Golf Capsules: Woods looks to keep going at FedEx Cup
NORTON, Mass. (AP) — A chart of FedEx Cup standings at the Deutsche Bank Championship showed Tiger Woods at the top, not unusual considering he was won the cup and its $10 million prize every year he has played.
This chart was different.
It listed the 10 players who are on the bubble at the TPC Boston, starting with Woods at No. 65 through Josh Teater at No. 75. Only the top 70 after this week will advance to the third round of the playoffs at the BMW Championship, where Woods is defending champion.
Woods has failed to defend a title when the tournament has changed dates or when he was injured. Never has he not gone back to a tournament as the defending champion because he was not eligible.
"It's been a different year," Woods said.
It might be showing signs of turning around. One tournament is not enough to declare Woods' game is back, although his tie for 12th at The Barclays was his best finish since June. Plus, it got him into the second round of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
And for the first time since the Masters, when he returned to golf after a five-month layoff, Woods went through an entire press conference without a mention of his broken marriage or how it got to that point.
Even so, it remains odd to see Woods so far down any list.
Matt Kuchar is No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings on the strength of his victory last week to open the four-tournament playoffs. Steve Stricker is No. 2 and the defending champion at the TPC Boston. They are assured of reaching the final round.
Woods is only assured of making the weekend because the Deutsche Bank Championship doesn't start until Friday, the lone tournament on the PGA Tour schedule that ends on a Monday.
"I'm starting to see some progress, which is nice," Woods said. "Mentally, I'm hitting the ball much better, hence I have more confidence. I'm driving the ball much straighter, hitting the ball a little bit farther, especially with my irons. And those are all positive signs. It's just a matter of making it a little bit more natural. And that's just reps."
Whether the tournament lasts any longer than Labor Day depends on the path of Hurricane Earl — the same name as Woods' late father. The forecast was for good weather through noon on Friday before it starts getting nasty, with the worst of it late Friday afternoon and into the night.
The tour moved tee times up as much as it could with a 99-man field — 40 minutes — with hopes of getting the round in. Officials will decide Friday morning whether to play lift, clean and place to protect against the late starters having to return Saturday morning to complete the first round in what could be a swamp.
"It will be awesome to get this finished tomorrow," said Mark Russell, a vice president of rules and competition for the tour.
So much is at stake this week — not one cup, but two.
For the 99 players — Kenny Perry pulled out on Wednesday — the goal is to finish in the top 70 in the standings to advance to Chicago and the BMW Championship. It's far more tense for the 14 players that U.S. captain Corey Pavin has on a white sheet of paper he keeps in his pocket, all of them candidates to be among his four Ryder Cup picks.
Woods figures to be a lock. Zach Johnson is getting plenty of support as another pick. For the rest of them, the Deutsche Bank Championship is one last chance to make an impression on the captain, and even that might not be enough.
"There are no promises out there to anyone," Pavin said. "I think everyone is mature enough to understand that."
The players on his list were all invited to his barbecue during the PGA Championship, meaning they will get a phone call next week to say whether they made the team. The only addition was David Toms, a runner-up at Greensboro two weeks ago.
Pavin invited the eight players who qualified for his team — Phil Mickelson had not yet arrived — to dinner Wednesday night. He is soliciting their opinions, and said all the players are coming up with the same list of seven or eight guys who would be good picks.
"I think he's got a pretty good idea who his picks are going to be," Stricker said. "I mean, I think he still has some questions. I think it depends a lot on what happens here this week, and he wants to have some players step up and show him something. I don't think anybody is set in stone yet, but I think he's really looking forward to see what's going to happen here."
Stricker doesn't have to worry about that, nor does Matt Kuchar, who made his first Ryder Cup team. They can think exclusively about the FedEx Cup for now, both in prime position to chase the $10 million prize.
Woods, meanwhile, is trying to stay in the top 70 of the standings after this week, although his primary goal hasn't changed whether he's No. 65 or No. 1 in the FedEx Cup.
"I go out there and tee it up to win the tournament," he said.
Notebook: Deutsche Bank signs up for two more years
NORTON, Mass. (AP) — Deutsche Bank has picked up the option on the final two years of its title sponsorship, and it will have some financial help from a familiar partner in EMC Corp., which will be a presenting sponsor.
Terms of the deal were not announced. Seth Waugh, the CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, instead focused on reports showing it has raised upward of $70 million in revenue each year since the tournament began in 2003.
"Someone once told me when I started in the business that the best thing you can ever do for the economy is to create a job," Waugh said. "And I'm hoping that in $500 million, there's a number of jobs that have been created out here. Our view is that it's never been more important to do that than it is today."
The renewal was the 19th title sponsorship deal the tour has completed since the start of 2009. With Deutsche Bank, it assures that all its FedEx Cup playoff events are sponsored through 2012, the end of the current TV contract.
The Deutsche Bank Championship is the only playoff event that has never changed dates. It was a risky move when the tournament chose to end on Labor Day.
"We took a tough weekend — it's not a corporate weekend, it's a family weekend — and said, 'Let's make that a strength rather than a weakness.' And I think New England has embraced that," Waugh said.
EMC has been a founding partner since the tournament began, and it previously was the title sponsor of the World Cup.
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was headed to Ohio for what was likely to be a similar announcement at the Memorial, the tournament Jack Nicklaus created. At least two more deals are expected by the end of the year.
"It hasn't turned out to be devastating," Finchem said. "It's just harder work."
Given the amount of sponsorships it has kept, Finchem said he would give his marketing team an "A'' for a grade. Finchem said given the economic climate, it takes longer to secure a contract, and there is more scrutiny by companies wanting to get involved in PGA Tour sponsorship because entertainment dollars are tight.
He said the scrutiny has helped golf, however, because it compared favorably among other sports.
FURYK'S BELLY: Seeing Jim Furyk on the first tee Thursday at the TPC Boston was worth two looks — and not just because Furyk's alarm clock worked and he made his pro-am time.
Four clubs stood tall in his bag — the driver and a fairway metal, and two belly putters.
Furyk was contemplating using the belly putter this week at the Deutsche Bank Championship, as he had last week at The Barclays before he was disqualified for oversleeping and missing his tee time.
He last tried a belly putter years ago, then gave up on it. Furyk said he closed with two low rounds at the Honda Classic, then tried it again at The Players Championship.
"Didn't putt very well," he said. "I went back to the shorter putter for the final round."
Meanwhile, the rule that got Furyk disqualified was suspended for the rest of the year. The tour figured the playoff events were different from regular events, particularly because a player who withdraws or is ineligible is not replaced by anyone.
Tiger Woods understood the suspension the rule, although he was curious about the timing.
"I would think they would have waited until after the season was completed," Woods said. "It's only affected one player so far this year, and that was Jim. But I can understand it. I just thought it might have been a little premature."
MICKELSON'S DAY: Phil Mickelson, who won the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2007, was among the last to arrive. He was not at the dinner party that Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin hosted for the eight Americans who made the team. And he asked out of his pro-am round Thursday, swapping it out with a corporate function, as he was entitled to do.
Why the late arrival?
Part of that could be issues with his driver. Mickelson's driver broke last week at The Barclays, and he was working hard on the practice range over the weekend trying to find another one he liked.
TIGER TIME: It's not quite death and taxes, but just about any pro-am on the PGA Tour will feature Tiger Woods in the first group of the morning. He was in the morning way at the TPC Boston, but there were five other groups ahead of him.
Why wasn't he first?
For starters, he wasn't even in the pro-am because of his low FedEx Cup ranking (No. 65). Instead, Woods was a sponsor selection to play the pro-am, and his options were 7:40 a.m. or 12:40 p.m.
"It just shows how far I've fallen," Woods said with a laugh.
DIVOTS: Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin spent most of the day at the Deutsche Bank Championship, scouting a number of players during the pro-am round just to let them know he was thinking about them this week. Pavin said anyone who finished out of the top 20 in the Ryder Cup standings would still get serious consideration with a victory. ... Defending champion Steve Stricker started his week by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. ... Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy, a part-owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder's NBA franchise, played in his second straight pro-am, both times with Woods.
-- Doug Ferguson
Woods takes out $54M mortgage on Fla. estate
JUPITER ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Fresh off his divorce, Tiger Woods has taken out a $54.5 million mortgage on his Florida waterfront estate.
Mortgage documents filed last month in Martin County show Woods will make payments to an entity called JRD Florida Ventures LLC. That is a Virginia company whose registered agent is an attorney with the firm that represented Woods' ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, in their divorce.
No details of the divorce settlement have been made public. The documents say Woods will pay the mortgage in full by January 2016.
The mortgage's existence was previously reported by several media outlets. Attorneys for Woods and his ex-wife declined comment Thursday.
Woods and Nordegren divorced Aug. 23 and mortage papers were dated Aug. 25.
Champions
Defending champ Sluman headlines First Tee Open
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Two-time defending champion Jeff Sluman will be joined Champions Tour money leader Bernhard Langer, Tom Watson and three other tournament winners at the First Tee Open.
Gil Morgan, Hale Irwin and Scott Simpson will be in the field of 78 pros matched with a select group of juniors ages 15-18 and 156 amateurs in the seventh annual event.
The field will rotate between the Del Monte Golf Course and Pebble Beach starting on Friday. The final round will be played Sunday at Pebble Beach, which hosted the U.S. Open for the fifth time in June.
Sluman overcame a six-stroke deficit to successfully defend his title. He aced the fifth hole and finished with a 4-under 68 for a two-stroke victory over Gene Jones.
A six-time PGA Tour winner, Sluman is winless this season but has four top-10 finishes.
"There's just something about it," said Sluman, who first played at Pebble Beach in 1983 and finished second in the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. "You get really excited when you get there. It's such a great golf course. Every golfer in the world who has stepped on that first tee at Pebble, well I just like the history of things like that, being at Winged Foot and Augusta or here."
Sluman failed the qualify for the U.S. Open this year, but practiced last month at Pebble Beach after the course was adjusted for Champions Tour standards.
"I didn't know how it exactly was set up for the U.S. Open, but basically you can see where they've tried to cut the rough down," Sluman. "But they want to get through rounds out there. And there's nothing wrong with that. And it's more enjoyable for the spectators."
Langer, the two-time Masters titlist, is the only player to win five Champion Tour events in a season since Craig Stadler in 2004.
Langer claimed his second of two titles this season in Washington State three weeks ago at the Boeing Classic. He's the only Champions Tour player to surpass $2 million in earnings this season.
Watson, second in the 2009 British Open, finished in the top-30 in the British Open and U.S. Open this year.
Watson, who will turn 61 on Saturday, claimed his 61st career pro win and 13th Champions Tour win in January.
Fred Couples, John Cook, Tom Lehman, Ben Crenshaw, Loren Roberts and Jay Haas also are in the field of the $1.8 million tournament. The winner's purse is $315,000.
The First Tee Open will be sponsored by Home Care & Hospice after six years of title sponsorship by Walmart.
PGA European
Teenager Manassero leads at European Masters
CRANS-SUR-SIERRE, Switzerland (AP) — Italian teenager Matteo Manassero shot a 7-under 64 Thursday to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the European Masters.
"The perfect round of golf," the 17-year-old Manassero said of his bogey-free round. "I didn't miss many greens and when I did I got up and down each time, so it was just perfect."
Mikko Ilonen used his power to shoot a 65 and earn a share of second place alongside Graeme Storm. Edoardo Molinari was in a group of six another stroke behind just four days after winning the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles to earn a wild card for next month's Ryder Cup.
Manassero turned professional in May and is allowed a maximum of seven sponsor invitations. He still needs to earn his European Tour playing card for 2011. If he fails, he will have to attend tour school in Spain in early December.
Manassero played in the morning when the soft greens at Crans-Sur-Sierre were at their best. By the time Molinari teed off after lunch, the heavy traffic had made them bumpy.
"I had another good solid round of golf," Molinari said. "Though on the back nine holes it was a bit scrappy because I found it difficult making putts.
"In the afternoon the greens were not perfect, so I am looking forward to the second round, starting out in the morning."
British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, returning to action for the first time since the PGA Championship, shot a 71 with four bogeys and four birdies.
Greg Norman struggled in his first tournament golf after spending a year recovering from shoulder surgery. The 55-year-old Australian and two-time British Open champion drove out of bounds at the par-5 14th on his way to a 75.
