Former PGA and Champions Tour player Willie Wood, right, was on hand Thursday to watch his son Hayden play Thursday in the Korn Ferry Tour’s inaugural Lake Charles Championship. (Rick Hickman / American Press)

It’s a rite of passage in the father-son golf world — the first time junior gets the better of his old man.

So I put the question to Willie Wood as he was watching his son Hayden tee off Thursday on his first hole of the Lake Charles Championship.

“What makes you think he’s ever beaten me?” the 61-year-old Wood asked.

Finally, the elder Wood came clean. Yes, it has happened.

Hayden, it turns out, was 17 years old for the bonding moment, which seems a little old for that landmark by the quality of golfer it takes to get on this Korn Ferry Tour, the last stepping stone of the way to the PGA Tour.

But this was no ordinary dad Hayden was flailing away at.

Willie, who spent most of his formative high school years in Lake Charles (Barbe High School), was a longtime PGA Tour member and one-time winner, and he’s added two Champions Tour victories since moving there.

But he and his son are back at his old stomping grounds on a course Willie had never before seen.

Out of the blue, while talking, he looked out over the course, gazing over at the I-210 bridge and, in a fit of nostalgia, remembered, “I got my first speeding ticket on that bridge. I think I was probably headed to Frasch Park in Sulphur. Dad was not happy with me.”

Speaking of which, 17 seems to run in the Wood family.

Willie recalls he was 17 when he first beat his late father Willard, who was the first pro at the original Mallard Cove when it opened in the mid-1970s.

That would mean he won the 1977 U.S. Junior Amateur before ever besting dear old dad.

But these Woods apparently don’t cut the offspring much slack — even now.

“If we’re playing the back tees, he … he hits a lot farther than I do,” Willie admitted of the father-son matches. “Middle tees, he ain’t going to beat me.”

They won’t settle anything this week. Willie is here just as a father and spectator.

Even any coaching and advice will wait until after the rounds.

“I’m just here to watch.”

He caddied often for Hayden during the latter’s amateur days — Hayden set the 36-hole scoring record for the medal portion of the U.S. Amateur at Bel-Air in Los Angeles in 2017.

“I felt like I was in the game then,” Willie said. “Now all I can do is watch. It can be frustrating.”

Not this week. And dad understands.

“He kind of ran me off,” Willie laughed. “I guess it’s time for him to be an adult. That’s part of it.”

So Hayden has a professional caddie and dad follows along as an observer, waiting until after the round for parental and professional advice.

Willie has a badge of some sort from the Korn Ferry Tour. He’s not sure if it lets him inside the ropes.

“But I wouldn’t even if it does,” he said. “We’ll talk after the round.”

The family social distancing worked well Thursday, even in the challenging winds.

Hayden birded three of his first four holes … before promptly taking bogey on two of the next three.

But he settled down and made all pars until finishing with a birdie on No. 18 — in the dark — on the final hole to finish at 2-under 69.

That’s tied for 25th, which is on pace to be important.

Playing on a sponsor’s exemption, he needs to finish the tournament tied for 25th or better to get into the next event in Savannah, Georgia.

Willie will watch Hayden as much as possible while cutting back slightly this year of his Champions Tour appearances, which might be the most fun golf he’s ever played, a much more relaxed — but still competitive — atmosphere than his days on the PGA Tour.

“Egos get left at the door and there’s no cut,” he said. “You know you’re leaving on Sunday, not Friday. You’ll get paid.”

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics.Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com