21-Year-Old Tiger Woods Skipped Birthday Golf Session With Friends to Gamble With Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley in Vegas

The late 1990s saw the likes of Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan hit it off, almost immediately, with golf legend Tiger Woods. According to Timothy Bella’s book ‘Barkley’, the three connecting so early on, led to a bender in Vegas on what was Tiger’s 21st birthday. However, it seems Woods had organized an early morning tee time at the Grayhawk Golf Club.

The golfer had invited a group of close friends but ended up canceling it altogether. 

“The three kings of Vegas-Charles, Michael, and Tiger Woods connected in the late ’90s and hit it off immediately. At around 7:00 a.m., he called the group and told them he couldn’t make it, saying he got caught up in Vegas with Charles and Jordan,” Bella stated, in his book.

Hence, while Woods was expected to be in Scottsdale, Arizona, he ended up canceling due to being stuck a couple of states away, in Las Vegas. The event ended up being canceled altogether, and Woods showed up in front of his friends the next day. Speaking to Vanity Fair, a friend of Woods suggested that Woods had been on a bit of a bender.

“He ended up coming out the next day, and he looked like the mouse that the cat dragged in,” a friend told Vanity Fair in 2010,” the book said.

Of course, the three’s friendship did not last forever. Chuck revealed years later that Tiger Woods effectively stopped talking to him once controversy about his extra-marital affairs broke out, which was in addition to the eventual fallout that he had with Michael Jordan.

Charles Barkley was hurt when Tiger Woods cut ties with him all of a sudden

Questioned about his friendship with Tiger Woods in 2017, Barkley admitted that he was hurt by the way it had ended. Chuck revealed that Woods had abruptly disappeared when he was first said to be involved with women outside his marriage. Chuck claimed that he would not have had an issue if Woods had been ‘man enough’ to call.

“I could understand if he was trying to get back with his wife at the time and she said, ‘Hey, get rid of all your old friends,’ and he called and said, ‘This is the situation.’ I would’ve understood that. But I just wish he would have been man enough to call and say that,” he said.

Hence, while it is clear that Woods and Charles Barkley hit it off immediately, the friendship did not end well. Barkley was left disappointed by how Woods decided to simply disappear, and claimed that he would have felt a lot different had the golfer called him beforehand.