Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Tiger Woods, accompanied by his son Charlie, played his first round of competitive golf since sustaining significant leg injuries in a car crash early this year.
Woods and Charlie, 12, shot a combined 10-under 62 on Saturday during the PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla., three shots short of the leading pace set by Stewart Cink and his son Reagan, as Woods used a cart to navigate the field due to the injuries he sustained in the Feb. 23 crash in Southern California.
"He hit a lot of nice iron shots today, really," caddie Joe LaCava said of Woods. "The 4-iron at 3, that was a quality golf shot."
Critical of his own performance, Woods told ESPN he only hit three shots that felt like the performance he is used to providing: a 220-yard 4-iron behind the hole on the par-5 third; a drive at the 14th; and a 7-iron shot at the par-3 17th, which LaCava said traveled about 185 yards.
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"It's frustrating when I don't hit the ball as far as I know that I can and the shots that I see don't come off the way I want," Woods said. "By the old numbers, I don't have endurance. I haven't played. This is, what, my fourth, [fifth] round of the entire year. I don't have any golf endurance."
Woods, who turns 46 at the end of the month, ultimately made the best of the experience, trading laughs with Justin Thomas who joked that "Charlie's going to be carrying you guys I guess."
Charlie, who also joined Woods at the event last year, was able to hit several tee shots to set up his father's play as the two avoided recording a bogey after notching one in each round in 2020.
Woods said he only wished he could have been with Charlie "every step" as he did last year.
"Physically I'm unable to do that. It was different trying to drive the cart slower with him and talk to him and make sure we were present and we're still a team and we're still doing it all together," he said.
Woods suffered multiple "open fractures" to his lower right leg and had a rod put in his tibia, and also had screws and pins inserted in his foot and ankle during the emergency surgery after the crash.
He lost control of his car Feb. 23 outside of Los Angeles.
