ORLANDO, Florida: Tiger Woods and 15-year-old son Charlie ran off five straight birdies on the back nine Saturday for a 13-under 59 in the scramble format, giving them a share of the lead in the PNC Championship in Woods’ first competition since back surgery in September.
Woods said he scheduled that surgery — the sixth on his lower back in the last 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, joined by the last two champions — Bernhard Langer and son Jason, and Vijay Singh and son Qass.
Woods hit an array of good shots, including a wedge to inches 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 School.
Langer extended his astonishing record on the PGA Tour Champions this year by winning for an 18th consecutive season. He 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.
Singh and his son, who won this event in 2022, shot 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 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 hasn’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 summer.
Charlie Woods qualified for his first US Junior Amateur, making it to Oakland Hills but not staying very long. He shot rounds of 82-80 and didn’t make it to match play. He also fell short in Monday qualifying for the Cognizant Classic on the PGA Tour and US Open qualifying.
But he said the US Junior was his biggest learning moment.
“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. Annika Sorenstam is playing with her son, while 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.
Tiger Woods and son Charlie share the lead at PNC Championship
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Tiger Woods and son Charlie share the lead at PNC Championship
- Woods hit an array of good shots, including a wedge to inches on the short par-4 seventh, but otherwise downplayed his game by suggesting he still had a lot of rust
- The PNC Championship is for players who won a major or The Players Championship and a family member
Liverpool without Salah beats Inter in Champions League. Barcelona and Bayern win
- Karl became the youngest player to score in three consecutive Champions League games
- Headers by Jules Koundé three minutes apart gave Barcelona a 2-1 comeback victory over Eintracht Frankfurt
After leaving Mohamed Salah in England, Liverpool got a much-needed boost with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday, while Barcelona and Bayern Munich celebrated comeback wins and Chelsea lost.
With Salah out of the squad following his public criticism of the club last week, Dominik Szoboszlai stepped up instead to score the 88th-minute penalty which earned a 1-0 win over one of the competition’s best-performing teams.
It was all the more valuable for coming after a run of one win in six games in all competitions for Arne Slot’s under-pressure team, which moved up to eighth.
Liverpool’s players thought they had taken the lead with Ibrahima Konate’s header in the 31st minute but, after a video review that lasted more than four minutes, it was ruled out for handball as Virgil van Dijk had earlier nodded the ball on to the arm of Hugo Ekitike.
Having taken away a goal from Liverpool, VAR came to the visitors’ aid when it spotted that Alessandro Bastoni had tugged Florian Wirtz’s shirt in the area, with the midfielder flailing to the ground. Szoboszlai converted the penalty.
Bayern’s new star shines
Bayern’s 17-year-old midfielder Lennart Karl produced an audacious bit of skill to continue his high-scoring start to life in the Champions League in a 3-1 win over Sporting Lisbon earlier Tuesday.
Karl scored his third goal in four career Champions League games, controlling a pass from Konrad Laimer in mid-air before volleying a shot from a tight angle over two onrushing defenders and past the goalkeeper.
It was part of a 12-minute, three-goal turnaround for Bayern after Joshua Kimmich’s own-goal handed Sporting the lead after João Simões put Bayern under pressure on the counter.
Serge Gnabry leveled for Bayern when he was left unmarked at a corner in the 65th, before Karl scored Bayern’s second in the 69th and defender Jonathan Tah made it 3-1 in the 77th.
Widely viewed as German soccer’s best young talent this season, Karl became Bayern’s youngest-ever Champions League scorer in October on his first start in the competitions.
Late on, Alphonso Davies came off the bench for the Canadian left back’s first game since March after a serious knee injury.
Chelsea loses
Chelsea was beaten in the Champions League for the first time in nearly three months as Belgium forward Charles De Ketelaere set up the equalizer and scored an 83rd-minute winner as Atalanta came from behind to win 2-1.
Chelsea, which went ahead through Joao Pedro, dropped out of the top eight automatic qualifying spots with its second loss.
It was a fourth win for Atalanta, which climbed to third and is the highest-placed Italian team.
Gianluca Scamacca made it 1-1 by heading home a cross from De Ketelaere, who then drove in a shot that Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez got a hand to but couldn’t keep out.
Koundé drives Barcelona comeback
Headers by Jules Koundé three minutes apart gave Barcelona a 2-1 comeback victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Marcus Rashford assisted in the first goal in the 50th and Lamine Yamal in the second in the 53rd.
The visitors had taken the lead with a goal by Ansgar Knauff in a 21st-minute breakaway at the renovated Camp Nou stadium, which still can’t hold full capacity.
Son watches Spurs win
Son Heung-min said a belated goodbye to Tottenham as his former club moved up to ninth after beating Slavia Prague 3-0 on an own goal and two penalties in a game overshadowed by a dispute over moving a rainbow flag showing support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Julián Alvarez scored for the ninth time in his last nine league-phase appearances to lead Atletico Madrid to a 3-2 come-from-behind win at PSV Eindhoven.
Marseille held on for a 3-2 win over Union Saint-Gilloise, whose players and fans twice celebrated what they thought were goals to level the score late on, only for both to be ruled out for narrow offsides on video review.
Folarin Balogun bundled the ball over the line from close range to give Monaco a 1-0 win over Galatasaray.
Olympiakos broke through a determined Kairat Almaty defense to take a 1-0 win in Kazakhstan and boost its hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages. Gelson Martins scored for the Greek side in the 73rd.
