Tiger Woods & Son Charlie Play from Behind to Kick Off PNC Championship

Tiger Woods is back to playing pro golf again -- this after his nasty car wreck -- and he's doing alongside none other than his own ... both of whom have some ground to gain.

Round one of the PNC Championship is underway Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Grande Lakes in Orlando, where TW and Charlie Woods joined forces anew to play in a little father-son competition among other golfers and their kids.

As you can imagine, the fanfare was at an all-time high for the Woods family ... as this marks the first time Tiger has played in an actual tourney of any kind since getting crumpled in his automobile accident in February ... which left his legs shattered.

For Tiger's tee-off, everybody's eyes were on him ... and he hit a pretty decent shot to kick things off, with one guy clearly excited behind him -- shouting, "Welcome back, Big Cat!"

From there, Charlie started getting into his groove as well ... looking like a chip off the old block as he teed off himself with a beautiful drive -- which his dad later sunk with a putt.

From the outset, they were looking pretty good as a team ... but at the moment, they're well behind. As it stands, Team Woods is tied for 13th place as they approach the 11th hole. There's 36 holes total that they'll get through between today and tomorrow, and they're just past the midway point for today's round.

Basically, they're playing from behind right now ... but they have a ways to go before the day's out -- and could easily pull ahead, especially if they play as well as they have been thus far. And, as most everyone knows by now, never count Tiger Woods out.

Bigger picture though -- Tiger is looking fantastic out there ... as is his boy.

It's pretty miraculous to see the guy out here after everything he's been through. He addressed that before hitting the links, writing ... "Although it's been a long and challenging year, I am very excited to close it out by competing in the @PNCchampionship with my son Charlie. I'm playing as a Dad and couldn't be more excited and proud."

As you well know by now, Tiger's been on a long road of recovery since his February crash ... but steadily, he's been rehabbing and getting back onto golf courses. The only question now is ... will he eventually feel good enough to hop back into a solo PGA tournament???