Unruly fan behavior scars Charlie Woods’ PGA Tour qualifying round: Report

Charlie Woods, in a bid to play in his first PGA Tour event, reportedly encountered more than a par-70 golf course.

According to a Palm Beach Post story written by Emilee Smarr, the 15-year-old son of 15-time major winner Tiger Woods played through multiple incidents of unruly fan behavior on Thursday during a Cognizant Classic pre-qualifier at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida. Among them:

Fans ignored the tournament officials’ requests to stay on the cart path and instead walked alongside Woods on the fairway.   The fans even jokingly asked an official if he was the fire marshal.    – A grandmother confessed to taking her granddaughter out of school in the expectation of catching the attention of Woods.

A supporter requested Woods to autograph a book authored by his father, How I Play Golf, as he finished playing on the 12th hole.  

When an official refused the request, the fan raised his voice and shouted, “I live here,” as Woods prepared to tee off on the 13th hole.    – Spectators went after a golf ball struck by Woods that went out of bounds and landed in bushes and palm trees.   

Woods ended up shooting a score of 16-over 86, which was not enough for him to progress to the main qualifier for Cognizant on Monday. As reported by the Palm Beach Post, Woods was accompanied by a two-person security team, including a Martin County sheriff’s deputy.   

A message sent to the club by GOLF.com on Friday received no response.   When inquired about the environment on Thursday, a man who picked up the phone mentioned that they were surprised by the reports and thought everything seemed calm.   

When Woods announced his entry on Wednesday morning through the PGA Tour, it caused quite a commotion.   Despite being a high school sophomore and never having participated in a Tour event before, he has previously played in the PNC Championships with his father for the past four years.   

Before participating in that competition last year, Woods also finished in 17th place in the boys 14-15 category at the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship that took place last fall, with Tiger Woods serving as his caddy.   Charlie was also a member of a golf team at the Benjamin School, a private school in Palm Beach Gardens, that won a state championship. 

In an interview with GOLF’s Alan Bastable last December, Toby Harbeck, the team’s coach, described the attention Charlie had been receiving. Bastable wrote it this way:

During one of the tournament rounds, Harbeck was chatting with Charlie on the 8th hole, a straight-away par-5 lined by condos down the right side. “I look up,” Harbeck recalled, “and I’m watching all these doors to the condos opening up and all these people come out because they knew he was there.” On the second day, after inclement weather had suspended play, more than a hundred players, coaches, spectators and members took shelter in the clubhouse. Harbeck gathered his team at an out-of-the-way corner table, but Charlie still was sought out for pictures and autographs. Fans flock to Charlie on the course, too. At one event, an armada of 30 golf carts awaited him on the first tee.     

At another match, Harbeck said a couple of photographers tried to access the course but because Harbeck didn’t know them, he turned them away. At public-course host sites, paparazzi wrangling is trickier. “You can’t stop anyone from coming, and if Tiger’s there, it’s crazier,” Harbeck said. “Trust me, there are people in trees taking pictures. Microphones in his face.” After the first couple of weeks of the season, Harbeck learned to alert host sites in advance of the interest that Charlie stirs up, which he said led to some courses beefing up their security.

As for Tiger Woods’ assessment of his son’s game, he said at the PNC that his biggest development had come through course management. Woods described it as “understanding how to hit shots.”

“I enjoyed caddying for him and being there with him,” Woods said, “just to talk through shots with him and have him understand what I would see or how — the thought process I would have going through shots. He would bounce things off of me, and give him my take on certain things.

“And sometimes he doesn’t see it the way I saw it, which is fun, but I think it’s the understanding of how to hit the proper shot at the proper time. And that’s what all kids have to learn is when do I hit a certain shot at the right time, or how do I take stuff off a shot, how do I hit it a little bit harder, what do I need to do.

“You can do that at home all you want, but under tournament conditions, it’s just so different. And being able to share that with him, share my experiences with him in game-time mode, I think that it was great for both of us because I think we both are able to learn from it and grow from it. I think I learned to be a better teacher with it, and I think that he became a better player because of it.”

Charlie Woods’ pre-qualifier round followed the elder Woods’ whirlwind week at last week’s Genesis Invitational, where he was making his first Tour start since last April at the Masters, only to withdraw during Friday’s second round due to what he later described as the flu. On Monday, Woods had introduced his new apparel brand, Sun Day Red, and on Thursday, he had opened his season with an up-and-down one-over 72 at Riviera Country Club that included five birdies, six bogeys — and a shocking shank on the 18th hole that he later blamed on a back spasm.

On Friday, though, Woods played six holes, teed off on the 7th and withdrew, carted away by PGA Tour rules official Pete Dachisen. Uncertainty followed. Mark Dusbabek told Golf Channel viewers that the WD was not due to his back, but because of an illness. An ambulance and two fire trucks appeared at Riviera. Medical professionals entered and exited the clubhouse every few minutes. After a while, the fire trucks and ambulance left.

They were followed later by Woods. At about 3:40 p.m. local time, Woods exited, driven away by an official in a red Genesis coupe, and Rob McNamara, a longtime Woods confidante, released this question-and-answer statement via the PGA Tour communications team:

Question: “Was the cause of the WD solely due to illness?   Could you please elaborate on this?”   

McNamara stated that the player began experiencing flu-like symptoms the previous night and they worsened by the morning.   Despite feeling better during warm-up, the player started feeling dizzy while walking and playing.  

According to doctors, he may have the flu and was dehydrated.   He received treatment with an IV bag and is improving.   He will be released soon.    “Question: Just to make sure, all the EMT trucks and personnel here believed that the situation was very serious.  

There were concerns about injuries to the back or ankle, right?”    McNamara confirmed that the issue was not physical but related to medical illness and dehydration, which is now improving after receiving an IV.    “After completing the round, Woods’ playing partner, Gary Woodland, mentioned that Woods appeared different.  

Woodland observed that Woods was more subdued and he hoped for Woods’ well-being.”    On Saturday, Woods mentioned that he was present.  

His social media accounts posted the following message at 10:15 a.m.   in the morning.   

“I regret to inform you that I had to pull out from @thegenesisinv because of sickness, specifically influenza.  

I am currently recuperating and improving.   Best wishes to all the players participating this weekend.   It saddens me that I won’t be able to attend, and I express my gratitude to @GenesisUSA and the fans for their understanding.”