National Post (National Edition)
On the hot seat, O’hair co-leader at Northern Trust
Woods fails to impress, tied for 60th
PARAMUS, N.J. • Tiger Woods failed to carry any momentum he had from his last tournament into the start of the Fedex Cup playoffs. Neither did Sean O’hair. That was only good news for one of them.
O’hair missed the cut last week and is No. 121 in the Fedex Cup standings, meaning he had to play well at the Northern Trust or his season is over. He made one eagle, had a good look at another and shot a 5-under 66 to join Jamie Lovemark, Vaughn Taylor and Kevin Tway atop the leaderboard at rain-softened Ridgewood Country Club.
Woods, a runner-up at the PGA Championship two weeks ago, didn’t do anything great or anything bad and shot a 71, leaving him in a tie for 60th.
Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka were among those at 67.
Johnson made birdies without having any idea where his tee shots were going until the closing stretch. U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka made birdies by smashing driver as often as he could and muscling it out of the deep rough with wedges when he missed. Justin Thomas made his share of birdies while trying to avoid hitting into the trees en route to a 69.
Woods might have expected better after hitting nine of 14 fairways. He just never gave himself many chances.
“One of those days where I just kept having the half-club and was never able to fully swing at it and having to hit little softies in there, control my flight, manoeuvre the golf ball,” Woods said.
Tway, Taylor and Lovemark also need to play well to make sure they are among the top 100 who advance to the next event at TPC Boston. Tway and Lovemark are ranked in the mid-80s, while Taylor is at No. 112.
Tway began his week playing in a charity event with good friend Morgan Hoffmann, who is coping with muscular dystrophy. Hoffmann is a reminder of how far players can go with the Fedex Cup points quadrupled in the playoffs.
“Morgan Hoffmann came in at 124 and went all the way to The Tour Championship,” Tway said, referring to 2014. “That’s kind of the plan, try to play as good as you can and go as far as you can.”
As wild as he was, Johnson only got flustered on a few occasions, the first one before he even hit a shot. He was introduced by the starter as the 2011 champion of this tournament, which is true. But the world’s No. 1 player paused before sticking a tee in the ground, unsure what to do or say, when he straightened and reminded the starter, “I won last year, too.”
The other time came on the par-5 17th. By then he had played eight holes and hit one fairway. The other tee shots weren’t even close. He still was 4 under. But this tee shot was so far left that Johnson, in a rare display of frustration, snatched the broken tee from the ground and tossed it away.
The ball was so deep in the hazard it wasn’t worth finding and Johnson made triple bogey.
“I hit that ball 70 yards left of where I was looking,” he said. “If I’m trying to hit a high cut, if anything I’m going to over-cut it to the right. And it came off low and hooked. So I just laughed. Wasn’t funny when I made triple, though.”
To shoot 67 with a triple bogey was encouraging by the end of the day because seven birdies meant he was doing something right.
Koepka, coming off a record win at the PGA Championship two weeks ago, looked like he was playing the game the right way. He pounded driver everywhere except for the par-3s and on the first hole because the wind picked up and was at his back.
Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey also were at 67, good starts for different reasons. Matsuyama is having his worst year and needs to play well these first two playoff events to bolster his chances of getting to East Lake for the Tour Championship. Casey and Ian Poulter have access to world-ranking points in these strong fields as they try to earn automatic spots on Europe’s Ryder Cup team. Poulter birdied two of his last three holes for a 69.
Two Canadians are also in the field. Adam Hadwin was even after a round of 71, while fellow Abbotsford, B.C., native Nick Taylor was 1 over after a round of 72.