Oliver Betschart finished ahead of Tiger Woods’s son Charlie at the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl International in Florida this week

The talented 17-year-old finished the 72-hole event tied for eleventh at two-under par after competing against 50 elite junior golfers from around the world at the Biltmore Golf Course.

Betschart finished eight places higher on the leaderboard than Woods (tied for nineteenth) and four places above Cameron Kuchar, son of multiple PGA Tour winner Matt Kuchar.

“It is a great tournament,” Betschart said. “I played with guys from Ireland, South Africa, Thailand, Austria, and Peru, and Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar were there supporting their sons Charlie and Cameron.

“Cameron and Charlie were in the group right in front of us on the third day. Tiger was out for the first two days and then Elin [Charlie’s mother] for the third day. There were also lots of college coaches out looking to recruit players.”

But Betschart was not fazed by the big names striding the course and produced a better performance than in 2025.

“I am happy with the way that I played after having a couple of weeks off over Christmas and I was able to finish strong and put in a solid performance,” Betschart told The Royal Gazette.

“This was the second time playing this event. Last year I shot three-over for the tournament and this year two-under, so considerable improvement.”

The 17-year held it together in challenging early conditions at the par-71 course.

“The first day we had an early start and it was 48F, so it took a few holes to get warmed up. But the weather was great all four days and by midday we always reached temperatures in the high 70s,” Betschart said.

“It’s a long course playing over 7,100 yards. The par 3s are the real test as three of them are between 220 and 250 yards.

“One of the par 4s is 500 yards, so it’s very challenging. If you put yourself out of place it was tough to make par, so it was important to make good decisions and keep focused.”

Betschart peaked in the third round with a bogey-free three-under 68, which he followed up with a one-under 70 in the final round to secure his second top-20 finish at the event after he tied for fifteenth on his tournament debut last year.

“On day three I shot a very clean round with no bogeys,” he said.

“On the last day I had a really good front nine with three birdies. I missed a couple of short putts on the back nine, which led to bogeys, but I kept focused and made two birdies coming in to finish one-under for the day and ultimately two-under for the tournament.”

Columbian Tomás Restrepo (270) won the tournament by three-shots.

The Junior Orange Bowl International Championship is one of the oldest invitation-only junior amateur tournaments in the world.

The field features some of the biggest and brightest stars from around the globe, including the top 25 US-based players, national champions from Europe, Asia, South America and Africa, as well as others who gain entry through automatic qualification.

Past champions include 15-times major championship winner Woods, Sergio Garcia, Mark Calcavecchia and Bubba Watson.