After a third appearance as a father-son duo at the PNC Championship in south Florida, 14-year-old Charlie Woods accidentally let slip a key insight into his father’s putting.
Tiger Woods and Charlie managed to finish tied for fifth at the tournament – shooting 19-under thanks in part to some short-game struggles on the first day.
When asked by Golf.com about how good of a caddie his dad is, Charlie mentioned that Tiger’s reads are not traditional.
‘For Dad as a caddie, his reads are hook-bias, and I don’t hook as much as he does,’ he said.
‘So all of my putts, I miss right. So I have to account for that.’
Analysis of putt lab data (via Golf Digest) found that Tiger actually addresses the ball to the right of his intended line. But thanks to a strong right hand in his putting stroke, he hooks the club face back to being slightly closed.
While not technically ‘perfect’, it is consistent – and Tiger has practiced it enough that it’s become natural and it works well for him.
On Saturday, the pairing only finished eight-under and blamed their work on the greens for a performance that wasn’t up to their standards.
‘I mean, I drove the ball really good today – I didn’t miss a fairway – and we still managed to shoot eight-under,’ Charlie remarked, adding, ‘We just suck at putting.’
Tiger agreed, following up his son’s comments by saying that he ‘summed it up right there’.
Sunday, they got their act together – shooting eleven-under on the day to finish 19-under for the whole tournament.
Bernhard Langer and his son Jason won the tournament by two shots.