Woods entered in Barclays
Tiger Woods confirmed on Thursday that he entered the first FedEx Cup play-off event, The Barclays. The event will kick off on August 26th and is the first of four play-off events that culminate at the Tour Championship on September 23rd. Woods has been dangerously close to not qualifying for the FedEx Cup events, and will need to play like he did at the PGA Championship, not like he did at Bridgestone, if he wants to play more than one event.
Though he remains at No.1 in the world rankings, Woods is ranked No.108th on the FedEx Cup standings. His position is volatile, and could go up or down depending on what happens at the Wyndham Championship which plays this week.
Woods is not participating in the Greensboro competition and only the top 125 people on the FedEx Cup standings qualify for a start at The Barclays, so there is a remote possibility he will get bumped in the standings and won’t qualify. After the Barclays, the top 100 players will advance to the second FedEx Cup event, the Deutsche Bank Championship. If Woods wants to move onto the second event, he needs to finish 50th or better at The Barclays.
The Barclays will take place at the Ridgewood Country Club. The last time Woods teed off here was in 2007 when he won his first FedEx Cup title; He couldn’t make the 2008 Barclays because he was still out recovering from knee surgery. In 2009 he tied for second at the Liberty National one stroke behind Heath Slocum. He won the third FedEx Cup event, the BMW Championship, was runner up to Phil Mickelson at the Tour Championship but won the FedEx Cup title as he had the most points.
"We are thrilled to have Tiger Woods, the defending FedEx Cup Champion, join the field in what should be one of the most exciting events in The Barclays history," said Executive Director Pete Mele. "The field this year will be full of great stories. From the success of international players on TOUR this year, to the success of young players like Hunter Mahan, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Anthony Kim, to Ernie Els' efforts to remain at the top of the FedExCup standings, golf fans will enjoy the best the PGA TOUR has to offer."
Woods' goal is to get into as many play-off events as possible. One way he has been working towards achieving this is getting help from Canadian swing coach Sean Foley. Woods and Foley have met several times in the past but never worked together until Tuesday practice rounds before the PGA Championship kicked off last week.
Woods had asked if Foley, who was already at Whistling Straits working with Sean O’Hair and Bridgestone winner Hunter Mahan, would give him a few pointers and film some of Woods’ swings. Foley obliged, and whether it was due to the help or not, Woods opened with a two consecutive birdies and saw his name atop the leaderboard briefly in the first round.
An official partnership has not been established but is likely to be done in the next few weeks. Both Woods and Foley have been quoted saying they enjoyed working with each other and feel a partnership would be very beneficial to Woods’ game.
"I was really pleased with Tiger's openness to ideas that are extremely different to what he was doing," said Foley in an interview this week. “I want to get Tiger back to a place physically that he has been before, but with a new understanding. If he had understood what was so good about what he did before, he wouldn't have changed it. At the same time, I want to give him a better awareness of what he is doing now.”
At The Barclays players will be grouped according to their FedEx Cup standings. U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin is ranked 107th and could be playing alongside Woods, but Pavin is unsure if he will play Ridgewood due to a scheduling conflict.
According to Pavin Woods is “high on my list” for a captain’s pick to join the U.S. team, but Pavin won’t make his final decision until September 7th. If Pavin plays The Barclays it would be an opportunity to see up close how Woods performs.
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