The ManicaPost
CHARLIE Woods, the 15-year-old son of golf legend Tiger, started his attempt to qualify for a first PGA Tour event yesterday (Thursday).
Woods junior will compete in one of four pre-qualifiers as he aims to reach the Cognizant Classic.
The top 25 players and ties advance to Monday’s final qualifier, with four then earning places in the main field.
Rory McIlroy will be among the stars playing for a prize fund of £7.1m at PGA National in Florida.
If Charlie Woods is going to join the Northern Irishman, he will have to come through the 18-hole pre-qualifier at Lost Lake Golf Club, where he has been grouped with Ireland’s Ruaidhri McGee and American Olin Browne Jr.
The players who come through that stage will go to the final qualifier at Tesoro Club’s Palmer Course in a bid to clinch their spot at the Cognizant Classic, which takes place from 29 February to 3 March.
The teenage Woods has competed in the last four editions of the PNC Championship exhibition event alongside his father, who was forced to withdraw during the Genesis Invitational last week because of illness.
Charlie Woods finished tied 17th in the boys’ 14-15 division of last year’s Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship, with 15-time major champion Tiger acting as his caddie.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf’s Joaquin Niemann is one of three players to have been given a special invitation to play in the Masters in early April.
The 25-year-old Chilean was 18th in the world when he defected to the breakaway tour, whose events do not earn ranking points, and is the 13th LIV golfer in the Masters field.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and Ryo Hisatsune, a 21-year-old who is the first Japanese player to win the European Tour Rookie of the Year award, have also been invited to Augusta National. — BBCsport.
