Charlie Woods Struggles As Miles Russell Makes Flying Start At Junior Invitational

Charlie Woods had a tough start at the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley with a first-round 75 putting him 11 shots behind leader Miles Russell.

The event is billed as the junior version of The Masters, and takes place at Sage Valley Golf Club in South Carolina just a 20-minute drive away from Augusta National.

Tiger Woods won five Green Jackets but son Charlie is way off the pace in the junior version, which hands out a gold jacket to the winner.

Charlie Woods carded two triple bogeys in his three-over round of 75 while playing alongside top-ranked junior and defending champion Russell - who shot a brilliant eight-under 64.

Asterisk Talley shot 69 to take the first-round lead in the girls division of the Junior Invitational.

Russell, the No.1 in the AJGA Rolex Rankings, won the gold jacket last year and made a great start to his title defence with eight birdies and no bogeys in his first round.

Woods had five birdies himself playing alongside Russell in the star pairing of the competition, but those two triples and two further bogeys resulted in a disappointing start.

It left Woods down in 22nd in a field of just 36, with the 17-year-old having work to do to try and make up ground on junior standout Russell, who like Woods has committed to play college golf at Florida State University.

Woods did show plenty of fight after making his first triple bogey on just the second hole - aptly named Azalea - as he picked up four birdies to level up his card on even par after 13 holes.

He came unstuck with another triple on the 14th though and added another bogey before at least finishing off with a birdie on the last.

It's all about the response for Woods now as Russell, who made the cut in a Korn Ferry Tour event last year at the age of 15, takes a three-shot lead into the second round looking to make it back-to-back victories in the event that's had some famous winners down the years.

None better than Scottie Scheffler who was the Junior Invitational champion back in 2014, and joins the list of previous winners that also includes Akshay Bhatia, Joaquin Niemann and Austin Eckroat.

In the girls event, 2024 champion Talley leads by just a shot after carding four birdies and a bogey in her round of 69, but there are three challengers lining up just a shot back.

They include defending champion Aphrodite Deng who like Russell in the boys competition is looking to go back-to-back at Sage Valley.