Tiger Woods, hip ailing, comes up short in last-ditch playoff bid
It wasn’t good enough.
Tiger Woods came up short in his 11th hour bid to make the FedEx Cup playoffs and extend his season by at least another week. Woods shot even-par 70 at Sedgefield Country Club in the final round of the Wyndham Championship to finish tied for 10th place, four shots behind 51-year-old winner Davis Love III and well short of the solo second-place finish he needed, at a minimum, to have a chance to get into the first leg of the playoffs at The Barclays.
With his finish, Woods’ best of the season, he wrapped up the season in 178th place in FedEx Cup points, 56 spots shy of qualifying for the four-event playoff series which culminates in Atlanta with the Tour Championship at the end of September.
Woods failed to make up ground on 54-hole leader Jason Gore in the opening holes, turning in even-par 35 and drifting further behind as Love made his charge. After a par at the 10th, the short game, which has been Woods’ greatest scourge in 2015, ended the 14-time major winner’s year. After hitting his second shot to the par 4 short and left of the green, Woods’ third shot from 50 yards sailed over the green. Woods needed two more to find the green, including a stubbed chip that went just 10 feet. Two putts later, Woods hard carded triple-bogey 7 and the tournament and season were lost.
He tried to rally, making four birdies in the final six holes to finish at even-par for the day, but that was nowhere near good enough.
“I gave myself a chance, and I had all the opportunity in the world today to do it,” Woods said. “I didn’t get it done. I had some makeable putts early I missed. I just wasn’t able to get any kind of roll early.”
Woods admitted to some hip pain during the round.
Now, Woods has five weeks off as the FedEx Cup playoffs unfold. He’s expected to return in time for the PGA Tour’s 2015-16 season opener at the Frys.com Open in October in Napa, Calif. After a tumultuous year, Woods doesn’t mind the break.
“It will be nice,” Woods said. “I got lots of soccer games and practices to go to, so I’ll be doing that and just working out, training and trying to get more fit.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
