Tiger and Charlie Woods to play together in Friday’s PNC Pro-Am–
“The golf world breathlessly awaits Tiger Woods’ reappearance at this weekend’s PNC Championship.”
The following written content by DYLAN DETHIER
ORLANDO — The golf world breathlessly awaits Tiger Woods’ reappearance at this weekend’s PNC Championship. But before the PNC Championship, we get the PNC Championship’s two-part pro-am! On Thursday and Friday, the two-player teams assemble and pair up with sponsors to get ready for the weekend’s main event. Most of the teams, at least. Here are a few nuggets we’ve picked up about this week’s PNC prelude:
No Tiger on Thursday.
This makes plenty of sense. If Tiger Woods wants to come play your golf tournament, he has pretty significant bargaining power. If Tiger Woods wants to come play your golf tournament, he hasn’t played any form of competitive golf in a calendar year and is undergoing aggressive rehab from a horrifying car crash, you tell him he can play whatever pro-am events he damn well pleases.
It also makes sense given Woods’ physical limitations. He has stressed that endurance is among the limiting factors in his golf game right now and his range sessions feature far more pauses than they used to. There’s no need to force things with another practice round in the public eye.
Woods isn’t the only one missing from Thursday’s action; Justin Thomas and Tom Watson are sitting out, too. Three pros sit out Friday, too: Henrik Stenson, Nick Faldo and Rich Beem.
Bubba has a fill-in Pro-Am partner.
Bubba Watson is once again partnering with his father-in-law Wayne Ball for the PNC Championship itself. But in the pro-am pairings he is listed with a different teammate: Angie Watson, his wife. She’ll play alongside Bubba at 10:20 a.m. Thursday and 8:40 a.m. Friday, though it’s possible Wayne will be in one of those groups, too. We’ll see if Angie puts the pressure on her dad to step aside for the weekend if her game gets hot.
Tiger and Charlie will play together in Friday’s Pro-Am.
According to the Pro-Am tee times, Woods is playing alongside someone from his own generation on Friday: Matt Kuchar! Woods and Kuchar are scheduled to go off the first tee at 9 a.m. Friday.
You can see the Pro-Am tee times here:
There will be TV coverage!
