Tiger Woods and his ex-wife Elin Nordegren attended their son Charlie’s high school ring celebration on Tuesday, March 26 commemorating the school’s 2023 state championship in boys golf.
Charlie is a 15-year-old freshman at The Benjamin School, a prestigious private school with two campuses in Palm Beach County; one in Palm Beach Gardens, the other in North Palm Beach.
Tiger, 48, lives in Jupiter Island on the Martin County/Palm Beach County border, about 16 miles from Benjamin’s North Palm Beach campus. Nordegren, 44, lives in Palm Beach Gardens.
During Tuesday’s celebration at Benjamin’s Upper Campus in Palm Beach Gardens, head coach Toby Harbeck, who has led the program to four state titles in 40 years, choked back tears during a passionate speech.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to do this,” Harbeck said, wiping a wet cheek with his sleeve before telling the story of the night before the last match of the season when the team came back from four shots behind with six holes left to win the 1A title by a single stroke.
The day before that match, Harbeck said, “We sat in the hotel room and we talked about what we had to do … I told them that when you win a state championship, no one can ever take that away from you.
“You can be 75 years old sitting in a chair with your grandkids on you and you can tell them, ‘I was a state champion.’ “
Tiger Woods has won 15 major championships on the PGA Tour, second only to Jack Nicklaus, who lives in North Palm Beach. But Tiger Woods and his ex-wife were just parents Tuesday as they gleamed with pride as Charlie rocked the ring box back and forth in his hands, watching light dance on the jewelry’s diamonds.
“You know, we don’t call him Tiger. We call him Dad because he’s Dad,” Harbeck said. “And Charlie’s not Tiger Woods’ son, but he’s Charlie, and that’s the way they want it to be.”
“Tiger’s been there a lot — it’s great to have him watching.”
Harbeck recalled a story about Tiger. During a home match this season, the coach and the golfer were sitting together as the team shot a course-record 15-under. After the last shot, Tiger turned to Harbeck and said, ‘What did we shoot, coach?’ “
When told of the course record, Tiger said “Are you kidding me?,” Harbeck recalled. Tiger then proceeded to shake all of the players’ hands.
Charlie has been in the spotlight recently because of his golfing; he tried but failed to qualify for the Cognizant Classic (formerly the Honda Classic) in February. The Cognizant Classic is played at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens; In December, father and son played in the PNC Championship in Orlando, the fourth consecutive year they’ve played in the parent-child scramble, according to PGATour.com.
