Tiger Woods Exits Playoffs With A Wimper — What’s Next For Him?

Olympia Fields proved to be a week-long struggle for Tiger Woods.  He never got any momentum, he never looked comfortable during the BMW Championship and his short game was simply abysmal.  As a result, the playoffs are over for the 15-time major champion.

Woods didn’t come close to making the final 30 and a trip to the Tour Championship after rounds of 73-75-72-71 left him at 11-over par.  Over the weekend, he was under par on the front nine on both days but couldn’t stay there.  The back nine proved frustrating, especially the 17th hole where he found the water right off the tee on Saturday and Sunday.  He made triple on day three and a double on Sunday that erased his hopes of playing at least one round at par or better.

Woods will have a couple of weeks to rest up before the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.  He will look back and see that his short game basically short-circuited for most of the week.  He was 64th in the field in strokes gained putting and had 31 putts for his final 18.

“I would say trying to clean up my rounds and trying to miss the golf ball in correct spots — I haven’t done that,” Woods pointed out as one of his shortcomings for the week.  “Today (Sunday) was more indicative of how I want to play in a couple of weeks,” Woods said, knowing that the double-bogey at 17 on Sunday and a triple on the same hole Saturday kept him out of red numbers at Olympia Fields.

As for his physical condition, his back remains a topic of conversation.  “It aches every day,” Woods acknowledged.  “It’s always going to ache and always going to be stiff.  That’s just part of the deal.”

As far as Tiger’s schedule after the U.S. Open — it’s basically up in the air for now.  The Masters is Nov. 12-15 and to prep for that, he could choose the C.J. Cup (Oct. 15-18), which was moved from South Korea to Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.  The PGA Tour is expected to move the 2020 ZoZo Championship (Oct. 22-25) to a location in the U.S.  Tiger is the defending champion of that tournament.

Likewise, there’s the possibility that the HSBC-Champions, slated for Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in Shanghai, could be moved to a site in the U.S.

Neimann, Hughes, Big Winners At BMW:

There was a tournament within the tournament Sunday at the BMW — the struggle to make it into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup points race.

Joaquin Niemann from Chile made the biggest move of any player in the field.  His closing 67 got him in the hunt for the title down the stretch.  Although he didn’t win, his two-under total earned him a tie for third and moved him from the unlucky 31st spot all the way up to No. 18.

Mackenzie Hughes was up against it as he came to the difficult 18th on Sunday.  He stood at 28th on the list and needed par to stay there.  “I knew coming down 18,” Hughes said.  “I knew I had to make par.”  He made it tough on himself when his approach from just 147 yards out faded right and wound up in a greenside bunker.  “Totally messed up the second shot,” Hughes said.  “But I somehow got it done.”  Indeed he did as his stopped his bunker shot just three feet from the hole then breathed a sigh of relief after he sank the par putt to secure his spot at East Lake.

Billy Horschel nailed down the 30th and final spot when Adam Scott faded badly over the final five holes.  Scott fell all the way back to 41st.  Adam Long lost out at No. 31, Kevin Streelman went out (32) as did Ben An (33), Pat Cantlay (34) and Matt Wolff (35).

Brandon Wu Takes Korn Ferry Tour Championship:

Brandon Wu picked the right time and place to win on the Korn Ferry Tour.

The 23-year-old Wu, who qualified for and tied for 35th at last year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship on Sunday at Victoria National in Newburgh, Indiana. It was his first victory on the developmental tour and thanks to some one-time eligibility changes due to COVID-19, by the USGA, it earned him a berth in next month’s U.S. Open.

Wu closed with a seven-under par 65 and he finished at 18-under par, a shot better than runnerup Greyson Sigg.

Wu is from Scarsdale, N.Y., less than 10 minutes from Winged Foot. He’ll now get to spend a week at home and play in the season’s second major in two weeks.

“It hasn’t even set in yet,” Wu said. “I’ve run through the scenarios so many times the past few days, you know, what it would feel like going home, getting to play and getting to tell my friends that I can play this year. It’s hard to believe. I’m just really happy.”

Wu was among five players who received their tickets to Winged Foot on Sunday. He was joined by Stephan Jaeger, Curtis Luck,  Sigg and Dan McCarthy, the four other top point-getters from the KFT’s three-event “Finals” series.

Previously, in the KFT regular season points standings, Will Zalatoris, Davis Riley, Lee Hodges, Taylor Pendrith and Paul Barjon qualified for Winged Foot.

KFT Tour Championship Scoreboard: