Woods misses chance to defend Tour Championship title

REUTERS: There will be no defending champion at next week’s Tour Championship after Tiger Woods failed to qualify for the season-ending event.  

Only the top 30 players on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup points list are eligible to play at East Lake in Atlanta, where $ 15 million will be up for grabs for the winner. 

Woods needed to place about sixth at the BMW Championship on Sunday to qualify, but he tied for 37th at Medinah, a distant 18 strokes behind winner Justin Thomas. 

Apart from his win at the Masters for his 15th major title, Woods had a relatively quiet season, which petered out without a whimper amid physical and emotional fatigue. “The rest of the tournaments I didn’t really play as well as I wanted to, but at the end of the day, I’m the one with the green jacket,” he told reporters on Sunday. 

Still, Woods will be disappointed not to get a chance to return to the scene of one of the most memorable victories of his career. Successfully returning last year from major back surgery, he ended a five-year drought with his two-stroke win at East Lake, the 80th of his PGA Tour career, which was at the time just two shy of Sam Snead’s all-time mark.