Another step forward for Charlie Woods. The son of the greatest golfer of the modern era, he earned the highest qualifying score for theUS Junior Amateur. The race, organized by the USGA, is scheduled for July 22-28 in Oakland Hills, on the outskirts of Detroit. Tiger Woods also followed the same path.
“I said to myself: ‘no more bogey’”
“I didn’t play great on my first two holes, but I played really well on my last 16. I just told myself not to make any more bogeys or double bogeys and took advantage of some good birdies when I had them,” Charlie Woods said. The 15-year-old recovered well after a bogey-double bogey start at Eagle Trace Golf Club. He ultimately finished -1. So he was one of the four to qualify. “The USGA means a lot to me – he commented -. I want to win USGA championships and hopefully one day the US Open“.
His father, Tiger Woods, was 14 when he qualified for his first US Junior Amateur, reaching the semi-finals. Then he won his first U.S. Junior Amateur a year later at Bay Hill on 19 holes. Woods is the only player to have won theUS Junior three consecutive times and can boast nine USGA titles.
Watch out Charlie Woods: your father there…
Son Charlie will be among 264 players to tackle 36 holes at Oakland Hills. From those, 64 golfers will emerge and compete in match play. The winner will have a one-way ticket to play the “big” US Open, the 2025 one at Oakmont.
The 15-year-old will be called upon to reverse the fortunes of the Woods home in Oakland Hills. Twenty years ago his father played (and lost) the Ryder Cup on this very course. Tiger, for the first and only time in his long experience in Ryder, played paired with Phil Mickelson. The two were defeated first by Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington and then by Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood.
