NORTON, Mass., Sept. 3 -- True to his word that his tee shots were more accurate, Tiger Woods hit three of three fairways in regulation to start his opening round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. Unfortunately for him, while several golfers feasted on a TPC Boston golf course set up to fend off the impact of an approaching hurricane, Woods scuffled to par, bogey, par on his first three holes, 10, 11, and 12.
On the bubble. Woods sandwiched two strong outings around middling efforts at last week’s Barclays golf tourney to make it into the Boston event, the second stage of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. Starting the Labor Day weekend at 65th on the FedEx Cup points list, Woods needs a strong showing at the Deutsche Bank to advance to the third leg, the BMW Championship outside Chicago.
Play suspended. Sure, there’s lots of golf left to play. But Woods was two from DFL with 20 players yet to tee off when the horn sounded at 12:35 p.m. EDT, halting play due to lightning in the area. With the rain coming down in buckets, play may have finished for the day.
Until the horn blew, Woods and everyone else had the benefit of lift, clean, and place due to the anticipated impact from Hurricane Earl. But there was little question the early golfers -- including leaders Jason Day and Zach Johnson, each it at 8-under -- were on the right side of the draw for the first round.
Woods and other afternoon golfers may have caught a huge break if bad weather keeps them off the course until Saturday morning, when meteorologists expect much better conditions.
Will he or won’t he? Before Woods had even taken a swipe at a golf ball Friday morning, the tour’s stats geeks predicted he would not make it to the next stage of the race for the FedEx Cup.
The projected FedEx Cup rankings, which, at 11:30 a.m., put Woods at 77th and out of the field of top 70 who will move on to the BMW Championship, reflect what would happen if the event were to end at that precise moment.
Which makes the whole “2010 live projected FedEx Cup points” thing pretty useless. Unless you’re really into golf’s decidedly flawed version of playoff competition. About which -- if you’re like most golf fans -- it would be almost impossible to care less.
Virgin territory. For Woods, the whole idea of having to earn his way into any golf tournament was uncharted territory.
“Yes [it’s odd to be sitting at No. 65], and a little bit of no, too, as well, just because of obviously what’s transpired this year,” Woods told reporters Thursday afternoon. “It’s been a different year.”
As Bill Belichick, the vaunted coach of the New England Patriots is wont to say, it is what it is. And what it is for Tiger Woods is far simpler than trying to decipher FedEx Cup points or projected rankings. For the world’s No. 1 golfer it comes down to this: Play well or go home.
With the weather steadily worsening, Woods may not have that option until early Saturday morning.
They may get no more golf in Friday at TPC Boston, but read how Deutsche Bank has renewed its sponsorship of the tournament for two more years.
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