As of this week, schedule-wise we are halfway to the BMW Championship, the first PGA Tour event Colorado has hosted since 2006.
For those golf fans who are looking forward to seeing golf’s two biggest headliners — Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson — you should hope for improved health and better results from those players over the coming 4 1/2 months. Otherwise, they won’t be making the trip to Cherry Hills Country Club for the BMW Championship, scheduled for Sept. 4-7.
The BMW Championship is the 44th points-awarding tournament of the 2013-14 wraparound season for the PGA Tour. Last week’s Masters was the 22nd event of the season, meaning a mid-season report is worth considering.
The top 70 players on the season-long FedEx Cup points list at the end of the day on Sept. 1 will qualify to compete at Cherry Hills in the third of the four Tour playoff events this year.
And the not-so-pleasant news for local golf fans is this: If the BMW Championship were held today, neither Woods nor Mickelson would be in the field. Mickelson currently stands in 84th place on the FedEx Cup points list, and Woods is 199th. For the record, at the halfway point of the FedEx Cup regular season in 2013, Woods led the FedEx Cup points list and Mickelson was sixth.
Considering there are plenty of tournaments left — including three major championships, the Players Championship and the first two playoff events prior to the BMW — normally this might not be a major concern halfway through the season. But with both Woods and Mickelson having experienced injuries and ailments — in addition to poor play — it could be more significant this year.
Woods, second only to Jack Nicklaus in major championships won (18 to 14), has only competed twice in Colorado on the PGA Tour, in 1998 and ’99 at The International. That absence of one of golf’s all-time greatest players seemed very likely to end at the BMW Championship, but now the situation is much more up in the air.
Woods (pictured above at a previous BMW Championship) has only played in three official PGA Tour events in the 2013-14 season, with a 25th-place showing in the Cadillac Championship being his best finish. But more worrisome is Tiger’s injury issues. Two weeks ago, he underwent a microdiscectomy to deal with a pinched nerve in his back. It’s unclear when he’ll return to tournament action, but on his web site, it said, “The goal is for Tiger to resume playing sometime this summer.”
Woods’ friend and former Stanford teammate Notah Begay III this week told CBS Sports Radio that he believes Tiger will still be recuperating beyond the U.S. Open in mid-June.
“I think he needs to give (his back) a minimum of 90 days to make sure that scar tissue heals up appropriately and he doesn’t run the risk of re-injuring it,” Begay said. “So that would push him past the U.S. Open.”
Obviously, the later Woods returns, the less time he’ll have to earn the points necessary to qualify for the BMW Championship, an event he won in 2007 and ’09. He’s played in the tournament in five of the seven years since it became part of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Woods earned the overall FedEx Cup title in 2007 and ’09.
Mickelson likewise has dealt with back problems in 2014, but has played a relatively full schedule so far. The unusual thing is he has yet to post a top-10 finish so far in the 2013-14 season, which is why he’ll need to play better if he has plans to compete at the BMW Championship.
Mickelson, of course, has a history of success in Colorado. He won a U.S. Amateur (at Cherry Hills) and a college tournament in the state, along with The International PGA Tour event twice. He’s competed in each of the last six BMW Championships.
As things stand currently, Jimmy Walker leads the FedEx Cup points race with 2,046, with Masters champion Bubba Watson second at 1,840. All of the top 70 players as of now have at least 345 points. Mickelson is at 296 and Woods 43.
Other big names on the outside looking in as far as the top 70 goes at the halfway point of the season are Luke Donald (340 points), Lee Westwood (316), Henrik Stenson (311), Ernie Els (306) and Brandt Snedeker (293).
But the standings can change quickly, particularly if a player gets hot. Winners of most regular-season PGA Tour events are awarded 500 points, while it’s 550 for World Golf Championships and 600 for majors and the Players Championship.
The top 125 on the points list after the Wyndham Championship in mid-August will qualify for the playoffs, where each tournament winner receives 2,500 points. The top 100 players after The Barclays in Parasmus, N.J. (Aug. 21-24) advance to the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass. (Aug. 29-Sept. 1). Then it’s down to 70 for the BMW Championship, after which the top 30 earn spots in the Tour Championship.
