TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The son of Tiger Woods is staying in state to pursue college golf. Charlie Woods made a verbal commitment Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) to play for Florida State.
Woods, a junior at The Benjamin School in North Palm Beach, is No. 21 in the American Junior Golf Association ranking.
His lone AJGA victory came at the Team TaylorMade Invitational last May, and he tied for ninth in the Junior PGA Championship last summer to boost his ranking and draw interest from top college golf programs.
Woods will join Miles Russell, the No. 1 player in junior golf, who also committed to the Seminoles.
Tiger Woods also chose to stay in state when he left high school in Southern California, playing two years at Stanford. His daughter, Sam, currently attends Stanford.
Major champions who played at Florida State include Brooks Koepka, Paul Azinger and Jeff Sluman.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy believes the pendulum has swung more in the PGA Tour’s favor with the return of Brooks Koepka from LIV Golf and Patrick Reed leaving the Saudi-funded league and being virtually assured a tour card for next year.
“I’m all for anything that makes the PGA Tour stronger, and those two guys coming back make the PGA Tour stronger,” McIlroy said Tuesday (Wednesday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his first competition on American soil since Europe won the Ryder Cup last September before hostile New York fans).
McIlroy, who went from being one of the harshest critics of LIV Golf to wanting to see some form of reconciliation, said he mainly cares about the PGA Tour putting together its best product.
He has spoken about LIV players getting to the end of their original contracts, which included big signing bonuses, and the uncertainty of whether they get a similar payoff or at least one that satisfies them. Reed could not come to an agreement with LIV when he decided to leave.
The PGA Tour has started a player equity program and is working toward a revamped schedule geared toward a series of big events.
“I think everything that’s happened over the last few years, it forced the tour to think about things differently — create these signature events, but then rethink the entire schedule and what’s going to happen in ‘27 and beyond,” McIlroy said. “I think the guys over there are maybe seeing that and it might entice them a little bit more.”