Joaquin Niemann's generosity helps family facing long odds

ORLANDO, Fla. – The world returned to normalcy around 9 a.m. Friday. The sun climbed into the sky, swallows were swirling in Capistrano and at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Tiger Woods – on competitive hiatus since July, aside from 10 holes at The Match last weekend – stepped onto the opening tee at the PNC Championship. Ah, a golfer again. Check that. Woods rode onto the tee, in a golf cart. Across it, actually. It didn’t matter. This is the reality of the latest version of Tiger Woods, a man beset by painful plantar fasciitis in his right foot on top of a badly damaged right ankle and leg. Fans who gathered down the ropes four and five deep left of the opening par 4 didn’t care much how Woods got there. He could have been dropped off by Uber, or by Roman chariot. They were just really, really happy to see him. All types were curious to get the latest on Woods, winner of 82 PGA TOUR events and 15 majors and arguably the greatest to ever play the game. Having played only nine official rounds of golf on TOUR this season – all of them at majors – what does he have in his arsenal? What’s ahead for him? Woods turns 47 on Dec. 30. The clock ticks. “Well, I played more this year than I certainly thought at the beginning of the year,” said Woods, whose biggest 2022 goal was to play in The 150th Open at St. Andrews. As has been the case in his last two late-year PNC appearances, what awaits Woods is mostly unknown. His plantar fasciitis makes it quite difficult to walk. He said he will shut it down after this weekend, stop pushing so hard, and get back to healing. But this week? He wouldn’t miss it. When his lengthy pro-am round had finished alongside his partner and son, 13-year-old Charlie, he was asked to name his favorite moment. That was easy. “The whole thing,” he said. “The whole experience of being out there with him.” Charlie is bigger and stronger and hits it much longer than he did a year ago, when he and his father made a spirited Sunday run at the title. (He has added about 25 yards of length.) They went on a great closing run last year, Charlie hitting many of the best shots, fired 15-under 57 in the event’s scramble format, and finished two shots shy of John Daly and John Daly II. This event delivered the first eagle that Charlie ever made, along with so many of the great father-son moments that Charlie’s famous dad seemed to miss when he was off conquering golf tournaments around the world or rehabbing from serious injuries. Charlie, who rolled an ankle and came up 18 with a slight limp of his own, struggled with his game on Friday, which was no big deal. (“I think they’ll be ready when the gun goes off (Saturday),” said Joe LaCava, Tiger’s caddie.) Woods proudly said his son’s biggest growth year over year is the fact he now can figure out what he is doing and fix his swing on the fly during a competitive round. Getting there included a process of understanding taught by Tiger, who was passing along a lesson from his own father, Earl. “You have to understand,” Tiger said, “in tournament golf, you’ve got to make a switch on the fly and trust it.” In the gallery following Woods and his son were grandparents and parents pushing young children in strollers, some guy dressed resplendently as Uncle Sam, and a man and his son dressed in full, striped tan tiger suits. Former PGA TOUR Champions standout Jim Thorpe was in the crowd. Korn Ferry Tour pro Rob Oppenheim was watching (“Why wouldn’t I?” he said incredulously.) Football announcer Booger McFarland was curious to watch Tiger rip driver on one hole. Woods played his opening nine in a group that included Will Wears, grandson of Arnold Palmer, a legend who was so instrumental in the growth of the PNC. After Wears, a tall and powerful player, drove the green at the 350-yard seventh, Woods, seated nearby in his cart, paid him the ultimate compliment: “Just like your grandad at Cherry Hills.” Padraig Harrington said that 15 years ago, fans would come out to see Tiger hit the shots. Nowadays, the vibe is different. They just want to see Tiger. Who knows what round will be his last? With all the tribulations he has been through – back surgeries, knee surgeries, and a near-fatal 2021 SUV accident that nearly cost him his right leg – they are genuinely happy that he is here. It helps that the PNC is played under the umbrella of the PGA TOUR Champions, which allows players the use of carts. “It has changed. There’s no doubt about it,” Harrington said of the atmosphere. “It is a different emotional atmosphere around it. In many ways, it’s bigger.” Tiger had his moments striking the golf ball. Early on, he made a few short shots with wedges dance around the hole, and at the 214-yard eighth, he launched one of his towering 4-irons left of the flagstick, holding the shot off into a crosswind. His fatigue as the round moves on is hard to disguise. At the 10th, as pro-am teams switched up their pros, there was a long backup on the tee. Woods sat in his cart for some 15 minutes, fiddling on his phone, and holding a short conversation with Annika Sorenstam, GOAT to GOAT, after she had caught up in the group behind him. When Woods went to scale a hill to the tee when it was his time to hit, he moved slowly, gingerly, his body feeling the brunt of such a delay. Of course, the son of an Army Green Beret seldom admits that he is hurting. “How’s the foot, Tiger?” he was asked afterward. Woods answered, “Yeah, it’s good.” Clearly, it’s not. Could competing this week, even with the use of a cart, push back his recovery from his latest ailments? You bet, he said. “You know, I don’t really care about that,” Tiger said. “I think being here with and alongside my son is far more important, and getting to have a chance to have this experience with him is far better than my foot being a little creaky.” Tiger pretty much owns every trophy a man can win, starting with U.S. Junior Championships (3) and U.S. Amateurs (3) to his 15 major championships, which include five Masters titles. He won the career Grand Slam three times over. Jack Nicklaus owns more majors (18), but it is Woods who most consider to be the GOAT. Alastair Johnston, the power agent from IMG who worked with Arnold Palmer and drew up the game plan to bring fathers and sons together in competition 25 years ago (and since, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and even major winners and parents), can reluctantly accept fans considering his brainchild to be a “hit and giggle,” with a caveat: It is a “very competitive” hit and giggle. These are athletes used to competing hard, and winning big tournaments, and often it’s clear their children are similarly driven. Johnston laughs in retelling the story from two years ago when Justin Thomas and his dad, Mike, who are close to the Woods family, dropped by the Woods’ home on Christmas Day wearing the bright red matching Willie Park belts they captured as PNC champions. Said Johnston, “You knew right then that Tiger and Charlie were thinking, ‘We’re each going to get one of those, too.’” Tiger never has met a tournament he didn’t want to win, regardless of his health. His son seems ultra-competitive as well. The two placed seventh in 2020, and runner-up a year ago. What would it mean for the two of them to win? “Well, we’ve come close,” Woods said. “We’ve gotten better each year. So we’re trending.”

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