Fall season of surprises on the PGA TOUR

MEDINAH, Ill. – Tiger Woods addressed the media after his pro-am round Wednesday and said he’s feeling ready to play in the BMW Championship at Medinah No. 3, the second week of the FedExCup Playoffs. After shooting an opening 75 at THE NORTHERN TRUST last week, Woods withdrew Friday with a mild oblique strain. He arrived at Medinah on Tuesday and took treatment, and with his pro-am partners on Wednesday he played nine holes and chipped and putted for nine more. “Oh, way better, yeah,â€� he said of his health compared to a week ago. “It was nice to take those days off, and I had to just let it calm down and get a bunch of treatment on it, and it feels so much better. I played nine today, played the front nine, and played well, which was nice to see, nice to feel. Took the back nine off, chipped and putted quite a bit, and it feels like – definitely doesn’t feel like it did on Friday, that’s for sure.â€� Woods is slated to play with Billy Horschel and C.T. Pan in the first round at 12:54 p.m. ET Thursday, and he has plenty to play for. At 38th in the FedExCup, he is projected to need no worse than an 11th-place finish to break into the top 30 and make it to the TOUR Championship. It was at East Lake that Woods notched his 80th victory a year ago. The win capped off a terrific comeback season for a player with a fused back whose career once seemed to be over. He landed his 81st victory at the Masters Tournament this past April, another epic win. Then reality hit. Admittedly worn out, Woods slowed down. He played less – just five starts since April – and his clubhead speed dipped. He fizzled at the PGA Championship at Bethpage (MC), and didn’t contend at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach (T21), despite having won on both courses. He missed cut at The Open Championship (opening-round 78) and WD’d at THE NORTHERN TRUST. The Windy City, though, is a Woods favorite. He won the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championships at Medinah, and five BMW Championships at nearby Cog Hill Golf & Country Club. “Yeah, I’m excited to be back in Chicago,â€� he said. “I mean, this is one of the places that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing over the years, and this was – going back to it, this is the area that I made my first cut on the PGA TOUR, a long time ago, and I’ve had some really good memories and some wins here that have been pretty memorable for me.â€� When he’s healthy, Woods is still a formidable player; he’s still ranked sixth in the world. He will captain the U.S. Team at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne this December, but has not ruled out playing on that team. At 13th on the U.S. points list, he wouldn’t crack the top eight even with a win – the BMW is the last chance for players to work their way into the top eight in points for automatic inclusion – but he could make a case for himself as a pick. All of that, though, takes a back seat to his health. “Yeah, swinging,â€� he said, when asked if he knew what caused his latest injury. “As I’ve said before, the forces have got to go somewhere, and unfortunately when I make any kind of tweaks and changes to my swing, it’s like a new body part is aching. Unfortunately, I can’t play around the back like I used to, and unfortunately things flare up. “I tried to make tweaks all year,â€� he added, “trying to ease the stress off my back while I was still playing. Unfortunately, I haven’t really done a very good job of that, and when I have, I’ve hit the ball quite well. I was really excited about what I was doing at Liberty (National). I made some nice changes and obviously didn’t feel very well on Thursday.â€� Medinah was the longest course in major championship history in 1999 and is still brawny and difficult. It will play to a par 72 of 7,613 yards, with forced carries over water and juicy rough. “The golf course is a lot bigger,â€� Woods said. “It’s a lot longer than I remember.â€� Is that a concern? Perhaps. At the PGA at Bethpage Black, Woods couldn’t match the brawn of the golf course, making double bogey on his very first hole and never quite recovering. At the BMW at Medinah, where the rough is up, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy are among those who have already predicted that the course will make similar demands of the world’s best. In other words, Woods’ improved feeling and range of motion will be tested. “Body-wise it’s the same,â€� he said. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Things just pop up. That’s been one of the biggest challenges coming back from last year. You saw I’m making tweaks and changes trying to play around this back and trying to be explosive and have enough rest time and training time. That’s been the biggest challenge of it all. “This week is no different,â€� he added. “I’m trying to win this tournament just like anybody else in this field and trying to get to East Lake and trying to get to a place where a lot of things changed for me last year, and hopefully I can make that happen.â€�

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LAS VEGAS – Of course it would come down to a putt. Kevin Na obliterated the TPC Summerlin greens this week at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open setting a PGA TOUR record for feet of putts made in a 72-hole event. RELATED: Leaderboard | What’s in Na’s bag? But it was a four-foot knee-knocker on the 74th hole, in the midst of a sudden death playoff with Patrick Cantlay, that he needed to claim a fourth PGA TOUR win, and second win at TPC Summerlin. Cantlay – the winner two years ago and runner-up last year – had continued his love affair with the course until he three-putted on the second sudden death hole and opened the door for Na to pounce. Na’s putt was no gimme but given his form over the four days it was no surprise when it hit the middle and dropped in. The only surprise was Na didn’t walk it in, like he did a hole earlier, as has become his signature style. “I should have kissed it after I won. I’ll give it a kiss when I get home,â€� Na joked of his Toulon Madison putter with an graphite shaft. “I feel like I’m a pretty good putter. I’m a player that I feel like I get better as I get closer to the greens. That’s a strength of my game, a part of my game that gets stronger. “Putter got hot this week. Tends to do that sometimes, and when it does, if I’m hitting it halfway decent I feel like I can win.â€� It wasn’t just hot. It was scorching. The PGA TOUR has been tracking putts since ShotLink arrived in 2003 and Na set the new mark at 558 feet, 11 inches over the regulation 72 holes. He was an incredible +14.263 in Strokes Gained: Putting. Given Na lives in Las Vegas, it was almost like the will of the people was sending his ball to the hole over and over again. Or perhaps it was the fact his father was in the gallery and had yet to see him win, something Na so desperately wanted to provide. But as for hitting it halfway decent? Well Na was actually negative in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (-1.237) and just barely above average Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green (+0.579). Clearly the putter was the star. But so too was his resolve. Na had a three-shot lead at the turn on Sunday and was seemingly cruising to a win. But a triple bogey on the 10th opened the door to Cantlay and others to challenge. In fact, Cantlay took the lead after Na found water on the 16th hole. But the Korean born American stayed steadfast and after Cantlay had his own water ball on 17, Na made a clutch 22-foot par save to square things up. “The 10th was hard to shake it off, but I made some great putts coming down the stretch,â€� Na said. “I was just grinding, grinding everything I can to make that putt. I’m sure my emotions showed that.â€� Having now won three of his last 30 starts, including two in the 2019 calendar year, Na said he will be making sure Tiger Woods is aware of his form as he chases a captains pick for the Presidents Cup. “I’m hoping he texts me. If not, I’m going to be texting him,â€� Na quipped. “You know, during the Playoffs I had the birth of my second child where I missed the BMW Championship. I was injured quite a bit last season. I only played 19 events, which is six to seven short of my normal. “So I was a little bit behind on the points but I got two wins in this calendar year, so hopefully he’s keeping an eye on me. I could make some putts. I’m a good match-play player. I don’t know. I keep trying to sell myself. Hopefully he considers me.â€� Given match play often comes down to putting Woods could do much worse.

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SYDNEY, Australia – You could argue that Smylie Kaufman has been figuratively down under for a while. Now, he’s literally there as the search for his game continues halfway around the world. Kaufman has popped up in the Australian Open in Sydney this week and will play the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta on Dec. 12-15 before returning to Australia for the Australian PGA Championship on Dec. 19-22. The now 28-year-old won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in just his fifth PGA TOUR start back in the 2015-16 season and then shot further into stardom in the months that followed. In his first Masters start in 2016, he sat just a shot off the lead through 54-holes and was part of a viral spring break trip with fellow young studs Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas. But as the rest of that group continued a climb into the stratospheres with FedExCup, THE PLAYERS Championship and major championship victories, Kaufman started a freefall. Since being tied fourth at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October 2017, Kaufman has missed the cut in 25 of 27 PGA TOUR starts with a WD in another. He had the same troubles in a handful of Korn Ferry Tour starts and even pegged it up on a mini tour a few months ago. The reason for the demise is a mix between a right wrist and left elbow injury and some shattered confidence that was initially exaggerated by a steady stream of social media criticism. Like other players who have gone through rough patches, Kaufman says it is the unknown that plagues him. His iron play particularly had gone awry and sent his trust levels into cavernous territory. Sound familiar? FedExCup leader Brendon Todd has just come out the other side of a similar dark place, winning twice already this season after years of heartache. His recent success gives Kaufman heart. “Guys out here… they have something they can rely on. That’s where the struggle comes, when a player feels they don’t have something they can trust or rely on and they don’t know what the ball is going to do and how it is going to react,â€� Kaufman said. This is not easy golf out here and I think people don’t always understand how hard the game can be if you don’t know exactly what your ball is going to do. “It’s just a guessing game when it comes down to it.â€� Amidst all the gloom, there have been a few glimmers of hope in recent times. Kaufman has learned how to deal with those who take shots at him from behind a keyboard and is looking at positives rather than negatives. And he feels his ball-striking is not as loose as it had been, putting him on a path back to belief. His last round on the PGA TOUR was a 4-under 67 in the second round of the Bermuda Championship and while he still missed the cut after an opening 76, it was his lowest round on either the PGA TOUR or the Korn Ferry Tour in 531 days. He had been +136 in 35 rounds since shooting 67 in the second round of the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson. And so, with only past champion status to call on in America, a trip across the Pacific was arranged. Kaufman wants tournament reps while he finds himself in a more positive mindset. Sadly, he opened with a 4-over 75 at The Australian Golf Club – a theme he has been fighting for so long now. A missed flight from the U.S. left him arriving on Tuesday and suffering some severe jetlag, but he refused to blame his fatigue on his score. “It has been mainly Thursdays for me. Just the buildup and the pressure has made Thursdays feel like Sundays,â€� Kaufman said after his first competitive round down under. “It’s hard for me to just go out there and be comfortable and ready to go. So I think that’s huge for me these next three weeks. I get three Thursdays and Fridays to try to feel more and more comfortable. The more tournament golf the better.â€� Kaufman had politely declined media requests over the last few months as he focused on finding his game, but in Australia he seems to have turned a corner in confidence. His trademark smile returned at times, fueled by the generous support afforded to him by the galleries. While he has scaled back his social media presence from the early days, Kaufman has noticed a shift in the landscape of late. There are less haters and more and more supporters and votes of confidence. More and more golf fans are now appreciative of the dedication and sacrifice Kaufman is making to turn things around. “The fans here were great. That was fun. There were some key marquee groups behind so we played with some big crowds and that was a nice change for me from home where I haven’t really been playing in front of anybody much lately,â€� Kaufman adds. “I was actually surprised to see how many people seem to know who I am so it was kind of nice to have fans here who enjoy following me and watching and hopefully I can give them a little more of a show tomorrow. “I have always believed your talent doesn’t go anywhere. I don’t feel that far off, that’s the thing. I really don’t.â€� Kaufman says he is a visual learner and when he is able to clear his mind golf becomes easy. But clearing the nagging thoughts has proven difficult at times. “When you play so bad for so long… you’re always trying to figure out a Rubik cube,â€� he says. “I was in a funk there… When you go through a tough stretch, you’re more in analytical mode and you’re using a different part of your brain. Now I’m basically working on strong visuals. I can do it on the range. I can do it on the putting green. I just have to take it to the course.â€�

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