If I were to travel back to the early 2000s and tell people that Tiger Woods would appear in a laid-back, casual 'silly season' golf event like the PNC Father-Son, they would laugh me back to 2020. Everything we came to know about Woods over the course of his early and prime career - dogged competitiveness, intensely serious on-course manner, propensity to play only the biggest events - pointed public expectations 180 degrees away from an event that has traditionally been a little vacation for some pro golf families in the sluggish gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And yet, if we've learned anything in the past couple years about Tiger Woods, it's been that he has a surprising capacity to change his public-facing image. The announcement that he would be teaming up with his son Charlie in this year's Father-Son (which will be broadcast on Peacock, Golf Channel and NBC December 19 and 20) at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Orlando came out of nowhere. With all due respect to John and Little John Daly, who have made the event particularly fun to watch the last couple years, this development instantly raises its profile to an all-time high.
🚨I was not prepared for this footage of Charlie Woods striping it. 😭 (IG: arejaygolf) pic.twitter.com/1LLgYAx8CU
— Tiger Woods Legion (@TWlegion) January 12, 2020
And if occasional reports out of South Florida are believable, despite his young age, Tiger's son Charlie Woods should make a some contributions to the team effort over the tournament's two-day scramble format. Dad has caddied for Junior in some tournaments this year, and occasional videos of Charlie's golf swing have surfaced on social media. Unsurprisingly, the kid has a move that should make most of us both jealous and excited at the potential of the Woods name achieving competitive golf dynasty status toward the end of this decade. I guess, "Hello World," huh?
