Team Woods will feature two father-son duos this weekend at the PNC Championship.
Tiger Woods will make his tournament debut alongside his 11-year-old son, Charlie, while Woods’ caddie, Joe LaCava, will have his son, 22-year-old Joe Jr., caddie for the younger Woods in the 36-hole team event at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Florida.
“About a month ago Tiger approached me and said, ‘I’m thinking of playing the PNC Championship with Charlie.’ I was so jacked up. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ because I thought it was probably a year or two away,” the elder LaCava told Golf Digest. “He was so excited. Charlie caught the golf bug this year. He’s been playing a ton of golf, practicing, working at it, and was psyched to play. Tiger was kind enough to ask me to ask Joe to caddie for Charlie so we could have a father-son caddie duo and father-son player duo. So, we’re going to have a good weekend.”
Joe Jr. is a senior at James Madison and last year teamed with his father to win the Connecticut Father-Son Net Tournament. His boss for the week, young Charlie, won multiple junior events in Florida this summer, though he’ll be competing for the first time in front of television cameras beginning with Friday’s practice round. The tournament rounds will be played Saturday and Sunday.
“I’ve done a little caddying here and there for my buddies, but nothing really like this. I’m excited for it,” Joe Jr. said.
Joe Sr. said Joe Jr. is a “decent” green-reader, but his biggest bit of advice to his son is to just have fun.
“We’re going to have fun with it and keep it pretty casual,” Joe Sr. said. “It’s going to be a fun, great event. Charlie is very competitive, just like the old man. We’re going to be very competitive out there but at the same time it’s going to be a nice, enjoyable weekend.”