Good news for the 2018 Tour Championship is that “that guy” is in the field.
Truth be known, this season-ending finale for the PGA Tour needs “that guy.”
It’s three weeks into the college football season, two weeks into the NFL season and golf typically moves pretty low on a sports fan’s list this time of year.
That’s one of the reasons that this time next year, the PGA Tour season will be long over, done, in the books thanks to the revised schedule that will have the Open Championship as the year’s final major.
But there’s still work to do and “that guy” aka Eldrick Tont Woods, has had a desperately-needed week of rest and is the one guy who can bring eyeballs to the show and put butts in the seats. Woods has done something that hasn’t been seen in years — he played three weeks in a row — played well and has pretty much proven the miracle of modern medicine is amazing, considering the condition of his back less than a year ago.
After a tie for 40th at the Northern Trust and a tie for 24th at the Dell, Woods was borderline for East Lake and needed to play well at the BMW. He did, tied for sixth and finished in the 20th spot.
“I really didn’t train for this,” he said of the three-week stretch. He’s had to pace himself, he also had to find the right equipment combination. His irons and wedges have been great and he’s flirted with two different putters before going back to his old reliable Scotty Cameron Newport at Aronimink. “My last piece was the driver,” he said as he’s tried three different shafts before finding the one that helped him hit 13 fairways in his final round at Aronimink.
Normally the guy in 20th place doesn’t garner that much attention coming into East Lake. But this week is different.
Typically the top five get all the hype — No. 1 Bryson DeChambeau, No. 2 Justin Rose, No. 3 Tony Finau, No. 4 Dustin Johnson and No. 5 Justin Thomas.
PGA Tour’s worst nightmare, PGA Tour’s best scenario, your proverbial double-edged sword: Tiger Woods wins the Tour Championship, gets win No. 80 and no one gives a hoot about who wins the FedEx Cup.
How’s that for a finale?
