Playoff payoff for a patient English
Entering this year, Harris English had been on the PGA Tour for six years and qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs in every one of them.
Entering last week’s Wyndham Championship, English was on the bubble to make it into the field for this week’s Northern Trust, the first of the four playoff events, putting his streak in jeopardy.
“It means everything,’’ English said Tuesday. “You don’t want to be put on the bench in the playoffs.’’
English kept himself off the bench and in the field this week at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., with a clutch tie for 11th last week, which inched him to No. 124 on the points list — the top 125 get into the playoffs.
“From the first tournament [of the season], the Safeway Open in Napa, [Calif.], you see FedEx Cup, you see every week they are talking about it, and getting into the Tour Championship in Atlanta is a big goal every single year, and sets up your year, getting in the majors, World Golf Championships, it’s definitely on my mind and I’m glad to be here and looking forward to the challenge this week,’’ English said.
English, who needed a par on the difficult par-4 18th hole on Sunday to get himself inside the top 125, called it “a pressurepacked situation coming down the stretch, different than winning a golf tournament.’’
“It felt like Q-school [PGA Tour qualifying school] back in 2011 where you’re in the sixth round and trying to get it done,’’ he said.
English said he spent most of last week focusing on winning, not on the points standings.
“I just knew if I had a chance to win the golf tournament, that I would be in a good spot and that’s what I put myself in,’’ he said. “I really just wanted to win a golf tournament. I didn’t keep track of how many points I needed, what place I had to finish. I knew that can change on a whim on a Sunday based on how other guys do. If the ball is in my court and I did what I needed to do, I knew I would get in.’’
Now that he’s in, English is trying to stay in. The field, which is 121 players this week because of some withdrawals, whittles to 100 for the next event, next week’s Dell Technologies outside Boston, then 70 for the BMW outside of Philadelphia then to 30 for the Tour Championship finale in Atlanta.
“Being 124 right now, I need another really good week this week to make it to Boston,’’ English said. “It’s probably a more aggressive mentality going out trying to win it [than] being 90th in the rankings and trying to play safe.
“I like where I am. I have a lot of confidence from last week. I struck the ball well and kind of did everything to put the ball in great position. If I can do that again this week, that would be a