Deutsche Bank Championship not a guarantee for wayward Tiger Woods

August 29 -- After Tiger Woods triple-bogeyed himself out of contention on the first hole of his third round at The Barclays golf tourney, this is what the golf world knows about the world’s No. 1: Not a damn thing.

Yeah, everyone has way TMI about the Tiger Woods who cheated on his wife, got caught, crashed his car, lost sponsors and the world’s respect, blah blah blah. But what about the guy who fired a 6-under 65 to share the first-round lead of The Barclays, the first of four PGA playoff events, hacked his way around to a 73 in the second round, and duck-hooked the first shot of his weekend sojourn only to finish birdie-birdie and close with a 1-over 72?

Who are you? Who? Who? Seriously, who is this Tiger guy, who has the Deutsche Bank Championship organizers anxiously biting their fingernails?

With the future of the Boston event in doubt, tourney directors heaved huge sighs of relief after Woods’ Friday round all but guaranteed his appearance at the annual Labor Day weekend golf-fest. And then he went and stunk up the course Friday, putting his trip north in serious jeopardy.

Playoffs? Playoffs?! Woods followed Friday’s round by knocking a 3-wood out of New Jersey and moving quickly in the wrong direction on moving day when he carded a seven on the opening par-4 at Ridgewood Country Club -- a start that had Golf Channel all a-twitter about how the world’s top-ranked golfer might miss the rest of the FedEx Cup playoffs completely. Except, then he posted a few birdies coming in and moved back into the playoff picture.

Heading into Sunday’s final round, Woods shared 28th place for the tourney, with a projected 81st finish on the FedEx Cup points list. With the top 100 moving on to Boston, and Woods’ game a perplexing work in progress, that’s not a lot of wiggle room. Especially when no one, including the golfer himself, seems to know whether shades of the world-beater Tiger of yore will show up or whether his unfocused evil twin will take over and play himself out of the playoff race for $10 million.

The defender. And don’t even talk about Woods defending his FedEx Cup title. Until he can stitch together solid back-to-back rounds, he’s likely to go as deep into the playoff season as the Boston Red Sox. Here’s a hint: The injury-riddled BoSox are likely to miss the post-season completely.

The good news for Woods, who said he misfired his first tee shot because he got “caught” between his old and new Sean Foley-coached swings, is that he was able to tough out the rest of his round.

Sucking. It up. “In the end, [it will] end up probably costing me a chance to win the golf tournament," Woods, who was 3-under and nine shots off Martin Laird’s lead, told reporters Saturday. "But I’m pleased how I sucked it up and got it back the rest of the day when it easily could have gone the other way. Hitting a ball like that, it can derail you and it didn’t. I got it right back."

Boston golfers hoping for a glimpse of the fallen golf icon have their fingers crossed that he doesn’t lose it again.

Little has changed for Tiger Woods and his chances of defending his FedEx Cup title. Read how Woods still needs strong play at The Barclays to advance in the PGA Tour playoffs.