Return of Tiger Still Unclear

Tiger Woods is confident he is making progress, but remains cautious over setting any date for a potential competitive return to the golf course.

The former world number one has not played since finishing joint 10th in the Wyndham Championship last year, after which he underwent two back operations in the space of six weeks.

Last month Woods, a 14-time major winner, played five holes with former Open and Masters champion Mark O’Meara at the official opening of the course he designed at Bluejack National Golf Club, and has taken part in casual games at Medalist, a club near his Florida home.

However, the 40-year-old American found it tough going on Monday when hitting three successive balls into the water as he took part in a ceremonial hole-in-one competition on the 102-yard 10th tee at the media day for the upcoming Quicken Loans National, which his foundation hosts at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.

Woods, now down to 524 in the rankings, faced the familiar question about his fitness update at the event.

“That’s the overriding question I keep hearing, when are you coming back, when are you playing? I hear it all the time, and if I knew, I would tell you, because it’d be fun to know, it would be nice to know that I am actually going to be playing on such and such a date, but I don’t know,” he said, in a press conference broadcast by www.pgatour.com.

Woods has registered for the US Open at Oakmont in June, although that was something he had to do ahead of the deadline to keep his options open.

“I have been practising at home, and I am progressing nicely, I am hoping to play (again soon),” Woods added.

“I am still trying to get stronger, trying to get more pliable.

“I am hitting the ball better and everything about my game is coming around.

“Now it’s just a matter of being more consistent with it, and then being able to do that not only at home against the boys at Medalist and trying to take their cash — trying to come out here and doing it against the best players in the world is a completely different deal.”

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Padraig Misses Wyndham Cut

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Padraig Harrington missed the cut at The Wyndham Championship after a second round 74 left him at 7 over at Sedgefield Country Club.

Patrick Reed leads, a PGA TOUR rookie, shot a 6-under 64 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead with an 11-under 129 total. Players are trying to improve their positions in the final event before the FedExCup Playoffs begin next week.

"I don't mind her having all the attention," Reed said. "Less attention for me, which means I can just focus more on my game."

Reed had six birdies in a bogey-free round that was a stroke shy of matching his best of the year.

John Huh had the best round of the day -- a 62 -- to move to 10 under. John Deere winner Jordan Spieth was 9 under after a 66. Spieth also is a PGA TOUR rookie, and Huh is in his second year.

Charlie Wi, Bob Estes, Rory Sabbatini, Brian Harman, Jim Herman and first-round co-leader Ross Fisher were 7 under.

Wi had a 65, Estes, Harman, Herman and Sabbatini shot 66, and Fisher had a 69.

Organizers moved up the third-round tee times Saturday to try to dodge a threat of rain, with players going off in threesomes at the first and 10th tees.

Reed, the 23-year-old former college player at Georgia and Augusta State, had top-10 finishes in his last two tournaments. He could have built an even bigger lead in this one, but missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh.

He closed his round with birdies on the eighth and ninth holes, sinking a 10-foot putt to applause from the gallery and walking off the green with his arm around Justine's shoulder.

She began caddying for him last summer before a Monday qualifying tournament in Houston. During a humid, 100-degree day in Texas, she had no trouble lugging around a bag full of rain gear, he said.

"I told her to read putts for me that day, and she just has a knack for reading greens extremely well," Reed said. "It's basically like my coach being out there with me. She knows just as much about the golf swing. She knows why I hit it left or right or anything like that, so I mean, if ever I get out of whack, she can fix me immediately."

Reed certainly has a history on Donald Ross-designed courses in North Carolina. He reached the semifinals of the 2008 U.S. Amateur on Ross' No. 2 course at Pinehurst, and the first cut he made on the TOUR came at this Sedgefield Country Club course two years ago after receiving a sponsor's exemption.

"That's why I love this event," Reed said.

Huh, a 23-year-old who was the youngest player on TOUR to win last year, came on strong late with birdies on his final three holes, including an 11-foot birdie putt on the ninth that closed his best round of the year.

Did he see this coming?

"Not 62. It was more like, maybe, 64," he said, laughing. "I drove the ball great since (the) Masters, actually. It's been a long time, but I was able to put everything together and I'm really pleased with it."

A breakout rookie year on TOUR continued for the 20-year-old Spieth, who was 19 last month when he became the youngest winner in eight decades with his victory in the John Deere Classic.

He had a boom-or-bust day at Sedgefield with seven birdies and three bogeys. After starting on the back nine, he birdied four of his final six holes and heard chants of "Spiethy" from the gallery.

"I wish they had said `Spieth' instead of `Spiethy,' but you can't pick your nickname," Spieth said, laughing. "It's great. It's kind of weird, kind of new to have people kind of cheering for me. ... All it does is help carry momentum, positive momentum, and hopefully, I'll have a lot of people be yelling at my back tomorrow."

The field is littered with players trying to either hold on to their FedExCup Playoffs position or force their way into The Barclays in New Jersey next week. The top 125 on the points list qualify for the postseason.

Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey, who arrived at No. 137, moved to 3 under after his 69. Fisher, at No. 162, kept himself in position to challenge for a playoff spot, and so did Herman, No. 149.

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Harrington Hits 73 at Wyndam

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Pádraig Harrington could only record a three-over-par 73 in his first round of the $5.3 million Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro in North Carolina.

The Dubliner is hoping for a good showing this weekend to boost his FedExCup play-off position. He currently sits 129th in the FedExCup standings, four places outside of the qualification places for the play-offs, which begin with The Barclays next week.

Chris Stroud’s late decision to play looked like a very good one after he grabbed an early one-shot lead in the opening round. The American journeyman’s long game was poor, by his own admission, but he putted brilliantly to post eight birdies in a six-under-par 64 on an unusually mild summer’s morning at Sedgefield Country Club.

The 31-year-old Stroud led by one stroke from fellow Americans Andrew Svoboda and Robert Garrigus, and Australian Matt Jones, with half the field back in the clubhouse.

“I didn’t play that great today (but) I’m in the lead. It’s a weird deal,” said Stroud, who is ranked 48th in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup points list heading into the play-offs, which start next week.

“It’s a crazy game. I only had one or two really good drives and four or five iron shots (but) kept myself in position and made a lot of good putts – not a bunch of 30-footers, just a lot from eight-to-20 feet.”

Stroud made his first start as a tour pro in Greensboro, on a sponsor’s invitation in 2004, and has been a regular visitor ever since, though he was planning to skip the event this year.

However, he missed the cut by one stroke at last week’s PGA Championship and then decided to enter Greensboro, where he has never finished better than 57th.

“I played pretty well in the PGA and I told my caddie I’m playing too well to go home and just sit and get rusty,” said Stroud, whose best PGA Tour finish was a playoff loss at the Travelers Championship in June.

“This is the nicest weather I’ve seen here, I’m happy to be here and it’s a great golf course that’s even better with new greens.”

Stroud acknowledged he would have to improve his overall game to have a chance of winning on Sunday, so he headed off to the practice range to work on his flaws.

Some of the bigger names in the field also had plenty to work on after struggling to go low in the opening round. Fijian Vijay Singh shot a 70 and South African Ernie Els carded a 71.

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Harrington Hoping Fedex Delivers

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Padraig Harrington hopes history can repeat itself at the Wyndham Championship this week.

The Dubliner sits 129th in the FedExCup standings, four places outside the qualification places for the play-offs, which begin with The Barclays next week.

Harrington was in almost exactly the same position two years ago when he arrived in Greensboro in 130th place, and a tie for 47th was enough to lift him into 124th.

He made the second play-off tournament too, and is optimistic he will continue his record of always having qualified for the play-offs.

"I need to have a good week. I'm thinking top 25 should be good enough. So that's the goal," he said.

"Well, the goal is to go out there and win, and if I can't win, finish in the top 25 and give myself a chance of playing in the first FedExCup event and trying to move on from there.

"There's certainly a distraction in it. There's a lot of thinking and talking, what you need to do. You kind of prepare for this week very much as an isolated week."

Harrington, who missed the cut at the US PGA Championship last week, feels he is playing better than his results suggest.

He said: "It's just been an odd year. I haven't really scored very well. I can't put everything together in a given week. So you have to have patience and accept that this is going to happen every so often and try and be patient to wait for it to turn around, and hopefully it turns around this week. But I'm very happy with the state of my game at the moment and where it's going, and if it doesn't happen this week, I'm sure it will happen over the next number of weeks."

Harrington is not the only big-name player battling to make it into next week's field. Vijay Singh, David Toms, Trevor Immelman, Ben Curtis, Davis Love III and YE Yang are all outside the top 125.

Defending Wyndham champion Sergio Garcia does not have to worry about such matters but he is trying to become the first player since Sam Snead in the 1950s to win the title back to back.

"The only thing I can do is go out there, hopefully play well like I know I can do," he said.

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