This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
For Tiger Woods, the upside of playing in the Wyndham Championship was enormous. The downside was pretty substantial, too. In the end, Woods did not hit the highest highs or the lowest lows. You can decide whether the week turned out more positive or negative. There certainly are viable arguments for each side.
Woods followed up three mostly terrific rounds with a Sunday clunker, tying for 10th while 51-year-old Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III won for the first time in seven years to become the third oldest PGA Tour winner on record.
(It only seems as if Woods hasn't won in seven years. It only seems as if Woods is 51 years old.)
If Woods had won, he'd have qualified for the playoffs, in fact at least two of the four events. He'd also have moved into consideration to be a Presidents Cup captain's pick. Of course, the worst possible scenario for Woods would've been missing the cut, a huge embarrassment in a low-level field (none of the top 10 players in the world were at the Wyndham).
Instead, Woods shot 64-65-68 to head into Sunday in the penultimate pairing, two shots behind leader Jason Gore. While Love and others were going low on the Sedgefield Country Club layout over the final 18, Woods was treading water -- that is, until tripling the 11th hole to end his chances.
Woods birdied four of the last six holes just to salvage an even-par 70 and a backdoor top-10, his best
For Tiger Woods, the upside of playing in the Wyndham Championship was enormous. The downside was pretty substantial, too. In the end, Woods did not hit the highest highs or the lowest lows. You can decide whether the week turned out more positive or negative. There certainly are viable arguments for each side.
Woods followed up three mostly terrific rounds with a Sunday clunker, tying for 10th while 51-year-old Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III won for the first time in seven years to become the third oldest PGA Tour winner on record.
(It only seems as if Woods hasn't won in seven years. It only seems as if Woods is 51 years old.)
If Woods had won, he'd have qualified for the playoffs, in fact at least two of the four events. He'd also have moved into consideration to be a Presidents Cup captain's pick. Of course, the worst possible scenario for Woods would've been missing the cut, a huge embarrassment in a low-level field (none of the top 10 players in the world were at the Wyndham).
Instead, Woods shot 64-65-68 to head into Sunday in the penultimate pairing, two shots behind leader Jason Gore. While Love and others were going low on the Sedgefield Country Club layout over the final 18, Woods was treading water -- that is, until tripling the 11th hole to end his chances.
Woods birdied four of the last six holes just to salvage an even-par 70 and a backdoor top-10, his best showing of the year. But it came on one of the shortest courses on tour, one in which he didn't need to use driver for more than five holes. It came with no big names in the field. This was not far from an opposite-field event.
Love, the oldest guy in the field, won. Gore, the runner-up, didn't have a tour card this season. Woods' playing partner on Sunday had a hole-in-one on the third and also birdied the 11th, beating Woods by FOUR shots on that hole. That was Scott Brown. Scott Brown? Who?.
If Woods couldn't win last week, when can he win? (Woods hasn't won in the four of the last six years, but still has eight victories in that span, three in 2012 and five in 2013.) Sure, Woods played three great rounds at the Wyndham. But there are 150 Jason Kokraks out there who often play three great rounds. But never a fourth.
"I gave myself a chance and I had all the opportunity in the world today to do it," Woods told reporters on hand in Greensboro N.C. "I didn't get it done."
Not even close, not that the fans held that against him. After Woods announced he would play the Wyndham, they came out in droves. Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rickie Fowler could've made a joint announcement that they were all playing and it wouldn't have moved the needle the way Woods moved it. A Woods win would've been bigger than Spieth winning the Masters -- not in terms of FedEx Cup points, of course, but in terms of public interest. Not even close.
Instead, we got a pretty good story in Love, perhaps the second-best story out there at the Wyndham.
"You know, if you look at my game and Tiger's game, we're making a lot of progress, both of us," Love told reporters. "We're getting better and better rather than going the other direction from both missing a lot of time. I'm excited for him."
Really? Anybody think Love will win another PGA Tour event? And what about Woods?
MONDAY TAKEWAY
FedEx Cup Qualifiers
In becoming the third oldest to win a PGA Tour event, behind Sam Snead (52 years, 10 months at Greensboro in 1965) and Art Wall (51, 7, in Milwaukee in 1975), Love (51, 4) moved from 186th in the points standings to 76th, locking up berths in next week's Barclays and likely the Deutsche Bank Championship the week after. Love led a record-tying group of five golfers to crack the top 125 in the final regular-season event.
The other four to qualify for the playoffs: Gore moving from 166th to 98th; Jonas Blixt, 135th to 121st; Camilo Villegas, 129th to 123rd; and Ryo Ishikawa, 130th to 124t. Do any of the five have significant fantasy value? Probably not, no.
FedEx Cup Non-Qualifiers
Of course, there were many golfers who didn't reach the playoffs, but not since 2008 and 2009 had five golfers fallen from the top 125 at the Wyndham. Will MacKenzie dropped from 116th to 126th, but he didn't play because of knee surgery and had already announced he wouldn't have been able to give it a go at the Barclays.
Brian Stuard feel from 119th to 128, Scott Stallings from 120th to 129th, Jamie Donaldson from 121st to 130th and Nicholas Thompson from 123rd to 131st. Stallings and Donaldson didn't play the Wyndham and ... why the heck not?! They both keep their cards after finishing in the top 125 on the money list (and Stallings was exempt anyway after winning at Torrey Pines in 2014), but they missed a chance for some playoff cash.
Four others finished outside the top 125 in points but inside the top 125 in money: Martin Kaymer, MacKenzie, Charlie Beljan and rookie Blayne Barber.
The Barclays
Besides MacKenzie, others had announced they would skip the first playoff event: Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Francesco Molinari (expecting a child), Retief Goosen (family matter). At 111th in the points, Goosen won't advance to the second event. And Molinari, at 99th, surely won't, either. No word yet from Ryan Palmer, whose father died in a single-vehicle accident last week. Palmer, at No. 56, will qualify for the Deutsche Bank.
Ernie Els
The soon-to-be 46-year-old wound up 173rd in points, after never finishing lower than 68th. Els is still exempt through 2016-17 because of his 2012 Open Championship win, which looks even more stunning now than it did then.
Billy Hurley III
Hurley came to Greensboro just a week after tragedy struck: His father took his own life. The funeral was Tuesday, and Hurley teed it up Thursday. Why? "Obviously I wouldn't be here if I wasn't 131 in the FedExCup and needed to play decent to keep my card," Hurley said. "If I was 100th, I wouldn't be here. So I mean, it's just part of life. Life goes on. The job goes on." But Hurley shot 69-70, missed the cut by two strokes and fell to 136th in points. Hurley will be able to play his way back in via the Web.com Tour playoffs, which begin on Sept. 10 (golfers finishing Nos. 126-200 in the FedEx point standings are eligible to compete in the Web.com playoffs, and the top 25 in the playoffs head to the PGA Tour in 2015-16). We'll be keeping an eye on how Hurley does.
