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PGA Tour: Tiger Fires a 65

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ATLANTA – Tiger Woods drained a 27-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole to card a 5-under-par 65 during the first round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club on Thursday. Woods’ sixth eagle of 2018 vaulted him into a tie for the lead with Rickie Fowler.

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Tiger Woods

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Entering the week needing a win and some help to claim an unprecedented third FedEx Cup title, Woods followed a familiar pattern this year in getting off to a rough start with a bogey on the first hole.

He got his round into red figures with consecutive lengthy birdie putts on Nos. 5 and 6 and made the turn in 1-under 34. Woods added birdies at Nos. 12 and 14 before reeling off three consecutive pars.

He found the fairway on the par-5 18th, and then blistered a 5-wood from 255 yards to just inside 28 feet.

“Once it reached its peak, I saw it was going through the wind and I just started walking,” Woods told the Golf Channel. “I knew it was good.”

It was the same hole he famously eagled during the 2007 Tour Championship — No. 9 at the time before the nines were flipped.

Woods faced a tricky left-to-right putt this time around, and managed to slide it into the left side of the cup, eliciting a fist pump as he put a punctuation mark on his first round at the Tour Championship in five years.

“That putt was taking forever for that grain to take it, and it finally did in the last three to four feet,” Woods said.

How good did it feel to be back at East Lake, competing in the season finale?

“You’re not going to get an exemption into this event, you’ve got to earn it,” Woods said. “You have to be part of the Top 30, you have to be consistent and you’ve got to be one of the guys who have had a good year.

“And I’ve earned my way back. All things considered, it’s been a pretty good success.”

–Field Level Media

Tiger and Rory Fire 8-Under Rounds

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NEWTOWN SQUARE – Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy took advantage of excellent scoring conditions to fire 8-under-par rounds of 62 on Thursday and tie for the lead after the first round of the BMW Championship.

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Woods and McIlroy exploited the wide-open par-70 Aronimink Golf Club to bomb drives and stick short iron approaches close to pins. They equaled the lowest round posted in a PGA Tour event at the course, shot by Nick Watney during the third round in 2011.

Only 13 of the 69 players in the field shot over par Thursday.

Reigning Rookie of the Year Xander Schauffele is one shot off the lead at 7 under, with defending FedEx Cup champion Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel, Peter Uihlein and Sweden’s Alex Noren another shot off the pace.

Tee times for Friday’s second round were moved up with the expectation of heavy rain, but Thomas anticipates the scores will continue to be low even if the course softens up.

“It’s always going to be short, and it’s always going to take a lot of birdies to play well here,” he said of the 7,267-yard layout.

No one made more birdies than McIlroy’s 10, with the Northern Irishman setting a career high in a FedEx Cup playoff event. He skipped the first leg of the playoffs to work on his game, and particularly his wedge play.

“Eight-under-par was good, it probably should have been a lot better,” McIlroy told the Golf Channel. “It’s a great start to the tournament.

“Everything was firing today. Whenever you hit it like that, it’s hard not to make birdies.”

Beginning on the back nine, McIlroy birdied three of his first four holes. He then birdied the 18th to begin a stretch of six consecutive birdies. Combined with a seven-hole birdie stretch on the second nine of his pro-am round Wednesday, McIlroy said he was effectively 17 under over a 23-hole stretch.

He was at 9 under through 14 holes Thursday, but visions of a sub-60 round evaporated with bogeys on Nos. 7 and 8. McIlroy birdied his final hole to climb back into the lead with Woods, who finished five holes ahead of him.

“When I got to 9-under par I needed two out of the last four, with a par 5 being one of them,” McIlroy said of when he started to think about the potential of breaking 60. “The bogey on seven was not good, and then the eighth hole is very difficult.

“A bogey there isn’t the end of the world, I just wish I could have capitalized on the sixth and seventh holes, but it’s still a great round of golf.”

Woods’ round also generated buzz of a potential 59 when he started on No. 10 and fired out of the gates with a 6-under 29 through his first nine holes. He then birdied No. 1 to get to 7 under and narrowly missed a pair of birdie putts on the next two holes.

He reached 8 under with a tap-in on No. 7, but suffered his lone bogey of the day following a 15-minute wait on the next hole. Woods birdied No. 9 to polish off the fifth 62 of his career — one shy of his career low round of 61 accomplished four times.

“You definitely could do it today,” Woods told reporters of someone potentially shooting a sub-60 round. “The fairways are ample wide, it’s soft, and as hot as it is right now, we’re driving it down there anywhere between 310 and 340, so it’s really not that long of a golf course right now.”

Woods shot his 62 after switching back this week to the Scotty Cameron putter that he used in winning 13 of his 14 majors.

“It feels good,” Woods said. “I know the release point, and I know how it swings. My body morphs into a position where it understands where it needs to be to release the putter. I’ve hit hundreds of millions of putts with the damn thing. I’ve had it since ’99 … my body just remembers it.”

It was Woods’ lowest round since firing a 61 in the second round of the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational, which was also his last victory.

Woods arrived at the BMW Championship ranked No. 25 in the FedEx Cup standings. He needs to stay within the top 30 to qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta in two weeks, and a victory at Aronimink would likely vault him to No. 2.

Bryson DeChambeau, who is assured of reaching the Tour Championship in two weeks with the No. 1 ranking in the FedEx Cup standings, is tied for 20th at 3 under. Thomas is currently projected at No. 2, followed by England’s Justin Rose, McIlroy and Woods.

Thomas projects to be just the third defending champ to make it back to the Tour Championship, joining Jordan Spieth and Brandt Snedeker.

The final player projected to be in the field at East Lake after Thursday’s first round is Kevin Na. Australian Marc Leishman, the defending BMW champion, would be the first player out, followed by Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, Ryan Armour, South Korea’s Byeong Hun An and Taiwan’s C.T. Pan.

The drama around the top 30 spots will be the story within the story this week, although the weather conditions could steal the show Friday. Woods differed a bit from Thomas in his view of potential heavy rain rolling through.

“It’s so hot, the ball is going forever,” he said. “That’s going to change when the rain comes in and the ball isn’t rolling as far.”

–Field Level Media

A Boston Advantage for Rory McIlroy

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief

NORTON – There’s been a century and a half of confused linguists who struggle with the terminology for something that occurs every two years. To that end, is a “biannual event” a gathering that occurs every two years or twice per year and why does it matter to golfers playing the Dell Technologies Championship this weekend?

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The term matters to the PGA Tour fans who’ve planned their Labor Day weekends each and every year since 2003 and supported a championship-level golf event here at the Tournament Players Club – Boston, all while many New Englanders kiss their summertime good-bye. This year’s event will mark the end of Dell Technologies’ title sponsorship only a couple years after they took the reigns from the long-standing Deutsch Bank Championship that established pro golf in Boston back in 2003.

The sad reality to many of those fans, all reminiscing this weekend, professional golf Boston won’t be back in Boston until 2020.

Back in July, the PGA Tour announced some major changes to its schedule of events. The tour decided to cut down their annual FedEx Cup playoffs from four events to three, end the tour’s summer season in August (in advance of the TV ratings elephant-in-the-room start of the NFL regular season). In the carnage, Boston will sit-out the 2019 PGA Tour season but will host a first-round 2020 FedEx Cup playoff event with the Northern Trust Open alternating sites between Liberty National in the New York/New Jersey area and here at the TPC Boston.

Will Boston host a pro golf event biannually?

The wordsmiths at Merrium-Webster (since 1828) are no help at all. They claim “ambiguity” on the question and list both “every two years” and “twice a year” and offer up biennially as an alternate adjective.

“Well, at least we have a future,” said Tiger Woods before Thursday’s Pro-Am and practice rounds when charity-efforts like MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boys & Girls clubs and a slew of other charitable causes bank some $28 million in donations from the PGA Tour’s efforts. “At least, we’re coming back,” he said.

“The people here always supported this event,” added Tiger, whose own foundation used to run the event until Deutsch Bank gave way to Dell two years ago. “This has been a regular staple for us. Our foundation was a part of this event. (PGA Tour Commissioner) Jay (Monahan) was our tournament director. It’s a shame we aren’t coming here annually, but I guess ‘bi-annually’ isn’t bad. It’s better than nothing.”

That about summed it up, as local Boston media ran stories on Monahan and his original vision for the tournament and his unfounded doubts as to whether New Englanders would give-up their Labor Day weekend on The Cape to chase the likes of Woods and Phil Mickelson around a golf course located midway between Boston and Providence.

The four-day (Friday to Monday, here), 72-hole stroke play competition featuring the top 100 players on the complicated FedEx points list play for $9 million in prize money  with $1,620,000 and a whopping 2,000 FedEx points going to the winner.

There are only a couple two-time winners, here at the TPC Boston, and they are the royal and ancient Vijay Singh (2004 and 2008) and Boston favorite Rory McIlroy (2012 and 2016), ye of Northern Ireland. McIlroy took a week off and passed on the opening round of the FedEx Cup playoffs in order to get a physical and mental break and put some good, old-fashioned work into his fading game.

“I’ve had some really good memories here in Boston,” said McIlroy as he prepared for a make-it-or-break-it Labor Day weekend, “two good wins that set me up for a win at the FedEx Cup (Tour Championship) which I was able to win in ’16.

“In ’16, I was having a pretty good year, but once I got the win here (TPC Boston), it sort of gave me a spark to go forward and win the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup.”

McIlroy’s recent look-back and self-assessment claimed three strong rounds at Firestone Country Club (World Golf Championship – Bridgestone Invitational) back on August 2-5, then poor play at the PGA Championship in St. Louis.

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Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship in St. Louis

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“I took last week off to sort of work on my game and try to feel ready for the next three weeks,” said McIlroy, looking ahead to this weekend in Boston, next week just outside of Philadelphia and the Tour finale in Atlanta. “I feel like that went pretty well and I’m pleasantly surprised I didn’t drop more in the FedEx Cup (standings). I thought from No. 21, I was going to drop outside the top 30. I was able to hold my position pretty well and I’m in decent position.

“I worked for 10 days down in Florida,” noted McIlroy of his time well spent. “We worked on a few things, sort of looking back at old video and what I’ve done well with my swing throughout the years. Just, sort of, trying to get back to that.”

McIlroy’s look back went all the way to 2005 when he decided to leave school to concentrate on golf as a profession full-time. He also looked at video and worked on his game for more than four consecutive days for the first time since January. In doing so, he and his coach (Michael Bannon) spent more time analyzing the nuances of his swing and getting back to the mechanics and posture that bring him the most success.

That work, combined with his return to Irish-friendly Boston and a course that he enjoys playing, could bring a higher standing in FedEx Cup points and maybe even millions of dollars to McIlroy by Monday, even though he posted a mediocre (Even-71 – T-26th) and headed right into the clubhouse without a pitstop to the media area as he finished on the Par-71 golf course in Round one.

“Its my sort of golf course,”said McIlroy. “It’s familiar to me. It’s sort of tree-lined, it’s bent grass greens. It’s everything that I feel like I do well.

“Yeah, Irish helps,” he added. “I feel like a lot of people pull for me here. But, I’ve always felt good here. I love coming here. It’s a golf course that has served me well over the years.”

Going forward, it might serve him well biannually or biennially, whichever you prefer.

W won’t know until Monday or until August, 2020 or maybe August, 2022.

 

 

Tiger Woods: Golfer, Statesman, Diplomat, Even Time for a Joke

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief

NORTON – The line of questioning was as wide-ranging as a Department of State media briefing. PGA Tour pro extraordinaire Tiger Woods was taking a few questions an hour or two before his 12:10pm tee-off in the Pro-Am of the Dell Technologies Championship. He has mastered the job requirement of meeting with the media and he does it with patience and grace and style much better than most.

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Tiger Woods at the Pro-Am day at Dell Technologies Championship

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It happens, somewhat matter-of-fact, as the PGA Tour weaves its way across America, promoting its brand of golf along the way, selling some tickets, creating some content for PGATour (dot) com or the Golf Channel or NBC Sports or CBS Sports or Sky Sports or ESPN or the local television stations or the Boston Globe or even for Digital Sports Desk.

In a span of only 10-15 minutes, Tiger Woods was asked about “being back in Boston.” He was asked “about the TPC Boston golf course” and the fact it suits him well.  He was asked “about Ryder Cup projections.”  With each question, Woods looked the reporter dead in the eye, paused for thought, then crafted an answer as if the question was the most important thing he had ever pondered, and as if the reporter was the only person standing in front of him.

In reality, Woods is positioned behind a slew of microphones, standing in a make-shift tent, set-up to shield a golfer from blazing sunshine and 90-degree temperature readings. A half-circle of 25-30 reporters, most pointing smart phones in his direction and either recording sound or video, all standing in front of a dozen television cameras mounted atop tripods mounted atop a riser/platform.

It’s all in a day’s work for the well-oiled media machine that is the PGA Tour and, if you play on tour, it’s part of the job.

Tiger is among a small handful of PGA Tour players who travels with a “PR guy” attached to his golf team which consists of caddy Joe LaCava, agent Mark Steinberg, amongst very few insiders. Tiger’s highly competitive play and its resulting 2018 player ranking as Top 25 on the FedEx Cup Points board (down from Top 20 a week ago because of his T-40th finish at the Northern Trust Open), has him contemplating things he didn’t anticipate when he returned to regular tour play this season after years of battling chronic back injuries and multiple surgeries.

This season, Woods ranks No. 19th on the tour’s money list at a measly $3,439,862. But, do not forget he ranks No. 1 on the PGA Tour Career Money earning list at a whopping $113,500,874 some $25,652,605 ahead of longtime rival Phil Mickelson who pulled-in $87,848,269 hard-earned dollars before they tee-it-up for this weekend’s festivities, here, halfway between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.

Not to be lost in the shuffle, that top career money earner to second place gap (Mickelson’s bucks) of $25.6M is more than championship-level, tour-tested veterans like Paul Casey, Mark Calcavecchia, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman, Nick Price or David Duval have earned in their entire careers.

Woods has been THAT good.

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Tiger Woods in a practice round at TPC Boston

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Because it’s part of the gig, Tiger Woods is subjected to the “pack it up and move it to another town” media scrutiny that comes with his place as one of the two best golfers to ever play the game.

The line of questioning can be ridiculous.

Question: “I spoke to a man whose house you stayed at about 25 years ago, and he said you were playing in a junior tournament, you got sick with mono and got stuck in his guest room for about a week. Do you remember anything about that,” asked an inquisitive member of the Fourth Estate.

Tiger stopped, and everyone gathered had to wonder what was going through his mind with such a question, looking back 25 years ago, coming out of left field before a playoff tournament in 2018.

Yet, Woods thought for a second or two, and answered politely with the same honest demeanor utilized when he was talking about his future 2018 golf schedule or his limited practice this week (Woods was with his children for their first school days and “doing all their after-school curriculum and activities,” he said).

Answer: “I remember I had mono at the Northeast Amateur,” he began recalling a 1993 tournament at the Wannamoisett Country Club in nearby Rumford, Rhode Island. “I remember going, getting back to California and I really had a hard time at the U.S. Junior, even though I got to the finals and ended-up winning the finals.

“I slept in between each match in the clubhouse,” he continued, the memories becoming clearer. “I didn’t have any energy, didn’t warm-up and went out and played the afternoon match. Went home, crashed, and woke-up and hardly warmed-up for the morning match. Anyone that’s ever had mono, not a lot of fun…”

Next? A little more down to earth…

Question: “What do you remember about your first FedEx Cup battle with Phil, here in 2007? Are you sad for next year when this isn’t a stop (on the PGA Tour)?”

Answer: “Yeah, this has been a regular staple for us,” said Woods, as everyone was still scratching their heads on the prior topic. “Our foundation (Tiger Woods Foundation) was a part of this event. (PGA Tour Commissioner) Jay (Monahan) was our tournament director and (newly appointed PGA of America CEO) Seth Waugh ran (former tournament title sponsor) Deutsch Bank at the time.

“It has a lot of fond memories for us,” he continued. “That battle with Phil was a lot of fun, even though I didn’t;’t come out on the good side. we had some battles throughout the front nine, the back nine, but I think we both made birdie at No. 16 and that was the turning point, because I was still trailing at the time. I needed a make-miss there to get momentum for the last two (holes).

“Well, at least we have a future, at least we’re coming back,” said Woods on the PGA Tour schedule change that will next see the TPC Boston in 2020 and end the tradition of having Labor Day weekend golf in Boston. “The people here always supported this event. They come out in droves and they’re loud.

“And, it’s been fun. I’ve had some nice runs here where I’ve played well and they’ve gotten into it. You can hear the roars go up on this golf course. I know it’s spread out, but you can hear the echoes so it’s really neat. It’s a shame we aren’t coming here annually, but I get bi-annually isn’t bad. It’s better than nothing.”

He answered them all. He did not shill for his Thanksgiving Weekend pay-per-view event, nor anything else he endorses for a living.

Next?

Question: “What was it like playing a practice round with Matt Parziale, the firefighter, at the Masters? (from nearby Brockton, Massachusetts).

Next?

Question: “You talked about the unknown. Your body is new. Everything is new. Are you still using the feels from the past or are you stepping into the unknown?”

“No,” said Woods calmly and definitively, knowing the question was to be his last of the media avail. “I trust my hands and I always have. My hands have always been the thing that I’ve always trusted the most and that stems from baseball. Playing so much baseball, your hands are everything. Obviously, your body follows, but you do everything with your hands.

“So, I’ve been one – you had to work on different body parts and different things in your golf swing, yes, absolutely. But at the end of the day, it’s what my hands are doing,” he said, totally compartmentalizing issues and years of surgeries past.

That’s all, said the PR team and the small media throng broke away, many still amazed at Woods’ media-friendly approach and time spent as he was sweating in the hot, August sun.

As they broke off and a small security team began to usher Woods to a previously agreed-upon TV interview, I caught his eye as he came around the make-shift stage, and asked a question on a topic far more interesting to him in 2018 than amateur tourneys and his bout with mono in ’93.

“Any predictions for the Boston Celtics?”

Just as he did with every question in front of the TV cameras, he took a second and thought. Then he smiled that famous Tiger Woods smile, looking a bit like that rookie professional in 1996 we all remember so well.

“The Lakers will be better than the Celtics,” predicted Woods, playful, not serious, just starting something up with the LA vs Boston rivalry, again, simply joking with a guy.

“Man, I shouldn’t even print that!”

He laughed.

All in a days work for Tiger Woods.

Tiger Ready for Playoff Stretch

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PARAMUS – Tiger Woods was ranked 656th in the world and facing an unknown golf future entering 2018 as he mounted a tenuous comeback following a fourth back surgery. Less than eight months later, he is ranked No. 28 in the world, coming off a second-place finish at the PGA Championship and building momentum leading into his busiest stretch of golf in five years.

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Woods committed to the first three legs of the FedExCup Playoffs, which begin Thursday at The Northern Trust. Sitting at No. 20 in the standings, he’s in excellent position to qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, which is reserved for the top 30.

That tournament ends just five days before the start of the Ryder Cup, where Woods is expected to be a captain’s pick for Jim Furyk’s squad that will take on Team Europe in Paris. That means Woods is facing a stretch of seven events in nine weeks.

“That is a lot of golf,” he acknowledged Tuesday at the Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey. “It’s about pacing myself and making sure I don’t practice too much, don’t overdo it and make sure my training schedule goes well.”

Woods has already played 14 events in 2018, his most since teeing it up in 16 tournaments in 2013. He said he put his clubs away for a few days after the PGA and spent most of his time watching his kids’ soccer practices.

“That is one of the hardest things of this year, trying to find the right balance. As the summer has gone on, I’ve gotten better and felt better. This is a pretty important stretch,” he said.

Woods is the only two-time winner of the FedExCup. He won the inaugural playoff event in 2007, missed ’08 due to injury and then returned to win it again in ’09. He is back in the playoffs for the first time in five years.

“It’s exciting to play the playoffs again, it’s been a while for me,” Woods said. “Really looking forward to getting out here and testing it, and trying to work my way to Atlanta.”

The underlying story during the first three playoff events will be the jockeying for position for Furyk’s four captain’s picks. He will announce the first three on Sept. 3 after the Dell Technologies Championship, and will fill the last spot on the team on Sept. 9 following the BMW Championship.

Furyk has not committed to selecting Woods, although the prevailing wisdom is the 14-time major champion and seven-time Ryder Cup participant is a virtual lock for the team, for which he is already a vice captain.

“I want to be picked, I want to be part of the team,” he said. “The interesting role here is that I’m a vice captain. So we’re talking about myself in the third person a lot. So that’s one of the more interesting conversations that we’re having. We’re having a lot of fun with it. But, yeah, I’m one of the guys on the short list.

“I told Jim at the very beginning of the year that I wanted to be part of the team, and not just as a vice captain, but as a player,” Woods said. “I’m very close to making that happen. It’s been a long year, and that was one of my goals – to make that team. To make that team I had to be one of the 12 best players, and I’m trending towards that.”

Woods acknowledged that this year has been unique for him on many levels, from managing his workload and swing coming off several injury-plagued seasons to the reception he has received from fans.

“I’ve had excitement, I’ve had people into it over the years, but this has been so different,” he said. “Everyone knows that I’ve struggled, that I’ve gone through four surgeries and that I’ve tried to work my way back. And it’s been tough. People understand that.

“They know that I’m at the tail end of my career. I don’t know how many more years I have left. But I’m certainly not like I was when I was 22. At 42, it’s a different ball game.”

–Field Level Media

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