Tiger Woods commits to Playing the Chevron World Challenge

 Well, I have to hand it to Tiger - he's trying to get back into the winning mode and I hope he succeeds before his top spot on the money list gets overtaken.  Thanks to Phil Mickelson, this gives Tiger another chance to keep his lead in the world ranking, but he'd better get busy and start winning some tournaments because it's only a matter of time before some of those smart young players catch up..
    . . . June


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Tiger Woods commits to Chevron, Phil Mickelson out of PGA Grand Slam of Golf
National golf  Examiner.com:

September 21 -- While the golf world counted down the days to Thursday’s start of (anti?) climactic FedEx Cup playoff finale, Tiger Woods added a stop to his 2010 schedule and Phil Mickelson opted out of one of his.

Following Mickelson’s turn at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club this week, Golf’s No. 1 and No. 2 will meet up in Wales at the beginning of October for the Ryder Cup and then take different routes to closing out a trying 2010 season for both

Woods commits to Chevron. Tiger, who has struggled with his mental game and shot-making since returning to golf in April, will brandish his new Sean Foley-inspired swing at the year-ending Chevron World Challenge. This, after playing in back-to-back events in China and Australia in November.

Lefty, who’s had to deal with a serious arthritic condition, will go home to rest instead of teeing it up with other 2010 major champions at next month’s PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

Read More . . .

Beware Of The FedEx Cup Curse!

 It's true. So far, winning the FedEx Cup hasn't boded well for anyone. Mind you, Tiger Woods can certainly find other reasons for having a bad season this year, with all the negative publicity of the affairs and the very public breakup of his marriage. Lets hope that the Ryder Cup is luckier for Tiger.
   . . . June


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Beware, golfers, of the curse of the FedEx Cup!
Devil Ball Golf - Golf� - Yahoo! Sports:

The FedEx Cup is only three years old, yet in that time it's already amassed a dark and dreadful history of carnage. No man who's won the Cup has escaped Fate's icy clutches the next year!

(Laying it on thick? Sure we are. But hey, there was no PGA tournament over the weekend, so we've got a few over-the-top adjectives to spare.)

Anyway, there's not any kind of legend of a FedEx Cup curse, but there damn sure ought to be. Let's take a look at the winners and what happened the very next year:

2007, Tiger Woods: Just a few months after winning the FedEx Cup, Woods underwent season-ending knee surgery that took him out of the hunt for the season's final two majors. He hasn't won a major since the surgery.

2008, Vijay Singh: The season after his big win, Singh went on the DL with knee surgery -- hmm, just like Woods -- and had his worst season as a professional. He's yet to win a PGA Tour event since the 2008 FedEx Cup.

2009, Tiger Woods: Although Woods did win after the Tour Championship, he posted a godawful winless season in 2010 and didn't even qualify for a return trip to East Lake. Oh, and there was something about an Escalade and a hydrant, but we're a little fuzzy on the details.

So what can we draw from this? Is there a curse at East Lake? Does endorsing that $10 million check torpedo your next year? (Me, I'd take the chance; $10 million cures a lot of woes.) Possibly, possibly not. Either way, Matt Kuchar, Charley Hoffman and the other competitors may not want to make too many plans for 2011 just yet.

Read entire article . . .

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 . . .

Tiger Has ANOTHER Bad Start

 Tiger is having another bad start today. Up until now he's been able to keep top spot because the players who could unseat him having been playing so well either - but that could change anytime. Come on Tiger, pull up your socks! We still want to see you up there.
   . . . June

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Not even Cog Hill can spare Tiger a bad start - Golf
Yahoo! Sports: "LEMONT, Ill. (AP)

At this point in a strange season, slow starts should be nothing new to Tiger Woods.

This one came at a bad time.

The BMW Championship is the most pivotal playoff event, with the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings advancing to the Tour Championship in Atlanta to compete for the $10 million bonus. Woods is No. 51 in the standings and probably needs to finish around fifth.

He sure dug himself quite a hole.

Matt Kuchar had his best start of the year with a 7-under 64. Woods had his worst start at Cog Hill in five years.

He opened with a double bogey. He missed a 3-foot birdie putt at the turn. He squandered a birdie chance on another par 5 by hitting an iron into the trees. And he finished with a bogey from the bunker on the 18th hole, a sand shot so tough he was trying to make sure it didn’t go across the green and into the water.

“I just didn’t have much today,” Woods said.

It wasn’t much of a score—not considering it was Cog Hill, a course where Woods has won five times and had 11 consecutive rounds in the 60s until Thursday. Woods wound up with a 2-over 73 and was nine shots behind in a tie for 45th.

Stranger still was the way he looked at his position.

Woods looked at the leaderboard long enough while signing his card that he realized the immediate goal might not be who’s leading the tournament, but where he needs to finish to get enough FedEx Cup points to go to the Tour Championship.

“As of right now, I’m only five shots back of that spot,” he said. “That’s not bad. Guys aren’t going low at this place because the greens aren’t good enough to go low. Obviously, there’s a couple of players that have played well today. But overall, guys just aren’t tearing the place apart.”

Phil Mickelson wouldn’t mind doing that. Unfortunately for him, Rees Jones beat him to it.

Read on . . .

Tiger Woods a Captain's Pick to Ryder Cup Team

 In this case I think Tiger Woods was lucky to be a Captain's pick for the Ryder Cup team. At least this past weekend he played well enough to show that he still has the ability, but I think it was touch and go. Do you think that having Tiger play will guarantee greater attendance had anything to do with it?
   . . . June


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Tiger Woods named to Ryder Cup team
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Orange County Register updated 9/7/2010 1:49:25 PM ET

Tiger Woods is going to the Ryder Cup as a captain's pick with his 71 victories and 14 majors. So is 21-year-old Rickie Fowler, who has never won anything at all.

Corey Pavin made an obvious choice and a surprising one Tuesday morning at the New York Stock Exchange when he added Woods and Fowler, along with former major champions Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink, to an American team that will try to retain the cup.

The Ryder Cup is Oct. 1-3 at the Celtic Manor in Wales. The United States won two years ago at Valhalla, and will try to win for the first time overseas since 1993 at The Belfry.

This will be the sixth Ryder Cup team for Woods, but the first in which he needed to be picked. Woods had finished first in the standings every time, including in 2008 when he spent the second half of the year recovering from knee surgery.

'It's great to be a part of this team,' Woods said. 'I'm honored to be selected ... and looking forward to going back and having a great time with the team and hopefully, bring the Cup back'

Read on . . . 

Tiger Woods Battling To Stay In Top Spot

 Tiger is facing a whole host of potential problems while at the same time trying to play some decent golf. Over the last month he at times has shown flashes of brilliance and at others, just struggled to stay in the tournament. He's trying to keep his top spot in the world, stay in the FedEx playoffs and possibly be in the Ryder Cup. Whew!
    . . June


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Woods must battle to hold on to top spot
CNN.com: "(CNN)

 Tiger Woods faces a twin threat to his world number one spot heading into the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

Either Phil Mickelson or fellow American Steve Stricker can end his five-year reign depending on their respective performances on Monday.

Current world number two Mickelson has his 10th chance this season to overtake Woods after a series of near misses.

A top-four finish, with Woods outside the top 24, will see him over the line but their are a series of other permutations, with Mickelson trying not think about the outcome.

"I haven't paid attention to what needs to happen, but I'm looking forward to getting in the hunt and seeing if I can get off to a good start and make some birdies," Mickelson told AFP.
Defending Deutsche Bank champion Stricker could also gatecrash the party.


He must retain the title at the $7.5 million tournament, which is part of the PGA Tour playoff series, while Woods finishes outside the top nine and Mickelson not in the first three.
Stricker is in fourth place, four shots behind leader Jason Day of Australia, after the third round, with Mickelson one further behind and firmly in the mix.

Woods carded a two-under par 69 on Sunday to continue his generally improved form but is sharing 23rd and needs a strong finish to protect his status and also impress U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin.

Read On . . . .