Charlie Woods, son of the 15-time major winner, struggled on the opening day of the Junior Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass but his rivals will not count him out just yet

Charlie Woods got off to a slow start at the Junior Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass(Image: Ryan Lochhead/PGA of America)

Charlie Woods has the chance to show his top-class mentality once more after suffering a grueling first day at the Junior Players Championship.

Charlie, who is the son of golfing legend Tiger Woods, is currently competing at one of the most prestigious tournaments in the junior calendar at TPC Sawgrass. But after Friday’s first round, the 16-year-old finds himself eight shots off the pace.

The teenager had a day to forget, carding a four-over 76 to end the day T38. Charlie opened with two bogeys but a birdie at the fourth steadied the ship, before three bogeys in a four-hole stretch meant he made the turn in a four-over-par 40.

As he went on to make two birdies and a bogey in his next eight holes, a closing bogey at the tough 18th means there is plenty of work to do to catch leaders Miles Russell and Nicholas Logis.

Russell, who became the 54-hole tournament’s youngest champion in 2023, produced seven birdies and three bogeys, carding a four-under 68 to sit in a share of the lead with Logis.

But Woods’ rivals will still be well aware of the danger he poses. Woods, who is ranked 13th in the AJGA, has found himself in this position before and has come back to win, most recently at the Team TaylorMade Invitational.

Charlie Woods has fought back from adversity before(Image: Ryan Lochhead/PGA of America via Getty Images)

He clinched the biggest victory of his budding career despite a shaky start on the Black Course at Streamsong Resort, Florida, in May.

Charlie carded a six-under 66 in his third and final round of the event to finish 15 under for the tournament, winning by three over Ponte Vedra Beach’s Phillip Dunham, Arkansas’ Willie Gordon and Luke Colton of Texas.

Woods’ maiden victory on the prestigious junior golf circuit came after earlier rounds of 70 and 65, which left him heading into the final round sharing the lead with another of the game’s rising stars, Russell.

The eye-catching victory was in stark contrast to a little over a year prior, when he struggled in his AJGA debut at the Will Lowery Junior Championship, finishing 21-over for the tournament and in a tie for 32nd.

Since then, he has regularly made headlines, notably alongside Tiger in December’s PNC Championship, where he made a hole-in-one in the final round before the pair placed runner-up.

His Team TaylorMade Invitational triumph also came just three weeks after he fell short in U.S. Open qualifying, when he shot a three-over-par 75 at Florida’s Wellington Golf Club.