Golf is tough enough that without a famous father, he has a hard time matching the standards even at the best. Tiger Woods will certainly watch the developments in the coming years.

Jack Nicklaus has seen it.

Hours before Scottie Scheffler won the memorial for the second consecutive year, Nicklaus was asked about another big win that week. Charlie Woods, the 16-year-old son of golf’s biggest name, won his first American Youth Golf Association championship.

It was a weird win – Schiffler or Woods – got more attention on social media.

“I think it’s hard for the kids,” Nicklaus said from experience.

His eldest son Jackie won acclaimed North-South amateurs in Pinehurst and played golf in North Carolina. Compared to his third oldest son, this is nothing. He became the cover of Sports Illustrated before Gary Nicklaus became the only one of the four golden cubs who won the PGA Tour card. He is 16 years old.

The title says: "Next Nicklaus." The father remembers it clearly.

"It made him lose his golf ball," Nicklaus said.

Requires some context. Gary Nicklaus played for four years at Ohio State University (Champion), earned a European Travel Card and received a PGA Tour Card through Q-School in 1999. But Nicklaus believes that for sons of that age, there is too much publicity.

"Gary will get off the car for the 18th and run to the car, so he doesn't have to talk to the media for about two years," he said. "Sports Illustrated said they wanted to do a story. We said, 'No concealment, nothing is there.' They put it on the cover.

Nicklaus also believes that the publicity was the highest when his grandson GT won the ace in the 3rd stroke before the 2018 Masters.

"That's what you really have to try to avoid with the kids," he said. "It's hard for them. It's even harder today. Charlie is a good player. He has a beautiful little golf swing. Did he want to follow his dad? Did he realize what's going on?"

Woods was in the Detroit area last summer when his son was eligible for American teenage amateurs. Charlie attracted the largest gallery, which is said to be 10 times the normal crowd of people at the event. Or were they meeting his father there?

Nicklaus knew this feeling, too.

"Gary always says, 'I wonder how many people are watching my dad look at me?" Nicklaus said with a smile.

Aside from the occasional thing he sees on TV, he doesn't know much about Charlie Woods, and Nicklaus is impressed by the swingman. Many juniors have great fluctuations. Today, the depth of the highest level of golf has been evident early on.

Charlie Woods made his TV debut at the PNC Championship at the age of 11, which pairs the main champion with family members. The son has grown up and matured, and two years later, Woods allowed Charlie to join him in post-interviews, just like other fields. He handled it very well, too.

It is not uncommon for sons to follow their father in golf games, but matched success is rarely done. The exception is the old Tom and the young Tom Morris (won four British Opens respectively).

Art allows children to discover the fun of games and the motivation for competition.

"My kids play because they want to play, not because I want them to play," Nicklaus said. "That's my domination over the house. Don't play golf because of me, golf because that's what you want to do. That's what they want to do.

“Then, they figured out for a while that they weren’t going to get where they wanted to get, and they decided to do something else.”

Woods joins three consecutive American juniors and three-game winning streak in record books, known for their dominance at every age. As the feat evolved, it cut 142 consecutive times, and he scored 15 wins at the U.S. Open.

He didn't try to qualify for his first U.S. Open until he was exempted at the first stage at the age of 16. He fired 151 times in San Francisco's Lake Mercede, failing to reach Pebble Beach for the 1992 U.S. Open.

Charlie Woods tried two U.S. Open qualifiers but has not yet left the first phase. He is trying. He is competing. From all perspectives, his father gave him space in a culture that usually does not allow it.

"I'm always reminding him, 'just you'," Woods said last year at the PNC Championship. "Charlie is Charlie. Yes, he's my son. He'll have a last name and he'll be part of the sport. But I just want him to be himself, just his own person. That's what we'll always focus on. I'll always encourage him to carve his name, his own path and his own journey."

It’s no small matter that my father knows better than anyone else. Whenever Charlie competes in a junior championship, the camera (usually a phone call) is sure to follow, especially when Woods is around.

"In this day and age, you have a lot of different things...Everyone is basically the media for all the phones," Woods said. "The people who keep shooting and watching him, that's just part of his generation, and it's part of the world he has to manipulate. I'm trying to do the best work I could do as a parent. I've been here for him all the time.

“But at the end of the day, I just want him to be himself and have his own life.”

As Tiger Woods' son, this may be more difficult than golf itself.

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AP Golf: