Win or go home for Woods
Tiger tees off for last-ditch effort to qualify for playoffs
It’s now or never for many players at the Wyndham Championship — the last chance to qualify for golf’s postseason. That group includes Tiger Woods.
The biggest name in the sport is playing the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season for the first time, in an effort to get his game back on track and make a last-gasp push for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
“I’ve started to build. I just need to get more consistent with everything, and start stringing together not just holes, not just rounds but tournaments,” Woods said Wednesday in Greensboro, North Carolina. “That’s why this tournament’s important to me.”
He said he had “a blast” playing a pro-am round Wednesday with NBA AllStar Chris Paul — a native of nearby Winston-Salem who starred at Wake Forest. And now he wants to stick around for a while.
In 10 previous events this year, Woods has missed the cut in four of them and withdrew from another.
He’s had three rounds in the 80s, his best finish was a tie for 17th at the Masters and his best week came at The Greenbrier Classic where he finished just six shots out of the lead.
He’s eager to test his game on the Donald Rossdesigned course at Sedgefield Country Club that puts a premium on strong iron play and features fast, undulating Bermuda grass greens that Woods is trying to quickly figure out.
During a soggy pro-am, though, the course played a bit differently with more, well, woods.
“It’s going to be a lot of irons off the tee, but it wasn’t the case because it’s so wet,” Woods said. “Balls are plugging. Lot of mud balls out there.”
Woods — who’s at No. 187 on the points list — is pretty far from the bubble. Only the top 125 players will make it to The Barclays, the first playoff event, which means he probably needs a victory in his first visit here.
Also on the bubble: Luke Donald is 124th, followed by Charl Schwartzel, Scott Langley, Seung- Yul Noh, S. J. Park and last year’s winner, Camilo Villegas.
“There’s so much to play for,” said Webb Simpson, the 2011 winner who’s safely at No. 49 on the points list.
McNealy wins opening match: Stanford junior Maverick McNealy, the second-ranked amateur in the world, advanced at the U.S. Amateur Championship with a 1-up victory over Canadian Austin Connelly at Olympia Fields CC near Chicago.
McNealy is coming off a win at the NCGA Amateur Championship last week at Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach. He next faces Maverick Antcliff in his round of 32 match Thursday morning.
Johnny DeLos Reyes of Saint Mary’s and De La Salle lost his first match 2-up to Colorado’s David Oraee. Robby Salomon of Cal State Monterey Bay and Serra lost to NCAA individual champion Bryson DeChambeau of SMU 8 and 6.
Els honored: Ernie Els has been chosen to receive the Payne Stewart Award. Els’ youngest son, Ben, has autism. The South African star has devoted a majority of his work off the course to the Els for Autism Foundation.
Palmer’s father dies in crash: Investigators say a traffic accident near Amarillo, Texas, has killed the 71-year- old father of professional golfer Ryan Palmer. Charles Franklin “Butch” Palmer of Amarillo died Tuesday night in the SUV rollover wreck.