Tiger Woods got himself to The Open. He didn’t make the cut. So what does this tell us about his game and when might we see him again?
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• FIELD: See the entrants for the event • COURSE: The Club at Nine Bridges, 7,196 yards, par 72. Located on Jeju Island, a resort destination just south of the Korean mainland, Nine Bridges opened in 2001 and is the only Korean course ranked among the world’s top 100. Designers Ronald Fream and David Dale deftly incorporated the layout into rolling pineland beneath Mount Halla, a dormant volcano that formed Jeju Island. The club was one of the first Asian venues on the LPGA schedule, with Se Ri Pak capturing the first tournament in 2002. Nine Bridges also is the longtime host of the biannual World Club Championship, where champions from top-level clubs around the world gather to contest a global title. The course actually features eight bridges – the ninth is metaphorical as a link from the club to members and guests. • FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. • CHARITY: The CJ Welfare Foundation and CJ Culture Foundation, supporting a wide range of projects from aiding retirees to fostering up-and-coming young artists and athletes. Among the initiatives is the “Silver Deliveryâ€� project, which gives part-time delivery jobs to retired seniors and resulted in CJ’s recognition by Fortune magazine among 56 companies “changing the world.â€� A new joint effort with UNESCO aims to expand education among girls in underdeveloped nations. • FIELD WATCH: Justin Thomas, making the second start of his FedExCup defense, and THE PLAYERS titleholder Si Woo Kim headline a limited field of 78 players set to tee it up in the CJ Cup’s debut. … TOUR Championship winner Xander Schauffele is one of 17 entrants who were at East Lake last month by virtue of making the top 30 in last season’s FedExCup points race. … The event has attracted 10 of the top 30 players in the world rankings, with No. 4 Thomas and No. 9 Jason Day heading up that list. … Kim, Day and Adam Scott are among 10 members of the International squad that competed in the Presidents Cup at Liberty National. Thomas is one of three U.S. Team members, joined by Daniel Berger and Patrick Reed. … Thomas and World Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els are among 10 major championship winners coming to Nine Bridges. • 72-HOLE RECORD: Debut event. • 18-HOLE RECORD: Debut event. • STORYLINES: The PGA TOUR expands its Asian outreach with its first standard event in South Korea, creating a three-week swing on that continent. The CJ Cup arrives just two years after a successful Presidents Cup near Seoul, where the International team nearly upended the favored Americans. … K.J. Choi, winner of eight TOUR titles, and Kim are among 16 Korean pros seeking to give the event a homegrown winner in its very first edition. The list also includes former U.S. Amateur champion Byeong Hun An and three-time European Tour winner Jeunghun Wang. … Also among the Korean faction is Sangmoon Bae, who tees it up for the third time since returning from mandatory military service in his homeland. He has missed the cut in both starts of his fledgling comeback, including the Safeway Open two weeks ago. • SHORT CHIPS: Two CJ Cup entrants have won debut events in the TOUR’s not-too-distant past – Scott (Dell Technologies Championship, 2003) and Choi (The National, 2007). … A total of 21 players will make their third start in as many events of the new 2017-18 season. Emiliano Grillo is playing a fourth consecutive week when you factor in the Presidents Cup. … Nine Bridges wound up serving as LPGA host for four years, with Korean pros winning all four editions. After Pak won the inaugural crown, Grace Park made it one of her six LPGA titles. • TELEVISION: Wednesday-Saturday, 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. ET (Golf Channel). • PGA TOUR LIVE: None. • RADIO: None.
To have confidence, one must build it. It’s not the chicken and the egg, it’s the horse before the cart. That’s a fact of life. Still, this isn’t necessarily the objective at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BIRDIES as much as it is the by-product of the 72-hole, stroke play competition on Jeju Island in South Korea. Whoever prevails at The Club at Nine Bridges this week may not necessarily be the most confident, but he’ll probably be the most prepared. It’s within that context that gamers should pursue value. Precocious talent always figures out a way to earn that label, which is why there are always surprises, and it’s more likely to occur on the unknown putting surfaces that Nine Bridges is introducing, but it’s still smartest to embrace youth in doses. Experience already knows the formula for success of which the greatest portion is understanding how to minimize mistakes while facing mysterious variables. Jeju Island is known as the Hawaii of South Korea. It’s a popular vacation destination for natives especially, but first-time visitors shouldn’t have any trouble acclimating given the usual red-carpet treatment afforded to the best touring professionals on the planet. In other words, the primary challenge will be the golf course and whatever Mother Nature unleashed in the form of wind. The European Tour committed to a three-year stint for the Ballantine’s Championship at nearby Pinx Golf Club in March or April from 2008-2010. Graeme McDowell was the first champion, but that’s primarily fact over friction as the only correlation is that both courses are on Jeju Island. The only reason I throw it out there is to save you time if you were struggling to connect dots. So, it’s once again time to keep it simple. Below are only three identifiers if your aim is to complete a lineup in DFS or perhaps find a flier in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. NOTE: Golfers inside the top or bottom 25 in each statistic on the 2016-17 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete in THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. Those who haven’t logged enough rounds to qualify for official rankings are omitted. * – In the Power Rankings Greens in Regulation One way to eliminate doubt is to create opportunity. While Nine Bridges is projected to yield many par breakers, the unknown variable of how much the wind will influence approach shots adds value to those attempts. Rank Golfer 2 *Kyle Stanley 3 *Paul Casey 6 Lucas Glover 11 Gary Woodland 14 Luke List 15 Chad Campbell 17 *Tony Finau 18 Stewart Cink 20 *Keegan Bradley 22 Graham DeLaet 23 Hudson Swafford 24 Jim Herman Lowest Apex Height This stat is making its debut in The Confidence Factor, and it’s the perfect time for it. With a new course on which a file of data will be generated, gamers are advised to invest in what they know site unseen. The 10 golfers below possess the lowest ball flights of all returning PGA TOUR members in the field. NOTE: Officially, apex height ranks golfers from highest to lowest measurements. So, the grouping below is sorted from the bottom of 190 who qualified for official rankings in 2016-17. Rank Golfer 189 Rod Pampling 188 Ollie Schniederjans 185 Ian Poulter 182 Robert Streb T177 Camilo Villegas 176 Charles Howell III 173 Wesley Bryan T171 *Russell Henley 170 Branden Grace 169 Lucas Glover Scrambling If the tournament evolves into a shootout due to soft turf, then scrambling still matters as saving par amid flourishes sustains momentum. If the wind dictates scoring, then this morphs into salvaging par to retain confidence. Rank Golfer 1 Ian Poulter 5 Chad Campbell 7 *Paul Casey 13 *Chez Reavie 15 Brian Harman T18 *Pat Perez 21 Adam Hadwin 25 Charles Howell III
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rory McIlroy made two late birdies amid the wild theatrics of Sunday at THE PLAYERS Championship and closed with a 2-under 70. McIlroy, a former FedExCup champion, earned 600 FedExCup points, a $2.25 million check and is the proud owner of the redesigned PLAYERS trophy. McIlroy could not afford to make a mistake over the final hour because of Jim Furyk, 48, nearly pulled off a stunner. Furyk, one of the last players to get in the strongest field in golf, capped off a 67 with a shot so good into the 18th that he started walking when he hit it. It plopped down 3 feet from the hole for a birdie to take the lead. But not for long. McIlroy, one of eight players to have at least a share of the lead in the final round, was coming off a bogey on the 14th to fall behind and was in trouble with a tee shot that found a bunker right of the fairway. He responded with his best shot of the day to 15 feet for birdie. Then, McIlroy hit the longest drive of the round on the par-5 16th, leaving him a 9-iron from a good lie in the rough to set up a two-shot birdie and the lead. Most important, he found dry land on the par-3 17th, the Island Green that never looks smaller than on Sunday at THE PLAYERS. He was solid to the end on a chilly, cloudy day and finished at 16-under 272 to win THE PLAYERS on his 10th try. “This is probably the deepest field of the year, with so much on the line,” McIlroy, 29, said. “I’m thankful it was my turn this week.” Furyk didn’t know he was in THE PLAYERS until one week ago, and he was on the verge of winning until McIlroy came through in the end. Furyk started the back nine with two birdies to get in the mix and finished strong. His only regret was a 3-foot par putt on the 15th. Even so, it showed he has plenty of game left. The runner-up finish moves him high enough in the rankings to qualifying for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in two weeks. “A shot here, a shot there, maybe could have been a little different,” Furyk said. “But ultimately, left it all out there. It was also nice to get in contention, to get under the heat, to have to hit shots under a lot of pressure, and then to respond well to that and hit some good golf shots. It’ll be a confidence boost going forward. Some of the most entertaining moments came from everyone else. Eddie Pepperell of England, in his debut on the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch to briefly share the lead, none bigger than a putt from just inside 50 feet on the 17th. But it wasn’t the best. One group later, Jhonattan Vegas holed a putt from the bottom left to the top right pin position, just under 70 feet, the longest putt made on the Island Green since the PGA TOUR had lasers to measure them. That gave him a share of the lead, too. “Magic,” Vegas said. “If I tried it a thousand times I wouldn’t even come close to making it, but I’m pretty happy that it happened today.” Both shot 66 and tied for third. Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood lost their way early, and then late. Rahm, who had a one-shot lead, started with three bogeys in four holes and kept his cool until one curious decision. Tied for the lead, he was in a bunker, 220 yards away, partially blocked by trees on the par-5 11th when he decided to go for the green. It never had a chance, finding the water and leading to a bogey. Rahm was still in the game until he failed to birdie the 16th, and then put his tee shot in the water on the 17th. He closed with a 76 and tied for 12th. Fleetwood opened with a three-putt bogey and made all pars until hitting into the water on the 11th for bogey. He made eagle on the 16th to have a fleeting chance until coming up short of the island. He shot 73 and tied for fifth with Brandt Snedeker (69) and Dustin Johnson (69). McIlroy emerged as the winner, his 15th on the PGA TOUR and 23rd in his career worldwide. In six tournaments this year, McIlroy has not finished worse than sixth. He has practiced patience the last three months, and he needed it after hitting into the water at No. 4 and making double bogey. “I almost liked today because it was tough,” McIlroy said. “I knew guys weren’t going to get away from us. I knew there was some chances coming up. I stayed patient. Anytime I looked at a leaderboard, I was pleasantly surprised because I hadn’t fallen two, three, four shots behind.” Nothing was sweeter than the sight of the leaderboard when he finished.
