BMW Championship, Rd. 4
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| BMW Championship | |||
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
TIGER CRUISES (6 p.m.): There was never any doubt in this one, not after a course-record 62 in the third round that gave him a seven-shot lead heading into today's final round. Tiger Woods has now won five times at Cog Hill, picking up career victory No. 71 and moving to the top of the FedExCup standings in the process.
Woods was his old self pretty much all week, striking it well and putting it even better at times. The victory is the sixth of Woods' season and though none of them came at a major, some of his wins, like this one, were majorly impressive.
Now there's just one more trophy left for Woods to win, and it comes with a $10 million check attached to it. And is there any doubt to who the Player of the Year is now? -- Brian Wacker
FINAL-HOLE MELTDOWN (5:52 p.m.): This is the pain of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. All Brandt Snedeker needed was to not double-bogey the final hole and he would secure a spot in THE TOUR Championship presented by the FedExCup.
After reaching the 18th green in three strokes, and sitting inside of 13 feet, that seemed like a certainty. Not so fast. Snedeker, who has played 13 of the last 14 weeks, inexplicably four-putted, missing two putts from inside 4 feet.
As a result, John Senden, who double-bogeyed his final hole of the day to drop outside of the top 30 in the FedExCup standings, was suddenly back in them and headed to Atlanta. Crazy.
Then there's Ian Poulter, who found the water on the 18th hole. In retrospect, that cost him a spot in the top 30, too, as he finished less than a half-point behind Senden. Again, crazy.
All that contributed to an amazing finish for a tournament that was pretty much decided by late Saturday afternoon. -- Brian Wacker
MARINO MOVING ON (5:38 p.m.): Steve Marino has secured his spot in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola by shooting a final-round 71 that leaves him at 2 under for the tournament.
Marino is currently projected at 25th in the FedExCup points standings.
Marino was bogey-free in his final eight holes, using a birdie at the par-5 15th to help cement his top-30 spot.
"I'm never really nervous, but today I was a little bit nervous," Marino said. "I made it a point to try not to look at the board.
"I accidentally caught a glimpse of it on 15 and saw that I was still in, and I was happy about that. But I was able to kind of put it behind me and finish strong. I'm just super-excited."
Marino also had an interesting observation about why Cog Hill played so much tougher on Sunday than it did in the third round.
"I don't think they were too happy about Tiger shooting 62," he said. -- Mike McAllister
SEE YA SENDEN (5:30 p.m.): We've been talking all day about players trying to play themselves into the top 30 in the FedExCup standings -- or avoid falling out of it -- and John Senden just did the latter with a double-bogey on the 17th hole. Meanwhile, Luke Donald moved up to 30th by making a par on the 18th hole. Stay tuned, though. We're not done yet. -- Brian Wacker
DOWN TO THE WIRE (5:10 p.m.): The outcome is pretty much in hand for Tiger Woods, barring him, say, signing an incorrect scorecard, as he holds an eight-shot lead with a few holes to play. What is not set in stone, however, is the top 30 in the FedExCup standings. Some players are trying to keep their spot in the top 30, while others are trying to play their way in and still others, like Sean O'Hair, are hoping to finish in the top 5. Click here to follow the projections live as we wind down. -- Brian Wacker
THE REAL MR. SEPTEMBER? (4:56 p.m.): With Tiger Woods closing in on a victory at the BMW Championship, it begs the question of whether he's been the best performer in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, or whether Steve Stricker, who was being called "Mr. September" after last week, has. Certainly, both have impressive records in the postseason, but Stricker's record doesn't quite stack up to Woods'.
Woods missed the 2007 Playoffs because of knee surgery, but in the other two years, after today, he will have three wins, two runner-up finishes and a tie for 11th. Stricker, meanwhile, has two wins, a runner-up and a third-place finish, plus two other top-10s. So not only is Tiger arguably the best player ever to pick up a golf club, he's the best player in the brief history of the Playoffs, too. Shocking. -- Brian Wacker
| Tiger Woods in the Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Steve Stricker in the Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TIME FOR POULTER TO STEP UP (4:45 p.m.): Ian Poulter has played the 17th and 18th holes here at Cog Hill in a combined 5 under this week with five birdies and one par. Now would be a good time to continue that trend for Poulter, who has slipped from 30th to 32nd in the projected FedExCup standings. Two birdies, or even one, might be enough to get Poulter to his first TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola (click here to follow him with Shot Tracker). -- Brian Wacker
HARRINGTON MAKES ANOTHER MISTAKE (4:30 p.m.): Padraig Harrington already has his spot secured for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, but it looks like the three time major champion won't be in the top 5 of the FedExCup standings when he arrives at East Lake.
There's certainly still a chance for Harrington to change that with four holes left in his round today, but his chances just took a hit with a bogey on No. 12 and a double bogey on the 13th. After an errant second shot at No. 13, Harrington had to take a drop and after reaching the green with his fourth shot, Harrington two-putted for a 6 from just inside 16 feet. That dropped him to 3 over on the day and down the leaderboard a bit. as a result, Harrington is now projected to finish seventh in the FedExCup standings.
That double-bogey, by the way, marks the 13th straight tournament, dating back to the Shell Houston Open, that Harrington has had a double-bogey, or worse, in an event. -- Brian Wacker
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STRICKER STRUGGLES (4:19 p.m.): Steve Stricker, the current FedExCup points leader -- at least for another 90 minutes or so -- just finished a disappointing 6-over 77 on Sunday.
Stricker finished the tournament at 6 over and is currently tied for 51st.
After winning last week's Deutsche Bank Championship, Stricker came into Cog Hill guaranteed not to drop any farther than second in the FedExCup points race. With Tiger Woods in control and on his way to a commanding win, Stricker will indeed fall to second, as Woods regains the lead.
Stricker never really put anything together during his four days at Cog Hill. He shot 72-73 the first two days before posting a 3-under 68 in the third round.
On Sunday, he opened with four bogeys and a double bogey in his first eight holes. He managed only five sand saves in 13 attempts, none in his last six chances.
"I obviously need rest," Stricker said. "I (didn't have) a lot of game this week at all, any day really. ... Obviously I've got to play better. You know, this was just a little hiccup this week. I'm giving myself a break with that and just kind of writing it off and saying that I was tired. Really, I was." -- Mike McAllister
TOP OF THE HEAP (4:03 p.m.): Looks like Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker and Heath Slocum will claim three of the top five spots in the FedExCup points rankings after Sunday. The other two remain up for grabs, and the importance of getting into the top five can't be overstated.
If you're in the top five going into THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, then you control your own destiny. If you win at East Lake, then you win the FedExCup title.
Right now, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson, Padraig Harrington and Sean O'Hair are battling near the top of the leaderboard, and seem to have the best chances at grabbing one of those two spots
If the battle comes down to the final three holes at Cog Hill, here is how each of those four have fared in the first three rounds. -- Mike McAllister
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SNEDEKER SLIDING (3:52 p.m.): After being projected as high as No. 10 in FedExCup points at the start of the round, Brandt Snedeker is now flirting with elimination. He just bogeyed the 10th hole and is tied with Padraig Harrington for fifth. The Irishman is now sixth in the projected standings while Snedeker has dropped down to No. 29. -- Brian Wacker
VILLEGAS GOES LOW, NOT LOW ENOUGH (3:47 p.m.): Camilo Villegas has the low round of the day thus far, a 5-under 66, but it won't be enough to move him into the top 30 of the FedExCup points. That means he won't be able to defend his title at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in two weeks.
Asked if the 66 was enough to advance to East Lake, Villegas already knew he was done.
"It's totally enough to have three weeks off," Villegas said.
He opened with a 3-under 68 on Thursday, but couldn't sustain the momentum in the middle two rounds, shooting 74-71 before his belated rally on Sunday.
Villegas, who won the BMW Championship as well as THE TOUR Championship last year, is winless in 2009. He entered this week ranked 52nd in points and currentily is projected at 43. -- Mike McAllister
Below is a look at Villegas' scorecard from today:
ZACH ATTACK (3:35 p.m.): The chances of anyone catching Tiger Woods are getting slimmer by the hole, but that hasn't stopped Zach Johnson from trying. Johnson has now birdied three of his last four holes after making a birdie on the par-3 12th (click here to follow his round live with Shot Tracker).
That has Johnson, who came into the week fourth in the FedExCup points standings, at 4 under today and 9 under for the week. It also has him headed toward a precious spot in the top 5 in the FedExCup standings if he can keep it up. Right now, Johnson is projected to finish the week third. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER AT THE TURN (3:17 p.m.): There hasn't been a whole lot of movement -- as in zero -- at the top of the leaderboard with Tiger Woods holding a seven-shot leading entering today's final round. Woods did drop a shot early, but got it right back with a birdie two holes later. Woods just added another birdie, at the par-5 ninth, to make the turn in 1 under.
What was so impressive about that last birdie is that Woods made it escaping from the rough twice. First, he chased a low runner out of deep rough following an errant tee shot. The only problem was his ball bounded through the fairway and settled behind a tree. No problem for Woods, though, who smother hooked a punch shot around the tree, rolling it to within a few feet. Woods made the birdie to get to 17 under for the week. -- Brian Wacker
| Tiger Woods - Career scoring at Cog Hill (Since 1997; through Round 3) | |||||||||||||||
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| Scoring Leaders - Cog Hill Since 1997 (through Round 3) | ||||||||||||||
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DONALD ON THE RISE (3:10 p.m.): Luke Donald is recovering well after a bogey-double bogey stumble midway through the front nine. He's just birdied the ninth and 10th holes to move into sole possession of eighth at 7 under. He's climbing the projected FedExCup standings, too -- moving up five spots to No. 27 and a potential berth at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. -- Helen Ross
FEDEXCUP UPDATE (2:56 p.m.): Sean O'Hair has jumped into a tie for third with Zach Johnson and Brandt Snedeker. Johnson has climbed to third in the projections, dropping Heath Slocum down to No. 4, and O'Hair is now projected at No. 5. That means Padraig Harrington, now looking like sixth in the FedExCup standings, needs to start making birdies to challenge for the top 5 again. -- Helen Ross
WOODS BOUNCES BACK (2:45 p.m.): Tiger Woods' seven-shot lead dropped to six a little while ago when Woods bogeyed the par-4 fifth. It didn't last long, however, as Woods just got the stroke back with a birdie on the par-4 seventh, where he chipped in from just off the green. That bumped his lead back to seven with rookie Mark Leishman in second at 9 under. -- Brian Wacker
FIRST-TIMERS (2:35 p.m.): At least five players will be making their first appearance in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola: Jason Dufner, Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, Brian Gay and Y.E. Yang.
Depending on what happens Sunday, 25 others in the field at Cog Hill could be making their debuts in Atlanta -- Angel Cabrera, Kevin Na, Steve Marino, Charley Hoffman, John Senden, Ian Poulter, Jason Day, Pat Perez, Mark Wilson, Paul Goydos, Matt Kuchar, Bill Haas, Ryan Moore, Charlie Wi, Webb Simpson, Brian Davis, Bo Van Pelt, Fredrik Jacobson, John Mallinger, Jeff Overton, J.B. Holmes, Nathan Green, Bryce Molder, Marc Leishman and Jason Bohn.
Not only will they be playing for the FedExCup title at East Lake, all 30 who make the field are exempt into the first three majors of 2010. -- Helen Ross
FEDEXCUP PROJECTIONS (2:25 p.m.): With a little over 3 hours of golf remaining Sunday afternoon, Brandt Snedeker, Marc Leishman and Luke Donald are the only two players who have climbed into the top 30 based on the projected FedExCup standings.
Snedeker and Leishman are holding steady in a tie for second, six strokes behind Tiger Woods. Snedeker has climbed 32 spots to No. 10, while Leishman has risen 50 spots to 17th. Luke Donald was projected at No. 24 -- until he made a bogey at the fifth and a double bogey at the seventh but he's still in the mix as the bubble boy at No. 30.
British Open champion Stewart Cink, who lives in Atlanta and plays out of East Lake, has played his first 11 holes in 1 under and climbed back to No. 28. He started the week at No. 25 and had fallen out of the top 30 in the projections after the third round, so he's headed in the right direction again.
Padraig Harrington is 1 over for the day and tied for fourth at 7 under. But he still has a shot at being one of the five who will control their own destiny at East Lake -- he's projected at No. 5. Also in that tie for fourth are Sean O'Hair and Jim Furyk. O'Hair has moved up nine spots to No. 7 while Furyk has jumped 10 spots to No. 8.
There's still a lot of golf to be played, though. So keep checking out the projected standings. -- Helen Ross
SABBATINI STRUGGLING (2:20 p.m.): The front nine at Cog Hill was not kind to Rory Sabbatini in the last three days.
Sabbatini just closed out his front nine Sunday with a birdie on the par-5 ninth, but three bogeys in his first eight holes still has him 2 over for his round.
Going back to the second round, Sabbatini is a collective 7 over on the front nine, which helps explain why he dropped off the leaderboard after shooting an opening-round 66 that had given him a share of the first-round lead.
Sabbatini needs to pick up the pace if he wants to climb inside the top 30. He currently projects to 34th. -- Mike McAllister
TOUGHER COG HILL (2:10 p.m.): It doesn't appear that many players will be going low today as Cog Hill appears to have toughened up. Although it's still early, the top 21 players currently on the leaderboard are a combined 9 over for the final round.
Among the top 21, Stephen Ames, a former winner at Cog Hill, has the best round going at 3 under through 10 holes. -- Mike McAllister
CRUISE CONTROL (1:53 p.m.): Tiger Woods is through his first four holes of the final round here at the BMW Championship, where he still leads by seven, despite playing those holes in even par. Of course, Woods played that same stretch in even par yesterday, too, with one bogey and one birdie before blitzing the rest of Cog Hill. Still, he's plenty accurate off the tee and into the greens this afternoon, hitting all three fairways and all but one green in regulation so far, which pretty much stacks up with how he's played this course the first three days (see chart below).
While this probably won't end up being Woods' largest margin of victory -- that was 12 at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach -- it is on pace to be his biggest since the 2008 Buick Invitational, which he won by eight strokes over Ryuji Imada. -- Brian Wacker
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WHAT WILL TIGER DO? (1:35 p.m.): Tiger Woods set a new course record at Cog Hill on Saturday by shooting 9-under 62. Will he set a new tournament record Sunday?
Woods currently holds the tournament record of 262 (67-67-65-63) that he set two years ago in winning the BMW Championship for the fourth time at Cog Hill.
His 22-under total that year gave him a two-stroke win over Aaron Baddeley and essentially provided the impetus for Cog Hill officials to toughen up their course in hopes of landing a major championship.
To beat his own record, Woods will need to shoot 7-under 64 on Sunday. That would give him a total of 261 (23 under). -- Mike McAllister
| Tiger Woods - This Week vs. 2009 Season | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TIGER UPDATE (1:23 p.m.): For the first time in three days, Tiger Woods successfully avoided finding the far left-hand fairway bunker with his opening drive at Cog Hill.
Woods had landed in the bunker in the second and third rounds, taking bogey both times. Obviously, it didn't slow him down on Saturday en route to a course-record 9-under 62 that gave him a seven-shot lead entering the final round.
On Sunday, his drive at the par-4, 462-yard first hole landed in the fairway near that troublesome bunker. His second shot landed just outside of 28 feet from the pin and he two-putted for par. -- Mike McAllister
HEADED TO ATLANTA (1:15 p.m.): Most players in the field in today's final round will be hoping to secure one of the top 30 spots in the FedExCup rankings, which will guarantee them a trip to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.
But here are the players who already have a spot secured: Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, Heath Slocum, Zach Johnson, Scott Verplank, Kenny Perry, Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy, Jason Dufner, Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, Phil Mickelson, Brian Gay, Lucas Glove, Y.E. Yang.
And here are the players who are probable to reach THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP: Sean O'Hair, Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, David Toms. -- Mike McAllister
AND THEY'RE OFF (1:05 p.m.): Everyone is now on the golf course with fog having delayed the start of today's play and forced players to go off split tees in threesomes. Padraig Harrington already has a birdie, making it on the first hole, but he's still seven back of Tiger Woods, who, barring some sort of miracle, should win for the 71st time in his career today. As mentioned earlier, though, there's a lot on the line for a lot of players in the field, specifically who will make it to THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP presented by Coca-Cola. See the chart below for more (and click here for live points projections). -- Brian Wacker
| On the Bubble: Nos. 25 to 35, projected through Round 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A MATTER OF COURSE (12:52 p.m.): According to our friends at ShotLink, Tiger Woods has carded 14 rounds of 67 or better at Cog Hill since 1997, including his course-record 62 in Saturday's third round. Those 14 rounds are more than any player during that time, which probably explains why he's on his way to wrapping up his fifth win at the course. -- Mike McAllister
| Most Rounds of 67 or Better at Cog Hill Since 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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INSIDE THE NUMBERS (12:40 p.m.): Based on positions at the BMW Championship through three rounds, Padraig Harrington has the best chance of cracking the top 5 in the FedExCup standings once today's round is over. He is currently tied for fourth and will likely need a solo-fourth or better to finish inside the top 5.
Brandt Snedeker (42nd), Marc Leishman (67th), Matt Kuchar (46th) and Luke Donald (32nd) are the four players who began the week outside the top 30 that are projected to finish inside the top 30 and punch their ticket to Atlanta if they can maintain or better their positions today.
Ian Poulter (No. 30), Stewart Cink (No. 25), Jerry Kelly (No. 24) and Charley Hoffman (No. 28), meanwhile, will be headed home unless they improve their positions on the leaderboard today.
Sergio Garcia (55) and Bubba Watson (59) are currently tied for eighth at the BMW Championship and will likely need a third or fourth place finish to advance in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
Last year, only two players played their way into the top 30 at the BMW Championship -- Dudley Hart and D.J. Trahan.
Of those who have clinched a spot in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola , only two -- Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson -- have reached Atlanta in all three years of the Playoffs. They could be joined by Robert Allenby, Stewart Cink, Tim Clark, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Garcia, Hunter Mahan and Camilo Villegas.
And five players have clinched a spot in THE TOUR Championship for the first time -- Jason Dufner, Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, Brian Gay and Y.E. Yang. -- Kin Lo
FIRST TIME (12:30 p.m.): Brandt Snedeker will play play with Tiger Woods on the PGA TOUR for the first time in his career when the two teee off in about 15 minutes from now. So what's on Snedeker's mind as he prepares to enter the Woods vortex? Here are a few snippets ...
Q: Never even a practice round with Tiger Woods that you can remember?
SNEDEKER: "Never. We've talked a couple times but never a practice round, never anything. It'll be a fun day. I've played with everybody else. It's weird, there's probably five guys I've never played with out here in three years, and I see them every day, we're friends, but I've never played with them on the golf course. Tiger is one of them."
Q: How will you embrace that experience?
SNEDEKER: "It'll be fun. Are you kidding me? Playing with the best guy in the world hopefully in the last group? It'll be fantastic. That's what you want. You want to play with the best when they're playing their best and see what you've got and see what you need to work on. If you told me at the beginning of the week I was playing with Tiger Woods on Sunday, I think I would have liked my position, put it that way."
Q: How do you deal with a guy like him when he's got a ... seven shot lead going into Sunday?
SNEDEKER: "I'm not worried about him whatsoever. I'm worried about doing what I can do. It's going to be interesting, it's going to be a learning experience. But that being said, he's a great guy. He'll make it as easy on me as possible tomorrow. He's going to play great golf. I've got to do something spectacular and he's got to maybe have a heart attack out there for me to have a chance. "But that being said, if you go out there and play a solid front nine like I did, I had four or five birdies on the front nine, put some pressure on him, you don't know what's going to happen. So that's my goal for tomorrow, go out there and start fast and more importantly have some fun."
TEE TIMES (12:20 p.m.): With heavy fog delaying the start of play this morning at Cog Hill, the final-round tee times were adjusted with players sent off both tees and in threesomes at 10:55 a.m. ET. That means the leaders will go off about an hour earlier than originally scheduled and that Marc Leishman will join leader Tiger Woods and Brandt Snedeker, who he shares second with, at 12:45 p.m. ET. -- Brian Wacker
WHAT'S AT STAKE (12 p.m.): With Tiger Woods holding a seven-shot lead entering today's final round, the outcome certainly doesn't seem in doubt. What is in doubt, however, is who will advance to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in two weeks.
The top 30 in the FedExCup standings will move on to East Lake and that means guys like Mike Weir, Luke Donald and Steve Marino need to play well today to advance. That's because they're the last three currently projected inside the top 30.
Right behind them are Mark Wilson, Ian Poulter and Jerry Kelly. Of those three, Poulter and Kelly began the week inside the top 30, while Wilson came to Cog Hill 41st. All have a chance to move into the top 30 again, though, as do other players. So even though Woods, who has never blown a seven-shot lead, is well on his way to career victory No. 71, there's plenty on the line for those trailing him. -- Brian Wacker
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