Tiger Woods will return to golf at PNC Championship

Tiger and Charlie are back.

The Woodses will return to the PNC Championship after last year’s popular debut. This will be Tiger’s first tournament since his February car crash and another opportunity for Charlie, 12, to put his impressive game on display for a national television audience.

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The PNC Championship, which pairs a major winner with a family member in a two-person scramble, will be held Dec. 17-19 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Florida.

At the Hero World Challenge last week, Tiger made his first public appearance and held his first press conference since the accident. Woods had earlier posted a video on social media of him swinging a golf club, but he made clear that his days as a full-time PGA TOUR player are behind him. Woods also was spotted hitting balls at the Hero.

“I think something that is realistic is playing the TOUR one day -- never full time, ever again -- but pick and choose, just like Mr. (Ben) Hogan did. Pick and choose a few events a year and you play around that,” Woods said. “You practice around that, and you gear yourself up for that. I think that’s how I’m going to have to play it from now on. It’s an unfortunate reality, but it’s my reality. And I understand it, and I accept it.”

Woods also said in his press conference that he was uncertain about when he would return to the TOUR. He did say, though, that “I’ll play a round here or there, a little hit and giggle. I can do something like that.” Many took that as a hint that the PNC was in his plans. Published reports had been predicting his appearance for weeks.

Tiger and Charlie made their debut in the tournament in 2020 – the last time Woods played competitive golf – and finished seventh.

Charlie’s fledgling golf career has become of interest to onlookers since his PNC appearance a year ago. Updates of Tiger’s status this year often came in the form of photos of Tiger at his son’s tournaments.

“I went to golf tournaments to watch him play, and I’m looking at some of these scores he’s shooting, and I said, How the hell are you shooting such high scores? I got to go check this out,” Woods said. “So I’d watch him play and he’s going along great, he has one bad hole, he loses his temper, his temper carries him over to another shot and another shot and it compounds itself. I said, ‘Son, I don’t care how mad you get. Your head could blow off for all I care just as long as you’re 100 percent committed to the next shot. That’s all that matters. That next shot should be the most important shot in your life. It should be more important than breathing. Once you understand that concept, then I think you’ll get better. And as the rounds went on throughout the summer, he’s gotten so much better.”