Jack Nicklaus: A tough road ahead for Tiger Woods' son

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

GOLF's hard enough without having a famous father who set a standard hard to match even by the very best. Tiger Woods is certain to watch that unfold over the next several years.
Jack Nicklaus already has seen it.
A few hours before Scottie Scheffler set out to win the Memorial for the second straight year, Nicklaus was asked about another big win that week. Charlie Woods, the 16-year-old son of the biggest name in golf, won his first American Junior Golf Association title.
It's a wonder which win — Scheffler or Woods — got more attention on social media.
'I think it's tough on kids,' Nicklaus said, speaking from experience.
His oldest son, Jackie, won the prestigious North & South Amateur at Pinehurst and played his college golf at North Carolina. That was nothing compared with his third-oldest son. Long before Gary Nicklaus became the only one of the four golden cubs to earn a PGA Tour card, he made the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was 16.
'The Next Nicklaus,' said the headline. The father remembers it clearly.
'It ran him out of golf,' Nicklaus said.
Some context is required. Gary Nicklaus played four years at Ohio State (one title), earned a European tour card and got through Q-school in 1999 to earn a PGA Tour card. But Nicklaus felt the publicity was too much for his son at that age.
'Gary would get off the 18th and run to the car so he didn't have to talk to the press for about two years,' he said. 'Sports Illustrated said they wanted to do a story. We said, 'No cover, none of that.' They put it right on the cover. It was not nice what they did.'
Nicklaus also thought the publicity was over the top when his grandson, G.T., made an ace in the Par 3 Contest before the 2018 Masters.
'That's the kind of things you've really got to try to avoid with kids,' he said. 'It's difficult for them. It's even tougher today. Charlie is a nice little player. He's got a beautiful little golf swing. Does he want to follow his father? Does he realise what's going on?'
Woods was in the Detroit area last summer when his son qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur. Charlie attracted the largest gallery, said to be 10 times the size of a normal crowd for that event. Or were they there to see his father?
Nicklaus knows that feeling, too.
'Gary would always say, 'I wonder how many people are going to come out watching my father watch me?' Nicklaus said with a chuckle.
He doesn't know much about Charlie Woods except for what he occasionally sees on television, and Nicklaus is impressed with the swing. A lot of juniors have great swings. The depth today at the highest levels of golf is evident long before these kids start getting courtesy cars.
Charlie Woods made his TV debut at age 11 in the PNC Championship, the tournament that pairs major champions with a family member. The son has grown, matured and, after two years, Woods allowed Charlie to join him in post-round interviews, as the rest of the field does. He handled that well, too.
It is not unusual for sons to follow their fathers in golf, but matching success is rare. Old Tom and Young Tom Morris (each won the British Open four times) were the exception.
The art is letting the children discover the joy of the game and motivation to compete.
'My kids played because they wanted to play, not because I wanted them to play,' Nicklaus said. 'That was sort of my rule of the house. Don't play golf because of me, play golf because that's what you want to do. That's what they wanted to do.
'Then they figured out over a period of time they weren't going to get to where they wanted to get, and they decided to do other things.'
Woods was renowned for dominating at every age group as he worked his way into the record book with three straight U.S. Juniors and three straight U.S. Amateurs. As feats go, it's up there with his 142 cuts in a row and his 15-shot victory in the U.S. Open.
He didn't try to qualify for his first U.S. Open until he was exempt through the first stage when he was 16. He shot 151 at Lake Merced in San Francisco and failed to get to Pebble Beach for the 1992 U.S. Open.
Charlie Woods has tried two U.S. Open qualifiers and has yet to get out of the first stage. He's trying. He's competing. His father, by all accounts, is giving him space in a culture where that doesn't often allow for that.
'I just am always reminding him, 'Just be you,'' Woods said last year at the PNC Championship. 'Charlie is Charlie. Yes, he's my son. He's going to have the last name and he's going to be part of the sport. But I just want him to be himself and just be your own person. That's what we will always focus on. I will always encourage it, for him to carve his own name, carve his own path and have his own journey.'
The father knows better than anyone it's no small task. Every time Charlie plays a junior tournament, cameras — usually phones — are sure to follow, especially when Woods is around.
'In this day and age where you have so many different ... everyone is basically media with all the phones,' Woods said. 'Being constantly filmed and people watching him, that's just part of his generation, and that's part of the world that he has to maneuver through. I try and do the best job I possibly can as a parent. I'm always here for him.
'But at the end of the day, I just want him just to be himself and have his own life.'
As the son of Tiger Woods, that might be tougher than golf itself.
Associated Press