After shooting 79-77 at the British Open at Royal Troon to make the cut in his third major of the year, the 15-time major champion boarded a jet to return to the US to assist his son Charlie in getting ready for his first USGA event.
Starting on Monday at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Township, the U.S. Junior will include two rounds of stroke play with 264 players. The field will be reduced to 64 for match play starting on Wednesday. It is scheduled for Saturday to be the title game.
Charlie Woods, 15, shot a one-under 71 last month in South Florida to qualify for the championship, a competition his father won three times in a row from 1991 to 1993. Charlie said, “The USGA means a lot to me,” after his medal-winning round at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs. “My goals are to win USGA titles and, ideally, the U.S. Open.”
A video of Tiger strolling the fairways with Charlie and Davis Ovard—who recently completed his first season at Baylor in Texas—surfaced on Sunday. They’ll play the South Course on Tuesday at 1:48 p.m. ET, after playing the North Course on Monday at 8:28 a.m. ET.
In its 105-year history, the South Course has played host to 11 USGA championships, including six US Opens. It also hosted three PGA Championships and the 2004 Ryder Cup, where American captain Hal Sutton famously fielded Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson together in two matches, losing both.Tiger participated as an amateur in the Oakland Hills U.S. Open in 1996 and finished in a tie for 82nd place.
He became professional the following month after winning his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title. He was not there at Oakland Hills for the 2008 PGA Championship, which Padraig Harrington won. He had underwent reconstructive surgery to repair a damaged ACL after winning the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines earlier that summer.