Tiger Woods joined the NBC broadcast during the third round of this week’s Hero World Challenge. Also in the booth? His 13-year-old son Charlie, hat backward and chewing gum from behind the cameras.
Tiger and Charlie are scheduled to play in their third consecutive PNC Championship in two weeks’ time. On Saturday they were handling hosting duties, though, cruising around Albany on a golf cart and taking in the action.
In the booth, Woods sat alongside Dan Hicks and Paul Azinger and dished on the action, from the mud balls (“I’d rather have it blowing like yesterday [30 mph] than have mud balls”) to Cameron Young (“He’s had what, like, seven top-3s this year? He reminds me of Tony [Finau] in that sense”) to Tom Kim (“Great kid, just a great personality. He’s going to be a fantastic addition to the Tour”) and plenty more.
But with Charlie looking on, Woods also dished on his goals as a dad. If there was one message he wanted to pass along from his father Earl, it was this:
“You get out what you put in,” he said. That applies to golf, he said, and to just about anything else.
He added another value — “caring and sharing” — that his foundation is based on.
“It’s our responsibility,” he said of helping the next generation. “We provide those opportunities for the underserved. It’s amazing how a little bit of support, of guidance, and they thrive.”
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But Woods also dished on the advice he gave his son Charlie on the golf swing. Woods is unquestionably the greatest player of his generation and owns one of the best swings in golf history, too. So it was interesting that his advice for his son was to look elsewhere for examples.
“I told him, don’t copy my swing. Copy Rory’s,” Woods said. His explanation involved more advice from his own father, who insisted that Tiger keep his balance, no matter how hard he wanted to hit it.
“Have you ever seen Rory off balance on a shot? No. Not ever,” Woods said Saturday. “You can swing as hard as you want on a shot, but you need to have balance.”
Charlie has plenty of speed, too — Paul Azinger later mentioned on the broadcast that he had recently hit 117 mph swing speed, a faster number than the PGA Tour average.
Check his swing below and you’ll see he’s followed Dad’s advice: There’s plenty of Rory — plus some Tiger, and perhaps some Justin Thomas — in Charlie’s swing:
While Tiger pulled out of this week’s Hero with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, he hasn’t given up on future playing aspirations.
“I was lucky enough to come back after my back fusion,” Woods said. “Once I felt like I was good enough to say, well, I could actually do this, I rattled off three wins.”
Those three, you’ll recall, included an epic scene at the 2018 Tour Championship plus an all-time sports moment when Woods won the 2019 Masters. Woods knows he’ll never again play a full PGA Tour schedule — but that doesn’t mean he can’t catch lightning in a bottle.
“It’s the same thing with this leg,” he said. To hear him tell it, another comeback will rely on his ability to walk.
“I can still hit the shots. If I can [walk], I can still compete with these kids. It’d be good to get one win, but I’d like to get a big one, too.”
His next appearance will come at The Match next weekend followed by the PNC Dec. 17-18.