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Last week, after his victory in the Deutsche Bank Championship, Steve Stricker observed that, “We all know who the guy is out here.” And he wasn’t referring to himself.
In bludgeoning the field and the Cog Hill layout at the BMW Championship, the penultimate event of the FedExCup playoffs, Tiger Woods reclaimed his rightful place atop the points standings. The dominant performance offers a bit more validation that, despite his shortcomings in the majors, he’s had a phenomenal season of golf, perhaps one of the best of his career. He certainly thinks so.
“Absolutely, it’s one of my best years,” he said after winning his 71st career tournament title and his sixth this season. “There’s no doubt about that. You know, I haven’t won as many times as I did in 2000, didn’t win any majors this year, but I’ve never had a year where I’ve been this consistent, either, this many high finishes and the number of events I’ve played. To have, as I said, an opportunity just about every time I tee it up to win the championship on the back nine, you know, that’s something that, as I said, I can’t tell you how proud I am for — the job that my trainers and Hank did to help me get to this point.”
Woods ended any suspense with a blistering third-round 62, which gave him a seven-shot lead that he stretched to eight on Sunday.
“Yeah, it was a good week,” he said with characteristic understatement. “I hit the ball well. I felt like I basically hit the ball the same as I have been. Only difference is I made a few more putts this week and got some momentum. As we all know, you have to make putts to win championships. This week I certainly made my share.”
As with any great competitor, doubt fuels performance. Woods parlayed public skepticism over his health and his hunger into a season that has seen 13 top-10 finishes in 16 appearances, certainly comparable to 2000’s 17 top 10s in 20 tournaments.
“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year, any of you guys probably wouldn’t have predicted I would have had a year like I did,” he said. “To be as consistent as I have been this year, I’m very proud of that. That’s something to have had an opportunity to win just about every tournament I’ve played in this year, that’s something that I am very proud of.”
Delivering Excitement
The FedExCup points are now reset for the Tour Championship. As the top seed, Woods has 2,500 points, with second seed Steve Stricker at 2,250. Rounding out the top five are Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum. Any of the five would win the cup with a victory at East Lake, while the remaining players in the field will need help.
Woods has begrudgingly endorsed the new system after an anticlimactic finish last year.
“Evidently Vijay pretty much hit his first tee shot and it was already over,” he said. “I was in a position the year previous, that it was kind of almost the same situation. The Tour wants to have excitement on the last event.
“I mean, that’s ultimately what has happened with this new format is that Top 5 guys, if they win the championship, they automatically win the FedExCup. No matter what kind of year you have, it really does pay to be in the Top 5 to give yourself a chance. That’s not to say that the other 25 spots you can’t win the golf tournament, but to win the FedExCup if you’re in the Top 5 and you win the tournament, obviously you automatically get it. That certainly builds some excitement certainly different than the last few years.”
Roger, Brandt
Brandt Snedeker may never speak to Roger Maltbie again, through no fault of Maltbie’s.
The affable NBC announcer’s answer to Snedeker’s question on 18 resulted in an epic unraveling only moments later. Snedeker, who was paired with Tiger Woods in the final twosome at the BMW, thought he needed a par on 18 to finish the weekend in the top 30 in FedExCup points and qualify for the Tour Championship, and he asked Maltbie for verification of his assumption. Maltbie helpfully informed him that, no, a bogey would do the trick.
Having been forced to lay up, Snedeker put his approach shot 12 feet from the hole needing only to two-putt for the necessary bogey. But he rammed his par putt three feet past the hole; yipped his bogey putt, costing him his top-30 points finish; and then, for good measure, rushed his double-bogey putt for another lip-out.
Those four excruciatingly painful putts virtually undid months of progress for Snedeker, who had battled back from a rib injury to post a solid summer of golf and work himself back into the playoff picture.
Snedeker blamed no one but himself.
“I thought I had to make par and (Maltbie) told me bogey would get in (to the Tour Championship)," Snedeker said. “Shouldn’t have affected me. Shows you how weak mentally I am. Shows you what I need to work on. We’ll work on it and we’ll be back next year.
“I just started thinking about the wrong things, man; I didn’t concentrate over the bogey putt and I was thinking about all the stuff the Tour Championship comes with, and I did everything you’re not supposed to do. I’m sure Doc (Bob) Rotella (Snedeker’s sports psychologist) and I will have a nice long talk tonight and he’ll tell me everything I did wrong and we’ll learn from it.”
Benefiting from Snedeker’s gaffe was John Senden, who sneaks into the Tour Championship by less than a point over Ian Poulter.
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