x
News

Tiger Woods falls short in bid to qualify for Tour Championship

Jessica MarksburyBy Jessica Marksbury
August 18, 2019

After a valiant weekend effort, Tiger Woods ultimately fell short in his quest to qualify for next week’s Tour Championship.

After withdrawing from last week’s Northern Trust, Woods needed a strong finish at this week’s BMW Championship in order to secure his spot in the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake, where he’s the defending champion. Unfortunately, Woods dug himself a difficult hole with back-to-back rounds of 71 on Thursday and Friday at Medinah, placing him in the bottom third of the field heading into the weekend.

It would take an epic charge for Woods to work his way back into the the top portion of the leaderboard, and he knew it. “I’m going to have to have a great weekend and make a lot of birdies this week and post some rounds in the mid-60s to give myself a chance at it,” Woods said after his round on Friday.

But as any Tiger fan knows, you can never count the Big Cat out. On Saturday, Woods shot a bogey-free round of five-under-par 67, giving him — and his legion of fans — hope that he could do it one more time on Sunday in order to punch his ticket to East Lake.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. Though Woods was two under par through his first five holes, his momentum stalled with a bogey on the par-4 6th, and despite a rebound birdie on No. 7, that was that as far as red numbers went. Woods ended up signing for an even-par 72, his highest score of the week, and a four-day total of seven under par.

At the close of his round, Woods was projected to finish T-38, and drop from No. 38 in the FedEx Cup standings to No. 42 — 12 spots shy of the coveted top 30.

Unfortunately, that means it will be awhile until we see Tiger tee it up again. After his round on Sunday, he confirmed that his next event will be October’s Zozo Championship in Japan.

To receive GOLF’s all-new newsletters, subscribe for free here.