Tiger Woods Needs To Play Six-in-a-Row to Finish The Season

Here’s a prediction you can take to the bank: Tiger Woods will play the final six tournaments on the 2018-2019 schedule without a break.

As of now Tiger Woods has played nine events this season. However, most golf super-fans know there’s a minimum requirement of tournaments for PGA Tour players each year. That number is 15, but it includes the majors. And there’s also a new rule for PGA Tour members playing less than 25 tournaments. They must play a tournament they have not played in the last four years.

Using our second-grade math, Woods needs to play six more to reach the Tour mandated level or face a fine and/or do other things that are typically not revealed by the PGA Tour. Jordan Spieth faced that problem in 2018 when he came up short. Spieth was sure he would get to the Tour Championship, and he didn’t. Oops!

But what that means for Woods watchers is that he’s going to be playing constantly from the British Open through the Tour Championship because the end of the 2019 golf calendar is just a drive and a wedge away.

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According to Woods’ website, the only future tournament he is committing to at this juncture is the British Open, which he can play until he is 60, guaranteed by the R&A (Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews).

Strangely, the R&A also says past champions get “entry” into the next ten additional opens after the age of 60. They don’t explain the difference, but I’m sure when Phil Mickelson turns 61, we will find out!

So, after the British Open, the next event is the WGC-St. Jude Invitational in Memphis. Tiger Woods is not known for skipping WGC events. He has won more WGC’s than anyone with 18 victories in his career. Next best is Dustin Johnson, who has six.

The reason top players like the WGC’s is that the field is smaller, and the purse is slightly bigger, which means there’s a better chance for more money. In addition, the limited fields at WGC’s mean there are fewer players to beat that week.

Memphis is going to be another new course for many top golfers who have not played there in the past. For sure, the field will need to go into hot weather mode because Memphis in July is going to be steamy, to be polite about it.

I still have an image in my mind of Raymond Floyd coming up the 18th at Memphis with a towel over his head to protect himself from the heat. In other words, what Memphis needs are many on-course fans, as in the kind that blow air, perhaps hanging from every tree on the course.

The British Open plus the WGC-St. Jude Invitational gives Woods 11 events.

Then it’s on to the Wyndham, in Greensboro, N.C., which probably thought it would never see Tiger Woods. But the recent PGA Tour rule, which says those playing less than 25 events must play a tournament they don’t usually play, is in its favor.

Greensboro’s location may have set some kind of hot and cold weather records. In 1987, the weather was so cold, it snowed, but surprisingly the PGA Tour notes that the 1997 event, won by Frank Nobilo, was the coldest and wettest. Now it’s played in August, and only Antarctica and the north pole are cold in that month.

Many golfers will be at Wyndham because of the new bonus money awarded at the event. It’s called the $10 million Wyndham Rewards Top 10. At the end of the Wyndham tournament, the PGA Tour FedEx points leader will earn $2 million. Second place is worth $1.5 million. Tenth is $500,000.

So, while Wyndham might be a break week for some PGA Tour players, it won’t be for Woods.

When Woods enters Wyndham, he will have 12 tournaments for the 2018-2019 schedule. He will still need three more, and conveniently, the next week is the beginning of the FedEx Playoffs.

Tiger Woods will keep going, playing the Northern Trust, the BMW, and, he hopes, the Tour Championship, where the winner of the FedEx Cup will be determined.

Now just because Woods plays all six, there is no guarantee that he will make the weekend at three of them, the British Open, the Wyndham and the Northern Trust. However, Woods has always taken pride in making cuts. The WGC-St. Jude Championship is a no cut event, as is the BMW.

Woods can’t mail it in for the final five tournaments. He has to play like he means it. Even though he won the Masters, he is just 21st in FedEx points. If he does not finish high enough in the tournaments leading up to the Tour Championship, he may be in the same situation that Jordan Spieth found himself in 2018 when Spieth failed to make the Tour Championship.

Woods will need to make the top 30 in FedEx points after the BMW to get to the Tour Championship which he won in stunning fashion last year.

Next. FedEx Cup: How the 3M Open impacted those on the bubble. dark

So, get your remotes ready, six weeks of Tiger Woods golf thrills are coming your way.

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