HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. — For son Charlie, Tiger Woods has played caddy. He’s gotten to play teammate. On Wednesday, at his 14-year-old’s first high school state golf tournament, Woods simply played dad.
Despite conflicting reports from Golf Monthly and SBNation’s Playing Through that he was on the bag − which would’ve been prohibited by FHSAA tournament rules − Tiger, donning an all-black getup, was waiting in the wings as Charlie celebrated his first state championship with his Benjamin teammates.
It was about as incognito as you could get being Tiger Woods on a golf course.
The green squished and sloshed under excited spikes after Benjamin sophomore Jake Valentine, the squad’s low-scorer with a total of 148 (72-76), left the 18th with a winning, one-stroke lead for the Bucs following his momentum-shifting birdie on No. 17. Valentine and Woods’ final scorecards were separated by six strokes, but the roster of competition in Class 1A, stacked per usual, saw Valentine tie for 8th and Woods for 26th.
Turning in his best round of 76 on Day 2 at Mission Inn Resort and Club, Charlie helped The Benjamin School stay just low enough to make the trip back to Palm Beach Gardens with the program’s fourth state title in tow.
Buccaneer teammates freshman Brooks Colton (149), junior Pavel Tsar (152), and senior Tyler Bruneau (156), a University of Rhode Island commit, tied for 12th, 19th, and 34th, respectively.
Tiger, the 15-time major winner on the PGA Tour, stood legs crossed and leaning on his umbrella, as if he were waiting for his own turn to sink a putt and deliver a classic fist pump.
That’s what Charlie was there for.
Tiger already had his turn to run the varsity fairways when he was a student at Western High School in Anaheim, California, after all.
‘You mean Tiger Woods played on a high school golf team, too?’
“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What is wrong with this picture? This isn’t the Junior Worlds. This isn’t the Junior Nationals. It’s not a PGA event.”
That was an ESPN broadcaster’s introduction of a 17-year-old Tiger as he walked alongside three other players during a high school golf match in a feature back in 1993.
He’d already won the World Junior title six times and the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship the last two years, carrying the title of the “world’s best junior golfer.”
The broadcaster continued.
“This is a high school event? You mean Tiger Woods plays on a high school golf team,…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…