Tiger Woods Enjoying Coaching and Parenting Son Charlie

Just when you think you know Tiger Woods, he throws you a curve ball.

We are discovering via the PNC Championship that Woods enjoys the challenge of parenting a young athlete as much as he enjoys winning.  He’s also passing on the life lessons he learned from his father to his own son Charlie.

“I have been fortunate enough that my father was into golf and understood sports. He played sports,” Woods explained about his growing-up years.

"“And then being a parent, you always want to be the protector and guider of them and teach them skills that they will need in life when you’re not around. And so that’s the most important thing about being a parent.”"

Tiger Woods is so dedicated to his son that he’s even willing to put up with the pain of plantar fasciitis to participate in the PNC so that he and Charlie will have the memory of the event.

"“I always tell him why we’re doing what we’re doing, so that he can retrace the steps. “ — Tiger Woods on what he teaches Charlie about his golf swing."

“I think being there with and alongside my son is far more important and get to have a chance to have this experience with him is far better than my foot being a little creaky,” Tiger Woods insisted.

He cited Charlie’s first eagle coming at the PNC and being the caddie when Charlie plays in junior tournaments as memorable occasions.

"“Those are experiences that I want to be a part of in his life,” Woods added. “Those are memories, and those are things that we still talk about. Shots he hit, shots that I hit. But he only refers to the bad ones that I hit!”"

Charlie talks about the bad shots because he is at the beginning of his teenage years.

Tiger Woods is getting what he has dished out.

“Unfortunately, sometimes, I get it, it’s like talking to a mirror. My little smart comments come right back at me now,” he admitted.  What parent hasn’t been there?

Tiger Woods is making an effort to participate in his children’s lives now because they mainly remember that he couldn’t do things because of his surgeries.

"“Most of their childhood I was hurt, and I wasn’t able to attend their soccer games or play in the backyard and practice with Charlie or do wind sprints with Sam,” he explained. “I wasn’t able to do any of that because most of their childhood my back was bad.”"

He said Charlie and Sam are now old enough to understand what was going on and that they have fun and compete in other ways.

This year Charlie’s preparation for the PNC Championship has been hampered by midterm exams, schoolwork, shorter days, and a left ankle problem.

Sometimes he practices on the simulator to get in reps.  So expect that Charlie may be a little rusty.  If there was such a thing as three-legged golf, like the three-legged races people used to do, the pair might have something.  But there isn’t.  They will have to soldier on.

All that aside, what Woods is trying to instill in Charlie is the ability to fix his own golf swing on the fly, mid-tournament or mid-round.  That is what Earl Woods, Tiger’s father, taught him to do.

“I always tell him why we’re doing what we’re doing, so that he can retrace the steps,“ Woods added.

"“When he gets a little off, now he knows what to go back to and understand that, okay, if I hit that shot, it’s that pattern. This is the fix. And you’ve got to be able to do that when you’re playing tournament golf.”"

Tiger Woods said that’s where he sees the most progress in Charlie’s game in tournaments he plays.

“I can see him rehearsing shots,” Woods said. “He’s trying to get out of that pattern.”

While Woods – realistically – isn’t predicting a victory for Team Tiger and Charlie, he does think they are moving in the right direction.

“We’ve come close. We’ve gotten better each year. So, we’re trending,” he added.

As soon as the PNC Championship is concluded, Woods plans to return home to start resting his right foot, which is what he was supposed to be doing instead of playing in The Match and the PNC.

He still has days, weeks, and months of therapy ahead of him, and right now, he hates wearing the boot he is supposed to wear at night for the plantar fasciitis.

"“Trying to sleep in the damn boot, it’s no fun,” he explained. “My left leg is bleeding sometimes because the boot hits it. It’s just annoying.”"

But if it’s what he has to do to get to the Masters, he will keep doing it until it’s better or at least as good as it’s going to be.  As we saw last year, there’s almost nothing that will keep him away from Augusta National.