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Matsuyama Shoots Course Record

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Tiger Doubtful to Qualify for FedEx Cup Playoff Final

MEDINAH – (Wire Service Report from Gracenote, Field Level Media and Reuters) –Hideki Matsuyama had one of the best putting days of his career to take the halfway lead with a course-record nine-under 63 in the second round at the BMW Championship in suburban Chicago on Friday.

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The putter, so often the weak link in the Japanese player’s game, did not let Matsuyama down as he cranked out nine birdies at Medinah, five times holing out from outside 15 feet.

He capped off his day by sinking a 25-footer at the 17th and then a 30-footer at the last for a 12-under 132 total, one stroke better than Americans Tony Finau (66) and Patrick Cantlay (67) in the penultimate event of the PGA Tour season.

Tiger Woods languished equal 48th in the 69-man field, 10 strokes off the pace after a second straight 71.

Matsuyama, ranked as high as second in the world two years ago, was delighted for a change with his form on the greens.

“I made a lot of long putts today and that was the difference,” he told PGATour.com.

“It started yesterday during my round. Halfway through I was able to see what I was doing (wrong) on the greens and I fixed it and it carried over to today.

“Honestly I thought I pushed that putt (at the 18th) but somehow it found the bottom of the cup.”

Matsuyama is 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings and needs a strong finish on Sunday to advance as part of the 30-man field for next week’s Tour Championship.

It would be his fifth successive appearance in the exclusive event.

He has nine rivals within three strokes starting the weekend, including former world number one Justin Thomas (69), two behind.

Equal second, Finau has set the foundation for a tilt at what would only be his second PGA Tour victory, though what he lacks in silverware he makes up for in consistency.

“I know there’s a lot at stake this week but the best I can do is try to stay in the moment,” said the prodigiously long hitter, who has had a pair of runner-up finishes this season.

World number nine Cantlay, who tasted victory this season at the prestigious Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial, rated a par at the 15th hole as important as any of his birdies on Friday.

“I made some good par saves, especially after driving the ball into the water on 15,” he said. “It’s always nice to go bogey-free.”

Ten strokes from the lead was Bryson DeChambeau, who became the poster boy for slow play when a video of him taking two minutes to line up a putt went viral during last week’s Northern Trust event.

DeChambeau was targeted by some heckling on Friday according to broadcaster Golf Channel, which reported that a police officer had ejected a spectator from the course on the 18th hole.

Tiger Pause …

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JERSEY CITY – The man was as optimistic and competitive as any golfer in the land on Wednesday as he met with the media in the shadow of Lady Liberty, telling stories of his roller-coaster season, trips to Augusta and Thailand and his love of playing in Boston, a huge gulp of pride-swallowing gusto for an LA Lakers’ fan bred in Southern California. Two days later, Tiger Woods withdrew from The Northern Trust, citing injury.

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“Due to a mild oblique strain that led to pain and stiffness, I have to withdraw from the Northern Trust,” Woods said in a statement. “I went for treatment early Friday morning, but unfortunately I’m still unable to compete.”

Woods struggled Thursday during an opening-round 4-over-par 75 at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.

“I just didn’t play well,” Woods said after his round. “Just one of those things where I just didn’t hit any good shots and didn’t make any putts.”

Woods, 43, entered the week ranked No. 5 in the world, but had played only 12 competitive rounds since winning the Masters in April. That included missed cuts at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship, held in Northern Ireland.

In his statement, he said he was “hopeful I can compete next week at the BMW Championship,” part of the season-ending FedEx Cup playoffs.

– Staff and Field Level Media report

Tour, Tiger Love Boston

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief, on-site in NJ

JERSEY CITY – The PGA Tour is entering the annual Fed Ex Cup Playoffs this weekend, here in the shadows of Lady Liberty but on “the Jersey side” of the Empire State Building. With the annual PGA Tour home stretch towards the Tour Championship (Atlanta), Boston sports fans would be checking their Labor Day weekend schedules with hopes of making it to TPC Boston in bucolic Norton, Massachusetts for, at least, one round of professional golf.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland loved Boston with all its Irish support, (not to mention his championships in 2012 and ’16), as did former champions like Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson,  Charlie Hoffman, Rickie Fowler (thanks for the “Dom” bubbly in ’15, Rickie), and last year’s champ Bryson DeChambeau. Even a Los Angeles Lakers fan like 2006 champion Tiger Woods loved to play his Labor Day weekends in Boston, whether it was the trophy he bought with his own foundation’s cash – depicting the old Deutsche Bank Championship (DBC) – or the more modern-day Dell Technologies Championship or this well-run Northern Trust event, Tiger loved the juice.  But, with the new title sponsor as of last August-September and senior tournament exec Seth Waugh bolting Deutsch Bank for the CEO slot of the PGA of America, they told us there’d be no PGA Tour golf in Norton in 2019 and the tournament would play leap-frog with the NY/LI/NJ version of the game.

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“Jay (Monahan) and I started the event there … a huge relationship with Boston and my (Tiger Woods) Foundation, and playing there, we loved playing there,” explained Woods to the assembled New York-Metropolitan area media, far more accustomed to Yankee Stadium or Winged Foot than a New England love affair with a Labor Day golf tournament.

“The fans were so supportive over the years,” noted Woods. “It’d be a shame if we never went back to that market. I know we are guaranteed to go back next year, but it’s a shame if we never go back there again.” (Well I declare!)

“It’s ironic, because I had such a deep love for playing there, and played well there, because, honestly – when I grew up – we in Southern California did not like Boston.”

Woods put the Lakers vs Celtics rivalry aside as he embraced the DBC and the Dell Tech tourney with his foundation head, Rick Singer, orchestrating a tournament that was second to none on the entire Tour. In New England, it was the gem of sports weekends, tucked-in as Boston College and Harvard played their first Saturdays of football and the New England Patriots raised another Super Bowl banner. 

Each year, it somehow became better and more enjoyable, even as the sun set earlier and summer became fall in front of our eyes each Labor Day weekend. 

Would McIlroy be disappointed if he didn’t hear those Irish brogue cheers if Boston had become the “odd man out” as the PGA Tour and FedEx marketers condensed the season to end before Tom Brady and his Patriots kicked-off?

“If we didn’t have a tournament in Boston? Yeah, (I’d be disappointed). It’s been a wonderful place for me over the years, but it’s also been a wonderful place for the Tour. There’s a couple events – it seems weird we didn’t;t go to Akron (Firestone) this year. It seems weird we’re not going to TPC Boston.”

The world’s No. 1 agrees.

“Yeah, I like Boston,” said Brooks Koepka. “A bunch of my buddies live up there, so it’s always nice for me to go up there and visit with them and see what they are up to, because obviously we’re traveling so much during the year, you don’t get to see them.

“Boston – it’s been good to me and I enjoy that place. I didn’t get to go to Boston until I was in my early 20s. One of my best friends lived up there and went to school up there. It’s been a place I’ve visited quite a bit over the years,” said Koepka.

Tiger Woods and PGA Tour official at Northern Trust (Photo by T. Peter Lyons/@DigSportsDesk)

“It’s interesting with the rivalries, and I guess you can mark this – (the NY/NJ event for the PGA’s FedEx first-round playoff vs. TPC Boston – as one of them,” he added.

The rivalries will play out in Jersey City this weekend, not Norton and not in Foxboro or Fenway or the Bronx. It’ll be at least until the Summer of 2020 when the Red Sox are playing better baseball, the Patriots are prepping for another title run under Tom Brady and when Tiger Woods wears Kelly Green instead of lime green to honor the Boston Celtics’ triumph over his LeBron James-led Lakers.

Woods on Haney

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DUBLIN (Ohio) – Responding to the suspension of his former swing coach Hank Haney, who made racially insensitive comments about LPGA players on his SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show, Tiger Woods said Friday that Haney “deserved” to be punished.

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After shooting an even-par 72 on Friday at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, Woods was quizzed for his response upon news of Haney’s ban. Haney had mocked the LPGA and the success of some of the tour’s Korean players.

“He deserved it,” Woods told reporters after his second round at Muirfield Village. “Just can’t look at life like that.”

From 2004-10, Woods won six majors with the assistance of Haney, now 63.

On his SiriusXM show on Wednesday along with co-host Steve Johnson, Haney discussed the U.S. Women’s Open by saying of the likely winner, “I’m gonna predict a Korean.”

“I couldn’t name you six players on the LPGA Tour,” Haney continued. “Maybe I could. Well … I’d go with Lee. If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right.”

Upon handing down the suspension SiriusXM released a statement criticizing the comments as “insensitive” and citing the punishment coming “at the PGA Tour’s instruction.”

Haney later posted an apology statement on his Twitter account, saying “I have the highest respect for the women who have worked so hard to reach the pinnacle of their sport and I never meant to take away from their accomplishments.”

“He obviously said what he meant, and he got what he deserved,” Woods said.

–Field Level Media

Agent: Tiger’s Okay

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FARMINGDALE – Tiger Woods skipped his final practice round Wednesday, deciding to rest rather than play another nine holes ahead of Thursday’s start of the 101st PGA Championship.

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Woods, who has not played a competitive round since winning the Masters last month, has played only nine holes this week. He opted to focus primarily on practicing around the course, although his agent noted that Woods also played the course last week.

“He’s all good, just getting some rest,” agent Mark Steinberg told ESPN in shooting down rumors that Woods may be dealing with an illness. “Saw the course last week, all is good.”

Woods’ yacht was docked in Oyster Bay more than two weeks ago, and the golfer arrived in Farmingdale, N.Y. last week. The 2002 U.S. Open champion at Bethpage Black also knows the course well.

The 43-year-old Woods indicated during his Tuesday press conference that managing energy over four days on the course measuring nearly 7,500 yards will be critical.

“There’s definitely going to be a component to stamina this week as the week goes on,” Woods said. “Four days over a tough championship that is mentally and physically taxing takes its toll.”

Woods won his 15th major championship last month and is currently three away from Jack Nicklaus’ all-time record.

–Field Level Media

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