Tiger vs Charlie: Who Wins?
How Many Strokes Would Charlie Need to Beat his Old Man, Anyway?
Despite not winning the PNC Championship last week, all eyes were on the return of Tiger Woods and his son Charlie.
The father/son duo finished second behind Team Daly and it was great to see arguably the best golfer of all time back on the course.
It’s abundantly clear Tiger will never get back to his old self, but the emergence of Charlie is reason to get excited.
We pose the question: how many strokes would Tiger need to beat Charlie? The gap is closing and we don’t think it will be long until the youngster achieves the feat.
Charlie Woods is Good
The 12-year-old is a carbon copy of his father, which is an excellent thing in the world of golf.
Should he choose to pursue a career as a professional golfer, we have little doubt Charlie Woods could crack the PGA Tour.
Tiger often puts education before sports, but regardless of where he ends up, the future is bright for Charlie.
His swing mimics that of his father when he first appeared on the PGA Tour. He’s flexible, but already it’s clear he has been hitting the gym.
We don’t want Charlie losing his suppleness, which helps the golf swing, so staying out of a gym would be advisable. However, we haven’t seen a 12-year-old with such a well-balanced swing.
Golf betting markets respected the Woods pairing at the PNC, which was mostly due to Charlie hitting big drives off the front tees. His iron play wasn’t as good as his driving, chipping and putting, but that will improve.
We think he could score around +4 or +5 from the front tees. If he had to tee off from the back, Charlie is projected to shoot around +8. Therefore, he would likely need a reasonable head start to beat his old man.
Taming the Tiger
We didn’t want to see this version of Tiger Woods, but it’s better than no version at all.
Woods is lucky to have full use of his body following a horrific car crash, which saw him off the golf scene for almost a year.
He used a cart at the PNC Championship and he had limited movement in his swing, which would need to improve for Woods to have any chance of competing on the PGA Tour. However, he has proven time and time again that he can overcome adversity.
“To push as hard as we have the last seven months, with taking no days off and just working our butts off each and every day, and to have this opportunity to be able to play with my son and to have these memories, for us, for both of us, (for) our lifetime, it’s worth all the pain,” Woods told PGATour.com.
His win at the 2019 Masters is credit to his toughness, but we wouldn’t be surprised if he missed cuts regularly in his comeback.
We remember when the sportsbook used to have Tiger at an odds-on price to win tournaments, but his sights have been lowered. Playing golf is now considered an achievement, so there will be plenty of sparring sessions with Charlie.
If Woods had played solo last week, we think he would have struggled off the tee. We projected a score of around +4 from the back tees, which would have likely put him near the bottom of the professionals leaderboard.
Charlie Gets Eight Strokes
It seems strange to give Charlie Woods only eight strokes against the greatest of all time, but we believe it’s a fair line.
Tiger is nowhere near his best and Charlie is one of the best young golfers we have seen in some time.
On a level playing field, we see Tiger shooting around 74 and Charlie shooting 81. Betting online markets would have a similar line and we would back Charlie Woods to get the better of his father.
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