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Tiger bids good riddance to Barclays course

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Robert Lusetich

After more than 20 years of covering everything from election campaigns to Olympic Games, Robert Lusetich turned his focus to writing about his first love — golf. He is author of Unplayable: An Inside Account of Tiger's Most Tumultuous Season. MORE>>
Updated Aug 30, 2009 10:32 PM ET
     
 

JERSEY CITY, N.J.

It's hard to say what was more shocking: that Tiger Woods missed the putt on the last hole or that he was 7 feet away from forcing extra holes with Heath Slocum at a tournament he seemed to enjoy about as much as a week of root-canal surgery. Woods has built his legend on never missing the big putt and when he stuffed an iron on 18, one of the more exacting holes at the much-maligned Liberty National, it seemed he was headed for yet another improbable victory at The Barclays. Except his putt, far from going in, didn't even scare the cup. He later said it was just another in a laundry list of mis-reads which plagued his opening to the FedEx Cup playoff series. "If I would've hit a poor putt, I would have been pissed, but I didn't," said an exasperated Woods, for whom the greens here were harder to read than a James Joyce novel. "We (he and caddie Steve Williams) read it either right center with a little pace, or inside right. We mis-read it by almost a cup. That's frustrating when you mis-read a putt that bad. Kind of the nature of these greens, a little bit tricky to read." Woods said he could not recall ever before calling in Williams to navigate with so many putts. "I don't ever call Stevie in on this many reads. They were tricky putts, double-breaking putts, 10-, 12-footers, just tricky greens," he said. "Not too many golf courses that you mis-read putts that badly." If he sounds repetitive, it's because he was. Very deliberately so. It was his final parting slap at Tom Kite's quirky layout across from Manhattan. Tiger Woods wanted to remind us that he's always money on the greens, so when he hits good putts that don't go in, the blame lies in the design.
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He was not alone in leaving the Big Apple with an unfavourable opinion of Liberty National, which next year will be replaced as the venue for the The Barclays with the nearby Tillinghast gem, Ridgewood Country Club, a classic sure to delight the players. Lest anyone was still unclear about where Woods stood on Liberty National, he responded with something approaching a disapproving groan — or maybe a moan, but the intent was very clear — when asked whether he'd like to come back and play here again. Which really makes the events of this weekend astonishing. Woods had every reason to pack up his tent and mail in a top-10 or -15 finish. He was the FedEx Cup points leader anyway and the first three tournaments are really just to sort out pole position for The Tour Championship. But instead he shot a pair of 67s on the weekend to come within a whisker of putting his brand of lipstick on this pig. After opening with three less-than-impressive pars on Sunday — knowing he needed birdies to catch the leaders — Woods seemed to derail his campaign with a pulled par putt which was generously listed at 3 feet on the par 3. "That was a bad putt," he later conceded, "Consequently, you don't deserve for it to go in."

Unlikely winner

ALTTEXT Heath Slocum was the second-lowest-ranked player to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, but he's in great position now, thanks to a huge clutch putt on the 72nd hole Sunday.
  • Final-round Barclays leaderboard
    • But even then he was still stubborn enough to believe that he could get to nine or 10 under par and win. So he birdied the next, let an opportunity go begging on the sixth, then threw in two more birdies on the front side to get to 6 under. It helped that Paul Goydos and Steve Marino, the final pairing, were recalling this place's days as a toxic waste dump, on their way to a collective 10-over-par day. Woods felt he hit the ball better than his 2-under-par back-nine score indicates, but this game does require holing out and his birdie tries were consistent in their determination to stay out, culminating with that last one. "To miss as many putts as I did this week, to still have a chance on the last green with a putt, it goes to show you how good I am hitting it. That's a great sign. Just need to make a few more putts." Now, with the runt of the FedEx Cup playoffs series litter out of the way, Woods has to like his chances of adding yet another $10 million to his bank account and lifting the Cup for the second time in three years. He did not compete last year because of surgery.
    Next weekend, the travelling circus moves to the TPC Boston for the Deutsche Bank, a tournament Woods enjoys on a course he likes. He's played there five times, winning in '06 and twice finishing second. From there, it's on to the BMW Championship at Chicago's Cog Hill, which is like home cookin' for Woods. He's won four times at Cog Hill and six times overall in the Windy City, the other two PGAs at Medinah Country Club. His last time at the BMW Championship, in 2007, he shot 22 under par, including a closing 63, to wrap up the inaugural FedEx Cup. From there, the top 30 players left in the field move to Atlanta's East Lake for The Tour Championship, an event Woods has won twice and finished runner-up at three times. "I haven't seen the redesign at Cog Hill; not too many guys have," Woods said, "But two of the next three, I pretty much know those golf courses." And playing there won't feel like having teeth pulled.

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