Golf

Tiger Woods makes shocking commitment to play Wyndham Championship in Greensboro

The 14-time major winner is apparently serious about getting his swing correct because he’ll make a start at a lower-tier event that he’d previously never considered playing.

by Brendan Porath

Aug 14, 2015, 11:29 PM UTC

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The presumption Friday afternoon at the PGA Championship was that Tiger Woods was playing his last official PGA Tour round of the season. He was miles from qualifying for the FedExCup, which takes only the top 125 on the FEC points list. Tiger was at 186th in the standings at the start of the week with the PGA Championship and next week’s Wyndham Championship as the only two events left on the schedule to acquire points before the start of the playoffs. So the PGA, which is looking like a third straight missed cut at a major, would be his last start.

Tiger, however, made a surprising move and announced late Friday that he had committed to next week’s Wyndham at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. It’s one of the oldest stops on the PGA Tour but it’s become a lower-tiered event with a niche field of players. Many are those trying to sneak into the top 125 in the FedExCup standings or fringe guys. None are 14-time major winners who previously would not even contemplate the tournament’s existence, let alone playing in it.

But that’s where we are with Tiger in 2015 as the 286th ranked player in the world. He needs reps and apparently wants reps thinking that his swing might be coming together. This will be his first career start in Greensboro, and he’ll need a really good result -- likely a second place finish or win to get the necessary points to qualify for the FedExCup playoffs. That may be secondary to just getting another start and some more competitive rounds in this year on the PGA Tour. It’s a commendable move for Tiger and obviously an enormous get for the Wyndham and the folks in Greensboro.

UPDATE: ESPN’s Bob Harig spoke to Tiger’s agent about the decision, and it sounds like this is not a done deal at all. Woods simply entered the tournament by the Friday night deadline, but the word “committed” is the official term. He’s anything but and it sounds like he will take the weekend and maybe a day or two into next week to decide if he’ll actually tee it up in Greensboro. Tiger’s agent Mark Steinberg to Harig:

“We wanted to be very transparent; we told the PGA Tour, we told the tournament director, Mark Brazil, the sponsor that Tiger is going to take the weekend to decide,” Steinberg said. “I made it abundantly clear our intentions. If Tiger doesn’t play, we will give plenty of notice so an alternate can be fully prepared to take his place.”