There Is No Tiger at The PGA Tour Championship This Year

I had sincerely hoped that Tiger would be back in form by now but that hasn't happened. Now there will be a new FedEx Cup champion this year and he is very close to losing his top spot status. You can still see the brilliance in his play at times, which gives me hope that he will soon be back to his old form, but the consistency is lacking.
   . . . June


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No Tiger at Tour Championship is appropriate
The Associated Press:  By DOUG FERGUSON (AP) – 1 day ago


LEMONT, Ill. — Leave it to the PGA Tour to find the upside of Tiger Woods missing out on the Tour Championship.


In a press release Monday promoting the 30-man field at East Lake, it notes that Woods' failure to qualify for the last playoff event guarantees there will be a new FedEx Cup champion this year.

Phil Mickelson said it 'absolutely' will be strange not having the world's No. 1 player at the Tour Championship, although it's nothing new. Woods has only played East Lake twice in the past five years, skipping in 2006 after a long year coping with his father's death and in 2008 when he was recovering from knee surgery.

The difference, of course, is that Woods couldn't play the Tour Championship even if he wanted. He needed to shoot 65 in the final round of the BMW Championship, and it took him until the 17th hole just to get under par for the final round, and the tournament.

In an explanation he offered three times Sunday — to NBC Sports, XM Radio and the rest of the media — he blamed only himself.

"I didn't play well in the beginning of the year and I didn't play well in the middle of the year," he said.
He said he is starting to play well now, but that only shows how far he had fallen. Woods tied 12th at The Barclays, tied for 11th at the Deutsche Bank Championship and tied for 15th at the BMW Championship.

Three straight weeks out of the top 10 used to be called a slump.

Now it's called progress?

But there are other examples of Woods' weird year on the golf course.

He has gone seven consecutive tournaments out of the top 10, the longest stretch of his career. His previous worst was five straight tournaments out of the top 10. That was in 2001, between victories at the Memorial and Firestone.

And to get an idea of how he is playing, just look at when he is playing.

Woods is typically among the last to arrive because he is in or close to the lead so often. This year, he has teed off before noon in the final round at eight of his 12 tournaments.

The exceptions were the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. The other tournament was Quail Hollow, where he didn't make it to the final round after missing the cut with the highest 36-hole score of his career.

Read on . . .

Tiger Plays in the Ryder Cup but not The PGA TOUR Championship

 Tiger will be playing in the Ryder Cup - not because he earned it, but because he was a Captain's Pick. Corey Pavin elected to ask Tiger to play, but he also has the right to limit how much he plays, depending on how well he's doing. Today, he has just lost the opportunity to play in the PGA Tour Championship for the first time since 1995, although he finished strong. He just hasn't been consistent. Come on Tiger, we're still rooting for you!
   . . . June


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Pavin not scared of limiting Woods at Ryder Cup
Newsvine LONDON — Tiger Woods is not guaranteed to play in the maximum five matches against Europe in next month's Ryder Cup.

The top-ranked Woods, chosen as one of U.S. captain Corey Pavin's four wild-card picks last week, will be playing in his sixth Ryder Cup but has only been on the winning side once, in 1999.

'I am going to treat every player the same. The objective is to try to win the Ryder Cup and if in my judgment I think Tiger is to play five matches, or should play four or three, then that is what I will do — that's my call as captain,' Pavin told BBC Radio on Sunday.

"For me, it's how he's playing golf. That's my concern as far as the Ryder Cup goes."

Woods, a 14-time major winner but without a tournament victory this year, has picked up 11 points from a possible 25 in the Ryder Cup. He has won three of his five singles matches but only seven of 20 matches in foursomes and fourballs, which are played in pairs on the opening two days. He also has two halves.

Woods was missing when the U.S. won back the trophy from Europe at Valhalla, N.Y., in 2008.

"Tiger told me he will do whatever is necessary to help the team win, and that is going to be my call, and I will probably be making that decision a little bit on the fly. But I'm not afraid to not play him every match, that's for sure," Pavin said.

Read on . . .