Eldrick “Tiger” Woods, one of the best to pick up a golf club, leads headlines wherever he goes. From the status of his game to where he’s traveling, the paparazzi and media follow this every footstep. This life in the spotlight can be a burden on someone and their family, especially with their children. With Tiger’s historic career, the storylines for a successor fill the brains of many hungry journalists. As Tiger’s son, Charlie (16), climbs up the junior golf rankings, he is dealing with an unusual stressor for these players: the media.
Charlie’s life had been surrounded by golf, from training with his dad to watching him from inside the ropes. With these moments in the public eye, Tiger’s shadow would grow more and more onto Charlie, and everybody was wondering when Charlie would make his big break. As he started maturing to tournament age, Charlie would play on many Florida-based junior tours and some stints on the prestigious American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Tour. With tournament experience, Charlie would join his dad in the two-man family tournament, the PNC Championship, at the young age of eleven, per USA Today. Since then, Tiger and Charlie have taken two runner-up finishes in 2021 and 2024, which included an ace (a hole-in-one) by Charlie in the 2024 finish, per the PGA Tour. These triumphs show that Charlie can go toe-to-toe in the big leagues when playing with his father, but Charlie wanted to show he could do it himself.
The United States Junior Amateur Tournament is the cream of the crop for all junior golfers and requires multiple rounds of qualifying to achieve a spot in the field. In the closest qualifier to him, Charlie would fire at one-under-par seventy-one, which won the tournament and gave him an automatic spot in the field, per USGA. Once in Detroit, the pictures and videos filled the golf world, and almost every shot of his practice round could be found online. These rounds are supposed to be used to focus, but it is hard when everybody wants a picture and an autograph from Charlie and his dad. Charlie’s lack of preparedness was shown as he fired rounds of eighty and eighty-two, finished near the bottom of the leaderboard, and missed the cut for match play. For the other juniors around him, this was not that big of a deal, but Charlie received national coverage for this disappointing week. This loss made headlines as Charlie could not live up to Tiger’s three victories at this very tournament, a feat only he has accomplished.
With a break from the spotlight, Charlie would eventually try to qualify for the U.S Open last week, golf’s greatest honor. With a three-over-par seventy-five, Charlie missed the cutline by seven strokes. Actually qualifying for the US Open as an amateur is a challenging feat, and the process is known as “the hardest day in golf”. Even tour professionals miss this mark, so Charlie’s effort is outstanding when looking at the big picture. No matter what Charlie does, it will never hold up to Tiger’s accomplishments, as ESPN would cover his failure to qualify. Charlie is on track towards a tremendous professional golf career, with many Division One programs lining up to talk to him. Even though Charlie is “better than most”, his career may never live up to the media’s ridiculous expectations.
