Tiger Woods’ son Charlie is competing in the 15-18 age group at the Press Thornton Future Masters this week alongside a handful of other juniors with famous surnames
Woods, Immelman, Curtis, Kuehne – four names with at least one significant championship title on their respective resumes.
At the Future Masters this week, a fourball filled with those famous surnames will compete for bragging rights and the trophy, but it will not be Tiger, Trevor, Ben, and Hank holding the clubs.
Instead, Charlie Woods, Jacob Immelman, Liam Curtis, and Henry Kuehne will attempt to continue the success of their fathers in the 232-player 15-18 category at Dothan Country Club, Alabama.
Tiger is an 15-time Major champion with five Masters Green Jackets in his wardrobe, Trevor won the 2008 Masters, Ben landed the 2003 Open Championship on his Major debut at Royal St George’s, and Henry is the proud owner of the 1998 US Amateur.
And while none of them are able to compete in seniors golf just yet, their sons are already eyeing up a potential professional career. But before any of that, the young quartet will take part in the three-day Future Masters tournament – one of the longest-running junior championships in the United States.
Celebrating its 75th year in 2024, the Future Masters is able to boast Stewart Cink, Hudson Swafford, and Ollie Schniederjans among its former teenage champions, with Woods and co. hoping to follow in their footsteps.
The marquee group will play together over the first couple of days before a cut separates those in contention prior to Saturday’s final round.
Explaining the thought process behind grouping four juniors with successful golfing fathers, tournament coordinator Angelia Wade Turner told the Dothan Eagle: “Tee times are usually random.
“We do make some adjustments with brothers that don’t like to play together, so we will pair them back-to-back. We’ve got a set of twins in this group that wanted to be morning and afternoon, so we do look at those requests and make it happen if we can.
“We felt like the four PGA players’ sons would be more comfortable in them all being paired together. Last year’s winner, Carson Baez, will be paired in the group behind them.
“Also, if someone who has not played here before is paired with a PGA player’s son may just feel the pressure. So, we felt like we did have those four and they do play together at other tournaments, we felt like that was probably good to put those four all together.”
The second and final rounds will be live streamed on WTVY and the Press Thornton Future Masters websites, therefore, organizers are hopeful the unofficial ‘feature group’ will help to attract more eyeballs to the coverage on Friday and into Saturday.
Charlie, in particular, will be hoping for a strong performance in Alabama to maintain his run of success which culminated in qualifying for his first ever USGA Championship event last week.
The 15-year-old won the Florida event at Eagle Trace Golf Club thanks to a score of one-under (71) and will emulate his dad by playing a US Junior Amateur Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club next month.
Tiger – who won three US Junior Amateurs between 1991 and 1993 – will be supporting his son from the sidelines at Oakhill as Charlie competes in strokeplay for the first two days before hopefully reaching the matchplay portion of the event over the course of the final four days.
The US Junior Amateur is decided by a 36-hole championship match on the final day, which is set for July 27.
