TIGER WOODS aims to ease the sting of a rare season without a major title when he launches his bid today for the FedExCup series title and the €7 million bonus it awards the winner. Woods will be playing in The Barclays for the first time since 2003 when he tees off with fellow-Americans Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson at scenic Liberty National in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Pádraig Harrington and Phil Mickelson are also in the 124-man field.
The world number one lost a Sunday duel with Yang Yong-eun of South Korea at the USPGA earlier this month, failing for the first time to capitalise on holding the lead heading into the last round of a major after 14 such triumphs. The runner-up finish sealed Woods’s first season since 2004 without a major title.
“That night was tough, no doubt,” Woods said yesterday about his defeat to Yang at Hazeltine. “It was disappointing that I didn’t win. But it’s just like golf, you move on to the very next week. Went home and took a few days off away from golf and didn’t touch the clubs after three straight weeks of playing golf just about every day. I was a little tired of it, and (then) started working for it this week.”
Woods played a light schedule early in the year to ease his way back after season-ending knee surgery last June. He still racked up five wins, including victories in the two events preceding the PGA.
“It’s worked. I feel great now,” he said about his pacing. “The whole idea is to make sure I was ready for this long haul at the end of the season, and I didn’t hurt myself at the beginning.”
However, Woods said he felt the effects of the grind of playing three weeks in a row culminating in a major. “Three weeks is fine, but being in contention just about every day, it puts a toll on you,” he said. “Still, I was in position to win the championship on the last day and just didn’t get it done. It was a long three weeks.”
Woods said returning to action at Liberty National was important given the tweaking of the format for this year’s play-offs to add suspense after Vijay Singh virtually clinched the 2008 series by winning the first two events.
“You want to put more weight at the end of the season which they are trying to do, trying to make it a little more interesting,” said Woods.
The top 100 players on the points list, now led by Woods, advance to the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, with 30 more players eliminated for the BMW Championship in Chicago. Points will be reset for the finale, the Tour Championship, which will be contested by the top 30. The reset will allow any player in the top five to clinch the big prize with a victory in Atlanta.
THE LOWDOWN
Course:Liberty National GC, New Jersey
Length:7,342. Par: 71.
Prizemoney:€5.2 million (€950,000 to the winner).
Layout:Notable because of the unusual location of some bunkers. Two par threes in the first four holes.
Field:124
Defending champion:Vijay Singh, birdied first and second play-off holes to beat Kevin Sutherland and Sergio Garcia at Ridgewood GC, also in New Jersey.
On TV:Live on Eurosport 2 (8pm this evening)
Weather forecast:Chance of rain. Temperatures in the mid-70s.
