievement — or simply 18 holes on a Sunday afternoon — with your loved one feels like. Even if only for a fleeting moment, we could understand what it was like to walk in Tiger’s shoes.
For most of his life, Tiger — a household name before he even turned pro — has been wholly unrelatable. He pulled off shots you couldn’t dream up, sunk putts at will, won majors in bunches. His fall from grace in 2009 seemingly made him even more difficult to understand, while simultaneously intensifying the attention around him. The flash bulbs, the microphones, the whirling cameras.
More than a decade later, much has changed for Woods. But he remains the most sought-after and intriguing player in the game. When Woods decided that he and his Charlie would play in the PNC, he knew the week would in effect serve as a coming-out party for his son. But he decided the time was right.
With it, the golf world got not only a first look at Charlie but also a never-before-seen look at Tiger.
