The Quicken Loans tournament big wigs came up with what seemed like a pretty good idea a few years ago.
They put their collective imaginations together and tried to come up with a way to get attention for an event that falls into limbo on the PGA Tour schedule — two weeks after the U.S. Open and a few weeks before the Open Championship.
Pure limbo.
So they decided to make the Tiger Woods Foundation the beneficiary of monies raised by the event.
Perfect! Tiger Woods HAS to come play.
There was only one thing they didn’t plan on. The latest version of Tiger Woods is a guy plagued by injuries, more injuries and now he’s battling prescription medication addiction.
Woods was reduced to a ceremonial role last year when he flew in to present the trophy to winner Billy Hurley III. Today he’s tucked away in rehab at an undisclosed location.
What the tournament has is a field basically devoid of big names, save No. 9 Rickie and No. 12 Justin Thomas. Other than those two, you’re hard-pressed to find any name players.
A bunch are in Europe at the French Open, which is being staged at Le Golf National, site of next year’s Ryder Cup matches. Guys like Jon Rahm are competing over there to score European Ryder Cup points.
Back outside Washington, D.C., David Lingmerth took the day one headlines with a five-under par 65. The names get real sketchy after that.
Troy Merritt, Marc Leishman, Johnson Wagner, Sung Kang, Nick Taylor and Daniel Summerhays are in a 66.
Yawn.
Fowler shot an uninspiring 70 while Thomas, who shot 62 at the U.S. Open, came in with an embarrassing 74 and will have to rally to make the cut.
Defending champion Hurley’s in the same boat as Thomas after his opening 73. He’ll have to hustle just to make it to the weekend.
