Woods pumped up in pursuit of elusive ‘W’
Tiger Woods is facing long odds of capturing the FedEx Cup and the US$10 million bonus, but that’s all relative this year.
Just having his own parking spot at East Lake, being back at the PGA Tour Championship for the first time since 2013, even feeling lost during a practice round because the nines were flipped, were all reminders that his greatest accomplishment this year was being part of the 30-man field.
‘‘I think the season itself has been amazing, to be able to have played this well,’’ Woods said yesterday from Atlanta, Georgia.
‘‘I didn’t know how many tournaments I’d play in, and next thing you know, here I am in the Tour Championship . . . to have come back from where I’ve come back from and to get here has been a pretty tall order.’’
He didn’t make it in 2014 because of his first back surgery and his ill-advised attempt to return too early.
He missed the entire FedEx Cup playoffs in 2015 when he couldn’t chip the ball onto the green from 20 feet away early in the season, and then his back started acting up late in the season.
He missed all of 2016 while recovering from two more back surgeries, and all but one PGA Tour event in 2017 because of a fourth back surgery.
Never mind that Woods is at No 20 in the FedEx Cup standings, having started no worse than No 3 in his four previous FedEx Cup finales. This is one tournament where it’s more about the start than the finish.
‘‘It’s great to have accomplished one of the goals I set out at the beginning of the year: to make it back to East Lake to be part of the Tour Championship and part of these top 30 guys,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ve accomplished that and I now want to get the W and head into next week and the Ryder Cup. I’ve exceeded a lot of my expectations and goals because so much of it was an unknown.’’
The only thing left to cap off a remarkable comeback would be a trophy. This is his last chance.
That still probably wouldn’t be enough for Woods to win the FedEx Cup for the third time – no one else has won it more than once.
The better odds are with the top five seeds – Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose, Tony Finau, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas – who only have to win the Tour Championship to take home the richest bonus in golf.
Thomas has even more at stake. No one, not even Woods, has won the FedEx Cup in successive years. Thomas was runner-up at East Lake a year ago, which was enough for him to move past Jordan Spieth and capture the cup.
‘‘I’m not sure if it was true or not, but I heard that no one had been in the top five after winning the FedEx Cup,’’ Thomas said.
It’s true. Woods never followed a FedEx Cup title with a top-5 seed because he was recovering from knee surgery in 2008, and was putting his personal life back together in 2010. Spieth won in 2015 and was No 7 going into the Tour Championship the following year.
Spieth didn’t make it back this year, finishing at No.31 after a poor week at the BMW Championship. It was an example that even some of the best in the world can’t bank on making it back to East Lake without playing great golf.