Charlie Woods bounced back strong and quick. Just a week back, the 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods, had to bow out of the U.S. Junior Amateur, his USGA debut brutally, to say the least. The teenager was 22-over through 36 holes to miss the cut. It took him only three rounds to erase all that. 

On July 31, Charlie Woods clinched the South Florida Junior PGA Cup, one of the South Florida PGA Junior Tour’s eight majors. The field of 63 boys was trimmed after 36 holes. Woods fired a 68 in the second round to book a Sunday spot. In the final round, two clutch birdies on the 10th and 12th separated him from the chasing pack. 

From his words, it was evident that the U.S. Junior Amateur’s heartbreak crushed him. And the teenager was desperate to prove his critics wrong. “I wanted it so bad… I felt focused. I knew what I had to do to get it done. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do better,” Charlie Woods said after becoming the only player in the field to finish under par.

The teenager credited the hard work done early this year behind the triumph.  Words kept flowing out of the visibly emotional Woods’s mouth. “I wanted to redeem myself, and I feel great about how I played.” 

Redemption it is. Only last week, the lingering image was a hapless Charlie Woods holding his face in his palm. The 15-year-old opened his round at Oakland Hills with a 12-over par. The second round offered little respite as he carded a 10-over to come undone. To make matters worse, Tiger Woods was in attendance. 

A bunch of fans – some 500 – flocked around the teenager hoping to catch a glimpse of the father-son duo. Comparisons between the two were already in the air. Detractors even questioned the teenager’s capability to come close to his father. Charlie Woods with this emphatic two-stroke victory showed it’s too early to scratch his name out. Truly, the first half of 2024 has been a mixed bag of hope and despair for the young Woods. 

How has Charlie Woods performed so far?

The South Florida Junior PGA Cup was his second triumph in as many months. In June, Charlie Woods earned the medalist honor at the Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs to earn his first USGA spot. Before that, the teenager tried to qualify for the U.S. Open, something that would’ve given him the chance to tee off with his father. 

Perhaps, it was too early for that. Woods Jr. shot 9-over 81 at a local qualifying event. Prior to that, he also aspired to break into a PGA Tour event, the Cognizant Classic. However, in the pre-qualifier to the Monday qualifier, Woods carded 16-over 86 marked by a disastrous 12 at the par-4 7th at Lost Lake Golf Club to come undone. 

The victory at the South Florida Junior PGA Cup is sure to assuage some of that hurt. Although there are a handful of AJGA events scheduled this week, it’s not clear yet if Tiger Woods’s young cub will enlist in any of them.