Tiger on to second round of the playoffs

Tiger on to second round of the playoffs

The good news for Tiger Woods is that he has at least two more tournaments left in his season after a 67 Sunday that will move him inside the top 60 in the FedExCup points standings. As for how close he is to winning again?

“If I would have putted like I did today in the middle two rounds, I would be up there,” said Woods, who is currently in a tie for ninth. “Ironically, I hit it better yesterday than I did today.”

That he did, hitting more fairways and greens in regulation than he did in his third-round 72. And that leaves Woods cofident heading to the Deutsche Bank Championship, which begins on Friday.

“The next three venues I’ve won on,” said Woods, referring to TPC Boston, Cog Hill for the BMW Championship and East Lake Golf Club for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola ‘’ — that’s assuming he gets to the final event of the season since only the top 30 after the BMW Championship make it to Atlanta.

For now, though, Woods will head home to Orlando to continue to work on the same things he’s been working on — “Just keep progressing what I’m doing,” he said.

And though he didn’t win, he’ll go home happy at least with the progress he’s made. “Very pleased,’” Woods said of that progress. “I found something in my stroke today when I was warming up and I went with it. I hit a lot of good putts today.”

Putting has been largely the hardest thing for Woods to get a handle on since he returned to golf in April, but that, too, is obviously coming around.

“This is a week I was very close [to winning],” Woods said. “If I would have put it together on the greens for all four days I would have been right there.”