ORLANDO, Fla. – The finish was just shy of storybook thanks to an almost flawless performance from a 67-year-old German who is aging like Benjamin Button, but for Team Woods, everything about the final round at the PNC Championship was special.
Tiger Woods and his 15-year-old son, Charlie, lost on the first extra hole at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club to Bernhard Langer and his son Jason, a 24-year-old investment banker, but it wasn’t the near miss or the disappointment of coming up short at the 36-hole scramble that mattered to Team Woods.
“For us to have that experience together, I know we didn’t win, but it was the fact that we competed,” Tiger said. “No one really made a mistake out there. We had to earn it, and that’s what you want to have. Hats off to Langers. They played amazing.”
As is the norm in this event, Sunday was a race to a tournament scoring record, with the Woodses and Langers trading birdies – and eagles – on nearly every hole after starting the final round tied for the lead at 13 under. But it was Team Woods that inched ahead thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime moment for father and son.
At the 178-yard, par-3 fourth hole, Charlie launched his 7-iron tee shot toward the green with Tiger closely watching. There was a pause after the ball landed on the green and disappeared behind a mound before the crowd surrounding the putting surface erupted.
“Is that in?” Tiger asked before officials quickly confirmed Charlie had made his first ace in the most high-profile of moments – at least for a high-school sophomore.
“It was awesome having Dad there. That was so much fun,” Charlie said, smiling. “It was just a perfect 7-iron, little cut in there. Of course, never got to see it go in. So that sucks. But that’s all right.”
Tiger echoed those comments, describing the moment as a “thrill of a lifetime to be able to have that moment with Charlie,” he said.
Despite the theatrics, Team Langer kept pace with an eagle at the next hole and matched the lead at 21 under with a birdie at the 10th hole. All total, the two teams combined for 26 birdies, two eagles and a hole in one and closed out the round with matching birdies at the 18th hole tied at 28 under. Bernhard Langer won the sixth playoff in event history with a 15-foot eagle putt at No. 18 to complete an impressive comeback this season after missing much of the year recovering from an Achilles tendon injury in February.
“It’s incredible, right?” Tiger said of Bernhard Langer’s performance. “The driver [Langer] hit out of the bunker on 14, that was one of the best shots I’ve ever seen.”
The victory would have been the perfect ending to what was an otherwise perfect day, but for Tiger, who has embraced the PNC and its family-first focus even as his competitive days appear to be waning, it was a reason to look beyond the scoreboard for satisfaction.
“This is all about family. This is about bonding and it’s about having a great time and we did that. This is a thrill of a lifetime for us to be able to experience this all together,” Tiger said.
Team Woods continues to trend in the right direction at the PNC after finishing seventh in 2020, second in ’21, tied for eighth in ’22 and tied for fifth in ’23. It also sends an encouraging message for Woods heading into 2025 following another lost season that included just five official PGA Tour starts and one made cut, at the Masters, where he finished 60th, last among players who finished the weekend at Augusta National.
Woods had his fifth microdisectomy procedure on his back in September, and he was predictably vague earlier this month when asked if he had a timeline for a possible return to competition. But his play at the PNC, even for just 36 holes of scramble golf, was a reason to be optimistic.
“We’ll see,” Tiger shrugged. “I don’t like this cold right now; I can tell you that. But hey, it’s training, each and every day, doing the little things and keep progressing, and I’ll keep progressing forward into next year.”
While Tiger’s competitive future remains shrouded in injury, after two magical days in central Florida, it’s safe to say that Team Woods will be back at the Ritz-Carlton course next year looking for another storybook finish.
