Tiger Woods is attempting to play back-to-back events for the first time this year, hoping to enter the field of next week’s 30-man Tour Championship, which would mean three consecutive tournaments for the first time since 2018.
Not an easy task, as the lack of play and so-so results in 2020 left Woods needing a great week at the BMW championship to advance into the FedEx Cup playoffs.
“I have to play well, I have to make my way to East Lake; I haven’t done that yet,” Woods said Wednesday at Olympia Fields (Illinois) Golf Club, home to the BMW championship. “I need a good week. If I don’t, I’m going home. It’s a great week for me. I can’t wait to go out and compete.
“This golf course is more like a US Open than a normal tourist event. It’s the playoffs and it should be tough.”
Olympia Fields was the home of the 2003 US Open won by Jim Furyk. Woods is one of only four players on the field this week who participated in that tournament. Woods drew for 20th place and said he didn’t remember much from 17 years ago. He played a nine-hole practice session on Tuesday and was supposed to see the rest of the course on Wednesday.
He will have to master it quickly to have the result necessary to play another week this 2019-20 season.
Woods, 44, is 57th in FedEx Cup points after playing just six events this season, one of which was a victory at the Zozo Championship in October. He has to be in the top 30 after this week to advance to the Atlanta Championship Tour.
To do that, Woods will need a minimum of a sixth place finish, but as there are no cuts this week and everyone who finishes will receive points, Woods is looking more like fourth place or better to move forward.
This will take a step up from what we saw at the Memorial Tournament, the PGA Championship and the Northern Trust. In all three events, Woods was pretty much out of business halfway.
And all aspects of his game have suffered at times, although last week at TPC Boston he was fine off the tee and improved over the weekend. On Sunday he scored 16 regular greens and shot 66, his best score of the year.
“I have to put the ball in play here and put it in the right places,” he said. “This is set up more like a [U.S.] Open. With the weather as hot as it should be, this tough one will only get harder. It is not a golf course where I feel you can overwhelm it with the driver anywhere. Totally different configuration. ”
The last time Woods played consecutive weeks was in December at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, followed by the Presidents Cup in Australia. In the latter event, where Woods was the captain of the United States, he missed Saturday’s game due to stiff back.
The last time he played consecutive tour events was in early 2019 at the Genesis Invitational (amounting to 15th place) and the WGC-Mexico Championship (T10). But after this latter event, Woods had neck stiffness and missed his next start.
It hasn’t played three consecutive weeks since the 2018 FedEx Cup playoffs, when the format featured four events, including three in a row. He tied for the sixth to the last of three in a row before the tour had a week off. He then won the Tour Championship for his 80th PGA Tour win.
Woods would like to go back there because, “I have good memories there.” He also admitted that he had some difficulty getting his game onto the pitch in his three matches since the game resumed due to the pandemic.
“One of the reasons I delayed and didn’t go back to play earlier is that we didn’t know what the protocols would be like and whether our sport would be safe to come here or we would all be sick,” he said. “I just played. enough tournaments to try to understand and feel what’s going on. I hope I can make it work this week. “
Woods starts Thursday at 1:14 pm ET with Carlos Ortiz and Bubba Watson. They start playing at 2:09 pm on Friday.
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