ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods and 15-year-old son Charlie ran off five straight birdies on the back nine Saturday for a 13-under-par 59 in the scramble format, giving them a share of the lead in the PNC Championship in the 48-year-old golfing great’s first competition since having back surgery in September.
Woods said he scheduled that surgery — the sixth on his lower back in the past 10 years — to be sure he recovered in time to play with his son for the fifth straight year.
This is the first time they have shared the lead after the opening round, and they were joined in first place by the past two champions of the tournament: Bernhard Langer and son Jason, and Vijay Singh and son Qass.
Woods hit an array of good shots, including a wedge to inches from the cup on the short par-4 seventh, but otherwise downplayed his game by suggesting he still had a lot of rust. This was more about spending 36 holes on a brisk day at the Ritz-Carlton Club Orlando with his son, a sophomore at Benjamin School in North Palm Beach.
His daughter, Sam, caddied for her father for the second straight year. Their mother, Elin, was among those in the gallery in a tournament that is all about family.
“We’re trying to pull off each and every shot for each other, and to ham and egg,” Woods said. “And I think we did that great pretty much the entire day. We picked each other up, which was great. And Charlie made pretty much most of the putts today.”
It helped playing in the same group with former British Open champion Justin Leonard and his son, Luke, a senior and teammate with Charlie at Benjamin.
Senior circuit legend Langer extended his astonishing record on the PGA Tour Champions this year by winning for an 18th consecutive season. The 67-year-old German great and his son made eight birdies in a nine-hole stretch in the middle of the round, and they had an eagle on the 14th hole.
The 61-year-old Singh and his son, who teamed to win this event in 2022, shot a 28 on the back nine.
“There’s so many teams in the hunt,” Langer said. “It’s anybody’s game that is within three or four shots of the leaders, which is most of the field.”
Padraig Harrington and son Paddy, and Tom Lehman and son Sean, were next on the leaderboard at 12-under 60. The Lehmans looked to be leading when they were around the green on the par-5 18th, but then it took them four shots to get down in the scramble format, taking bogey.
Having Team Woods in the mix is enough to get attention.
“It’s great for the tournament and happy for them,” Langer said. “Should be fun for the crowd tomorrow to come out and watch everybody play.”
Woods, a 15-time major champion, hadn’t competed since the British Open in July.
For Team Woods, it’s a matter of not looking too far ahead. The father knows that all too well with his record-tying 82 titles on the PGA Tour. The son got a lesson in that this past summer.
Charlie qualified for his first U.S. Junior Amateur but didn’t stay very long, shooting rounds of 82-80 as he failed to reach match play. He also fell short in Monday qualifying for the Cognizant Classic on the PGA Tour and in U.S. Open qualifying.
He said the U.S. Junior was his biggest learning moment, though.
“It’s about focusing on my playing,” Charlie said. “I was so focused on winning and how I played that it kind of crept into how am I going to win instead of how I’m going to play the shot. And it kind of built up and that caused two very, very bad rounds of golf. But live and learn.”
His father listened to the answer and nodded.
“Learn,” Woods said.
The PNC Championship is for players who won a major or The Players Championship and a family member. LPGA Tour legend Annika Sorenstam is playing with her son, while current LPGA star Nelly Korda is playing with her father. Steve Stricker — winner of seven senior majors — is playing with daughter Izzy, a freshman at Wisconsin.
Korda dazzled with a fairway metal out of the sand on the par-5 14th to set up eagle. Team Korda was four shots behind.