Diehard golf fans who have been waiting patiently to see Charlie Woods — yes, the son of Tiger Woods — tee it up on the PGA Tour may not have to wait much longer.
The 15-year-old has entered into Thursday’s pre-qualifier for the 2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches and could become one of the youngest golfers ever to qualify for a PGA Tour event if he makes it through.
The Cognizant Classic runs from February 29-March 3 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, and it’s a course the younger Woods should be extremely familiar with as it’s located in his hometown.
But there’s a long way to go before we can start predicting how Woods will fare against the pros out there. He will have to play a perfect round this Thursday at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, which is one of four pre-qualifier sites. The top 25 players and ties after 18 holes will then move to Monday’s true qualifier for the Cognizant Classic, where only the top four will earn an entry into the main event.
Should Charlie Woods make his way into the field, he would be 15 years and 21 days old, making him the eighth-youngest golfer to start a PGA Tour event on the men’s or women’s side, and the youngest since Andy Zhang qualified for the U.S. Open in 2012.
While the PGA Tour has seen nine golfers under the age of 16 make it into the field for an event, only one has made the cut. Guan Tian Liang finished 58th at the 2013 Masters, then finished 71st at the Zurich Classic the following month.
Tiger didn’t play his first PGA Tour event until he was 16 years old at the 1992 Los Angeles Open — an event that is now hosted by the Tiger Woods Foundation and known as the Genesis Invitational. The elder Woods also missed the cut in his first PGA event.
