Tiger fires 68 at Fedex Cup playoffs
Tiger Woods opened his Fedex Cup playoffs with a 3-under-par round of 68 at the Northern Trust on Thursday.
Woods began his round on the back nine of TPC Boston in Norton, Mass., and dropped a shot on the 13th hole. He recovered with a birdie on No. 18 to make his turn at even par.
Woods then reeled off a string of four birdies over a six-hole stretch to get to 4 under, which was within three shots of the morning lead. However, he misjudged his approach shot on No. 9, coming up well short of the green and wound up with a closing bogey.
He entered the first leg of the playoffs at No. 49 in the Fedex Cup standings. The top 70 players will advance to next week’s BMW Championship, which Woods has committed to playing.
However, he could still withdraw if he places high enough at The Northern Trust to move comfortably inside the top 30 that will reach the season-ending Tour Championship.
That would require a very high finish at TPC Boston, where scores were low on Thursday. Most likely, Woods will be playing four times over a five-week stretch if he qualifies for the Tour Championship at East Lake in two weeks.
“I’ve got to get to Atlanta first,” Woods said after his opening round Thursday.
“I’m not in. The top 30 guys who do qualify for East Lake, they’re going to play a hefty load here. So whoever those 30 guys are.
“But there are guys, if they wanted to, they could take a week off here and there if they wanted to. Either this week or next week. I think the majority of the guys are trying to play their way into — I think it’s a staggered start (at the Tour Championship) — and try to give themselves the best chance to win at East Lake. So the majority of guys I think will be playing.”
Woods, 44, has not played in consecutive weeks since last September and is making only his sixth start of the PGA Tour’s 2019-20 season this week.
The U.S. Open begins 10 days after the tour season concludes.
Woods has slipped to 16th in the official world golf rankings following a tie for 40th at the Memorial Tournament and a T37 at the PGA Championship.