Golf legend Jack Nicklaus urges Tiger Woods not to make mistake with Charlie

Multiple major champion Jack Nicklaus has urged Tiger Woods to make sure his teenage son Charlie continues to play golf for the right reasons.

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus has urged Tiger Woods to make sure his teenage son Charlie continues to play golf for the right reasons. 

Nicklaus enjoyed an incredible career and over the span of 25 years amassed 18 major wins alongside 73 PGA Tour titles.

The Golden Bear also finished as a runner-up in a major on 19 occasions.

He officially retired from major championship golf in 2005 after playing his final Open at St Andrews.

Nicklaus’ son Gary also turned pro and spent three years playing on the PGA Tour.

The fourth of Jack and Barbara’s five children, Gary was viewed as the most likely to succeed in the game.

He was featured on the front cover of Sports Illustrated and billed as ‘The Next Nicklaus’ but never managed to make an impact on the game.

To this day, that still rubs the 85-year-old the wrong way.

“Gary would get off the 18th and run to the car so he didn’t have to talk to the press for about two years,” Nicklaus said.

“Sports Illustrated said they wanted to do a story. We said, ‘No cover, none of that.’ They put it right on the cover. It was not nice what they did.”

“That’s the kind of things you’ve really got to try to avoid with kids.”

Charlie is making more noise than ever and recently captured his first American Junior Golf Association victory at last week’s Team TaylorMade Invitational.

The 17-year-old finished with a three-round score of 15-under to win by three strokes. The field included several top-ranked amateurs.

Charlie has since rocketed up the AJGA boys’ rankings. Last week, he entered the tournament in Florida ranked 609th. Now he is 14th.

Nicklaus said it has always been difficult for the children of high-profile golfers.

“It’s even tougher today,” he added. “Charlie is a nice little player. He’s got a beautiful little golf swing. Does he want to follow his father? Does he realise what’s going on?

“My kids played because they wanted to play, not because I wanted them to play. That was sort of my rule of the house. Don’t play golf because of me, play golf because that’s what you want to do. That’s what they wanted to do.

“Then they figured out over a period of time they weren’t going to get to where they wanted to get, and they decided to do other things.”

Charlie’s breakthrough victory is already opening doors.

The Benjamin School junior has received an invitation to play in the Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rhode Island.

The tournament will be played over 18-21 June and past champions include the likes of Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Luke Donald, David Duval and Nick Dunlap.

It remains to be seen whether Charlie will accept the invite.

In a video posted to X, the Northeast Amateur co-chairman Mick Hogan explained Charlie could help ‘elevate’ the event.

“He’ll probably be arguably the biggest draw to come that week,” he said.

“We’ll wait and see what happens if it does come through, it could be an unbelievable week for everybody because I think we’d have a lot of turn out.

“A lot of eyes on the event and not just on Charlie. Everyone else in the field. We’ll see what happens.”