The Benjamin School won its second Florida Class 1A State Championship in three years on Saturday thanks, in no small part, to the heroics of Charlie Woods.
In the opening round, Woods and his team had struggled. The 16-year-old carded a two-over-par 74 and Benjamin were as many as 11 strokes off the lead through nine holes.
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But the high-performing school fought back with aplomb, led by Woods in round two, and went on to claim the State Championship title by five strokes from Orlando’s First Academy, making up for last year’s disappointment as Benjamin finished second.
Woods, who is ranked ninth in the AJGA standings, finished T4th in the individual competition (74-68) on two-under while his supremely talented teammate Andrew Tsar (68-71) ended as runner-up on five-under.
A classy Saturday performance arrived in front of Charlie’s mother and father, Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods, who were in attendance at Mission Resort.
Speaking to The Palm Beach Post, The Benjamin High School’s head coach Toby Harbeck said: “Charlie came up to on 14 today and he goes, ‘Coach, how are your nerves holding up?’ I could tell he was focused. He was locked in.
“I think he was locked in from the start of today, and he’s got so much talent. Dad’s here. A couple of colleges are here to watch him. It’s great.”
Harbeck also admitted in the post-tournament celebrations that he had a dream the night before centring around Woods taking the lead.
He said: “I had a dream. I walked out of the hotel this morning at [6:40am] and Elin (Nordegren) was standing by the bus. I looked at her and I said, ‘I had a dream last night about Charlie playing today. It’s either going to be 68 or 67,’ and she looked at me and said, ‘I hope so, Coach.’ And I said, ‘I’m telling you, it’s going to happen.'”
Charlie Woods hits a shot during the 2025 US Junior Amateur
(Image credit: Getty Images)
As a result of Harbeck’s accurate foresight, Benjamin capped off a near-perfect season in style.
The head coach continued: “This caps off the year. We won eight out of the 10 tournaments we played in.
“These kids just refuse to quit. We were 18 shots off the lead after nine holes yesterday. They made up so much ground and then today, we went back and forth a little bit and then they just took off.”
The Benjamin – whose team was made up of Woods, Tsar, Brooks Colton, Clint Lewis and Maurice Hoben – has now won five Florida State Championship titles in its history.
