The Confidence Factor: Quicken Loans National

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - For 15 holes of the opening round at the BMW Championship Tiger Woods was grinding it out at a tough Olympia Fields and was in position to push towards the high finish he needs to continue his FedExCup season. But then the wheels came off. Woods, the 2007 and 2009 FedExCup winner, finished his opening round with three straight bogeys to sign for a 3-over 73, dropping back to a tie for 35th. He's now six shots off Hideki Matsuyama's lead, and four back of the projected finish he needs to advance to East Lake where the final 30 will fight it out for the FedExCup. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Matsuyama leads BMW Championship "Not the way I wanted to finish, but the golf course is playing difficult for sure," was all Woods could muster to say post round. Starting on the 10th Woods dropped a shot on his second hole of the round when he overcooked a short wedge shot that rolled over the back of the green. But he made up for it with a 28-foot birdie putt three holes later. A sloppy three-putt bogey on the par-3 16th, his seventh, was rubbed out by a birdie on the par-4 second and Woods appeared set to contend as winds started to rise. But a pulled approach on the seventh, another three-putt on the eighth and a wayward drive on the ninth into a bunker all conspired to see the 82-time winner tumble down the leaderboard. Woods started the tournament in 57th spot on the FedExCup and currently projects 56th, well back of the top 30 spot he desires. Duncan do it... Tyler Duncan was born in nearby Indiana, went to college at Purdue, but it is his caddie that is the secret weapon this week. Zach Guthrie was part of five Big Ten Championships during six years as the Assistant Men's Golf Coach at the University of Illinois and as such has a pretty decent handle on Olympia Fields. "I do feel comfortable here. It feels a lot like a summer round that I grew up playing. It’s hot, it’s windy, it’s kind of what you get around here. My caddie, he coached at Illinois when I was in school, so he’s been around here a bunch, and he’s from Illinois. We both feel pretty good here," Duncan said after a 2-under 68 has him sitting second on the leaderboard. Duncan comes into the BMW Championship in 32nd spot in the FedExCup thanks mainly to his win at the RSM Classic. He's now projected to eighth as he looks to secure a first ever TOUR Championship berth. "It was awesome. It was a grind. I drove it well and scrambled well, and those were the two biggest factors that I thought you were going to need to perform well at to have success this week." Bubble boys start solid... Tony Finau and Billy Horschel sit in 29th and 30th spot respectively leading into this week's BMW Championship as they look to hold on to a place in the final 30 and a start at East Lake. Both took impressive first steps in the opening round, shooting even par 70s to sit in a tie for fourth. A total of 10 players sit there with them meaning their projections are just 25 and 26 at the moment, but good enough to be thinking survival. "My putter saved me on quite a few holes. Man, the golf course is playing tough right now. You’ve got to hit the fairways and it doesn’t end there. You’ve got to hit the greens and it doesn’t end there with the wind and the amount of slope on these greens and the speed. It keeps you on your heels it seems like all day," Finau said. "I was happy to just finish at even par after the first round." Moving in, moving out... With three rounds to play three players project to move inside the top 30 which in turn would knock three out. Tyler Duncan (2nd) projects from 32nd to eighth, MacKenzie Hughes (3rd) projects from 36th to 19th and Mark Hubbard (T4) projects from 34th to 29th. Currently Cameron Champ (T65) projects to drop from 25th to 32nd, Cameron Smith (T51) from 26th to 33rd and Kevin Streelman (T60) from 28th to 34th. Webb Simpson, the only top 70 player not in the field, currently projects to drop from third to fourth spot.

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SAN DIEGO – Jon Rahm is the world’s second-ranked player, winner of the most recent PGA TOUR event and the defending champion of this week’s Farmers Insurance Open. Under normal circumstances, Rahm would be the center of attention at Torrey Pines. This, of course, is not a normal week. Tiger Woods is playing his first PGA TOUR event in a year, and this return is buoyed by his optimism about a successful back fusion surgery. Rahm is content to let Woods steal the spotlight. “The more attention you guys have on Tiger, the better for me, quite frankly,â€� Rahm said Tuesday. “Hopefully I keep playing good and give you guys something to talk about, but it’s not bad that the attention’s on Tiger. It’s good for golf, it’s good for all of us.â€� While Woods was playing a practice round with Jason Day and Bryson DeChambeau on the South Course’s back nine, Rahm was on the back nine of the North Course. Rahm, who’s ranked second in both the FedExCup and Official World Golf Ranking, is the highest-ranked player in the field according to both metrics. He can move to No. 1 on both lists with a win this week, as well. Seve Ballesteros is the only Spaniard to reach No. 1 in the world. Rahm’s win at last year’s Farmers Insurance Open, which was made possible by a back-nine 30 punctuated by a 60-foot eagle putt, was the first of his PGA TOUR career. His second came Sunday at the CareerBuilder Challenge, in a dramatic four-hole playoff with Andrew Landry. “It’s a lot of things to process in very little time,â€� said Rahm, who has two wins and a runner-up in his previous three worldwide starts. The only player to whom he’s lost in that stretch is the same player he’s trying to supplant atop the world ranking, Dustin Johnson. Rahm’s winning putt from last year’s tournament at Torrey Pines followed has been shown countless times. It has appeared in PGA TOUR commercials, and photos of his emotional reaction afterward are on banners promoting the tournament. For Rahm, it’s just the second-best shot of his remarkable 2017, during which he won three times worldwide and finished fifth in the FedExCup. “The No. 1 shot or moment of last season was the second shot out of the bunker on 13,â€� Rahm said. “If I don’t put that ball on the green, which is actually a lot harder than making that putt, the back-nine charge would have never happened and this year might have never happened, so that shot is the one that made everything possible.â€� He hit 4-iron to 18 feet from the fairway bunker on the par-5 13th for the first of two eagles in the final six holes. He finished three shots ahead of C.T. Pan and Charles Howell III. “I certainly know I can win here because I’ve done it, I think that’s the difference,â€� Rahm said Tuesday. “I think I have the confidence that I can win here, whereas last year I knew I could but I still had to do it. I hope I don’t have to shoot 30 on the back nine to win again.â€� And, he can’t help but think about a potential Sunday showdown with Woods. Last year’s Farmers Insurance Open was just the second time Rahm and Woods have played in the same field (2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open). “Tiger getting in contention, it would be absolutely amazing,â€� Rahm said. “And to be honest, I think a lot of us dreamt about having the opportunity to maybe walk the back nine with Tiger in contention and have a battle hand-in-hand. It would be something amazing for any of us. I hope it happens for somebody. I hope I’m the one, and quite truly I hope I come out on top if it happens.â€�

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