Charlie Woods playing harder setup at PNC Championship but still has an edge

The PNC Championship is meant to be a chill affair that places a feel-good bow on {the golfing} yr.

And it’s.

But since Tiger and Charlie Woods have grow to be a staple at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club over the previous 4 years, driving untold extra buzz and eyeballs to the two-day parent-child occasion, you may’t assist but sense that the proceedings have taken on extra significance. Tiger has jokingly referred to as the PNC his “fifth major.” Lee Trevino says he seems ahead to this week greater than the Masters. When Vijay Singh and his son Qass received final yr, Qass mentioned, “This is what we wanted forever.”

“Sixteen years,” Vijay mentioned.

So, yeah, the PNC means one thing to its individuals.

Which means its PGA Tour Champions organizers try to make the competitors — i.e., the tee assignments — as equitable as doable.

That’s no small process when you may have a subject that features not solely professionals competing towards amateurs and males towards ladies but additionally octogenarians squaring off with entrants who aren’t even previous to shave. This week, Trevino is again within the subject. At 84, he’s 72 years older than the youngest participant on the tee sheet, Annika Sorenstam’s son, Will McGee. Between them are the likes of Matt Kuchar’s son Cameron (he’s 15); John Daly II (20), who performs faculty golf at Arkansas; LPGA star Nelly Korda (25); Qass Singh (33), who works within the insurance coverage enterprise; and on it goes to gamers of various talents of their 40s, 50s, 60s and, sure…one in his 80s.

The Tour assigns gamers to considered one of 4 tee distances contingent upon the gamers’ age and standing; right here’s how this yr’s assignments had been doled out:  

7,106 yards (gold): Pros 52 and beneath; relations 16-52

6,578 yards (white): Pros and relations 52-63; LPGA members and relations 14-15

6,036 yards (purple): Pros 64-72; relations 12-13

5,499 yards (blue): Pros and relations 73 and over; juniors 11 and beneath

It’s not an ideal system — what system might be for such a various subject? — but the committee does reserve the suitable to make changes as deemed needed, although these tweaks are uncommon. As Joe Terry, the Tour’s chief referee, told PGATour.com final yr, “Age is age, and it’s always constant, and if we stick by our tournament regulations, we’ll be fine.”

Still, it’s laborious to not scan the tee sheet and really feel like some gamers don’t have both a definite tee-aided benefit or drawback. For instance, from the playing-from-the-tips group, you must really feel for Justin Leonard, who’s driving distance common on the Champions tour is 272.8 yards. That’s nothing to smell at, but while you evaluate him to the mashers in his group, corresponding to Justin Thomas (308.5 yards) and Stewart Cink (305.5 yards), Leonard is beginning in a 35-yard gap. Even a number of gamers within the 6,500-yard group (white tees), together with John Daly II, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen, are significantly longer than Leonard and, for that matter, David Duval, who is also playing from the way-backs.

Nelly Korda is playing from the whites. Should she be? Maybe, perhaps not. A 6,500-yard setup is on the longer facet on the LPGA but actually not exceptional — the official yardage for the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach this yr was 6,505 yards — but Korda’s 268.9-yard common driving distance still is 30 yards behind the longest hitters in her PNC bracket. Meanwhile, Bernhard Langer, who’s driving common (269.4) is longer than Korda’s, is playing from the purple tees, that are greater than 500 yards shorter than from the place Korda is playing.   

Charlie Woods, Tiger’s son, is an attention-grabbing case research, as a result of in 4 PNC begins he has performed the occasion from three totally different tee lengths. As an 11-year-old in 2020, he performed from the entrance tees; at 12 and 13, he moved again to the roughly 6,000-yard tees; and this yr, as a 14-year-old highschool freshman, he’s been bumped again once more, to six,578 yards.

A yr in the past some observers advised Charlie, who was then hitting drives 270 or 280 yards, ought to play longer tees, to which Terry informed PGATour.com: “I’m not going to arbitrate that. Age is age. If I moved him [back] because he’s good, then why don’t I move some others because they’re not good?”

Now that Charlie has been moved again — some 500 yards — is he at an benefit or drawback?

Charlie’s highschool coach, Toby Harbeck, informed me Charlie’s drives along with his “normal” swing velocity are within the 275- to 280-yard vary, but along with his “hard” swing, he can simply crank one on the market 300-plus yards.

Charlie is also accustomed to for much longer setups than the one he’s playing this week. Harbeck mentioned Charlie’s staff, which received a state title in Florida earlier this yr, usually performs tees within the 6,800-yard vary so he expects Charlie’s drives at the PNC will proceed to be a weapon for Team Woods. “He should do very well from that distance, depending on the weather,” Harbeck mentioned.

Justin Thomas, who has performed a lot golf with Charlie, agreed with the coach’s evaluation.   

“I think playing on the high school team has been very beneficial for him,” Thomas mentioned Friday. “I’m just glad he keeps moving back tee markers.”

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s government editor, Bastable is chargeable for the editorial path and voice of one of many recreation’s most revered and extremely trafficked information and repair websites. He wears many hats — enhancing, writing, ideating, growing, daydreaming of sooner or later breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely gifted and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Before grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the options editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey along with his spouse and foursome of children.