NORTON, Mass. – What was revealed in the first week of the FedEx Cup playoffs was not the best time to be one of the biggest names in golf.
With the exception of Dustin Johnson, the exit winner at The Northern Trust, the first event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playEs, some of the sport’s brightest stars have looked a bit lost.
Sure, Tiger Woods closed with a 66, including a run of four birds to start his final round, but all it did was mask three uneven days that had him in a place he would never want to be. – early in the morning on the weekend of a tournament if nothing more than an aftermath.
Rory McIlroy, who played poorly enough to be Woods’ early-morning play partner at the weekend, had no choice but to make a joke or two about his own mediocrity the last time it was all over. More telling was that he sometimes feels like he’s just going through the motions.
Brooks Koepka did not agree with the first tea, took him back before the event started, because his bad knee does not get better.
Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson did not make the cut, placing them outside the top 70, which is required to enter next week’s BMW Championship, the second stop of the FedEx Cup play-offs.
Tiger is still searching
He acknowledged Sunday that life without fans has been a difficult adjustment. He always removed the energy from the galleries that defeated him – and used it as an advantage over opponents who were shocked by all the people and all the riot.
But silence seems to be a secondary issue for Woods. The inconsistency in his game remains the central issue. At The Northern Trust, he occasionally struggled with his wells; during Saturday’s ugly 2-over 73, he missed six putts within 10 feet. Until Sunday, he was once again away with his short irons, and he regularly left long birdie pits instead of chances on medium to short. His average distance from the hole on approach was just under 37 feet, which does not provide a ton of realistic chances for birds.
“Every day is different,” he said. “That’s golf. Shot-to-shot is different. That’s the ebb and flow of playing golf.”
He has played three events since the return of golf from a three-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. He was a non-factor at both the Memorial and PGA Championships, finishing ties for 37th and 40th. This week, at the Northern Trust, he had a strong opening round, then fading on Friday and Saturday. He has committed himself to this week’s BMW Championship, but has not earned a place in the season-ending Tour Championship. And in this new, condensed schedule, the U.S. Open, the second major of the year, runs right around the corner, set to begin Sept. 17 at ultra-difficult Winged Foot.
“This is going to be a long trek,” he said.
McIlroy tries to concentrate on what is wrong
Sure, the state of McIlroy’s gameplay is unsettling.
“If you need someone to even shoot a week after 2-under, then I’m your man,” he joked after finishing the week, you know, 2 under. “That’s kind of what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks. Everything’s just a little bit off.”
More about his game could be his thoughts.
“This will sound really bad, but I feel like the last few weeks. I’ve just been through the motions,” he said. “I want to get an intensity and some kind of fire, but I just could not. And look, that has to do partly with the atmosphere and partly with how I play. I do not inspire myself, and I’m trying to get inspiration from outside sources to go through something. “
On Saturday, he started with Woods’ round birdie / triple bogey / birdie. As he walked to the fourth tee, he hugged, “Yeah, 3-8-2 is a good area code.” He was asked, in this time of tournament play without crowds and for the most part in silence, what is the difference now between a birdie and triple bogey?
“Honestly, not that much,” he admitted. “It’s not that much. Sometimes I’m coming from a green and making a bird, and I’m kind of – you know, your kind of laughter comes from a hole you just made, and you make a birdie, and it’s on in some ways it’s almost a more negative emotion. It’s weird. It’s very weird. “
With two more playoff events and two more majors still on the 2020 calendar, how does he fix it?
“Do you go to YouTube and watch successes of yesteryear, give yourself something to think about, a mantra as you go around?” he asked him. “There are different ways to do it. You know, what’s always done well with me is a bet or a game or a play for something. That sometimes gets something out of me. Maybe it’s the strategy. I do that. in practice rounds sometimes with [caddie and close friend] Harry [Diamond]. We make a lot of bets, and I try to shoot scores and try to win dinner like whatever it is. Maybe that’s it. We play in the FedEx Cup [playoffs]. There are a lot of incentives here to play well. It’s just trying to get it out of you. “
McIlroy was on a roll before golf stopped in March. In the six events he played before the sport began at the Players Championship, McIlroy had finished no less than a tie for fifth, and that included a win at the WCG-HSBC Champions. Since returning, he has had just one top-30 finish, a tie for 11th at the Travelers Championship.
“Yeah, it’s just been a little bit of a struggle,” he said.
The Continuing Fall of Jordan Spieth
On Friday, when his round and season ended, Jordan Spieth ran fast from the 18th green at TPC Boston, never picking up his head as he walked toward the clubhouse. He had missed his second cut in six events, this one after a finish of T-71 at the PGA Championship and a T-72 at the Wyndham Championship. He has just had one top-20 hand since a T-10 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the first event after the break.
I’m a little uncertain. “Like it feels pretty good, not great, but good enough to be able to compete,” he said after the Wyndham Championship.
The missed cut at The Northern Trust meant he would not qualify for next week’s BMW Championship, marking the first time in his career that he did not advance to the second stage of the FedEx Cup play-offs. He has not won the season-ending Tour Championship since 2017. He has not won an event since the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale, a stretch of 69 events.
“I will continue with trucks, I will work hard,” he said.
Koepka limps to the finish
As long as his knee is on, the next time Koepka is at the US Open will be where he will try to win that major for the third time in four years. It’s been an up-and-coming year for the four-time winner, who had a stem cell procedure on his left knee after reshuffling the Tour Championship last year when he slipped at an event in South Korea in October, which required him to sit out until January.
Since that time he had just two top-10s, missed four cuts and had to withdraw from two events, one due to an injury, one because his caddy, Ricky Elliott, tested positive for COVID-19.
Earlier this month, in search of his third consecutive PGA Championship, he entered the final round for tied for fourth, just 2 shots from the lead. He faded on Sunday, shooting 74 to ban for 29th. The following week he missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship.
“Brooks is one of the biggest names in the game. We’ve all seen his physical battle since last year,” McIlroy said earlier this week. “It may never be a good time, but it’s a better time than any other time to get it right. Take a few weeks off, try to get ready for the US Open, and then the Masters come up. [in November]. I think it’s smart of him to do that and hopefully come back healthy and ready to play. “
Phil plays the oldies
Like Spieth, Mickelson missed the cut and did not qualify for the BMW Championship. So in order to get some work done before returning to what is the site of one of his most painful major championship disappointments – Winged Foot, this year’s US Open site – he had to find a place to play.
Enter the PGA Tour Champions, the circuit over 50 that has an event in the Ozarks this week.
“I played well and I want to play,” he said. “I wish I was playing in Chicago next week, but excited to play my first Champions event.”
Mickelson, who turned 50 in June, has one top-20 finish and two missed cuts since returning from golf. He was uneasy about moving on to the Champions Tour, making it clear he thinks he can still play – and win – on the PGA Tour.
“If I stop bombing, I’ll play the Champions Tour, but I’m hitting some crazy bombs right now,” he joked in January.
.
