Heath Slocum Upsets the Big Dogs at The Barclays

JERSEY CITY, N.J.: Exactly two weeks ago to the day, Y.E. Yang went head-to-head with Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship and came out on top.

Well this afternoon at The Barclays, which is being held at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, Tiger Woods was unable to sink the big putt on the final hole, while Heath Slocum came along 15 minutes later and sunk a 21-footer for the win.

Woods began the day five strokes behind co-leaders Paul Goydos and Steve Marino, so he had to turn on the afterburners just to get himself in a position where he was staring down a putt on the 72nd hole that would have ultimately gotten him into a sudden-death playoff with Slocum.  

Woods called in his caddie, Steve Williams, to help him read the putt, as he had been doing for much of the week on Liberty National’s incredibly undulating greens.

“I don’t ever call Stevie in on this many reads,” Tiger said following his round.  “They were tricky putts, double-breaking putts, 10, 12-footers.  Just tricky greens.”

Woods putt skirted past the left side of the cup while the crowd let out a gasp.  

After staring down the ball for a good 10 seconds as if he couldn’t believe that on this one occasion he was unable to will the ball into the hole, Woods tapped in for par and walked off the 18th green on Sunday with a disappointed feeling in his stomach for the second time in as many events.

“If I would have hit a poor putt, I would have been pissed, but I didn’t,” Woods told the media less than 10 minutes after Slocum had sunk his par putt to officially end Woods’ chances at getting into a sudden death playoff.

Slocum may have made the big putt on 18, and Tiger may have missed his, but the tournament was won and lost by these two individuals earlier in the day.

Woods skirted several birdie putts past the hole this afternoon, but his inability to birdie two out of the three par-fives is what turned a potential round of 65 into a 67 and cost him the tournament.

Woods couldn’t get up-and-down for birdie from 17 yards away at the par-five sixth and missed an eight foot birdie putt on the 13th.

Had Woods sunk his birdie putt on 13 before going on to birdie the 14th and 16th, he would have been tied for the lead with just two holes to play and his two pars coming in would have been enough to force a playoff.

Slocum, on the other hand, came flying out of the gate this afternoon.

Slocum got up-and-down for par at the first, drained a 25-foot birdie putt at the second, holed out from 158 yards for an eagle on the fifth, got up-and-down for birdie at the sixth, and then added another birdie at the 13th.

“The up and down at one and the long putt on two kind of calmed me down, “Slocum said after his round.  “For the rest of the day, it is the best I felt on a golf course in a very long time”.

If you ever had any doubt as to just how deep the PGA Tour fields are today, you need to look no further than the Barclays.

Heath Slocum, who had two wins to his name and came into the Barclays ranked 124th in FedEx Cup points, edged out Woods, Els, Harrington, and Stricker, who when combined have 193 professional wins and 20 major championships.

“I'm going to use this experience hopefully for the rest of my life, knowing that I can come down the stretch and play, if you want, with the big boys,” Slocum said.

The good news for Liberty National is that after four days, they finally got what they wanted: Tiger Woods in contention and a perfectly clear day where the breathtaking views of Lady Liberty, the Manhattan skyline and the Verrazano Bridge made for some great television.

The bad news is that they have probably seen their last PGA Tour event for quite some time.

“I didn’t really care for the course coming here,” Stricker said after his round.  “Everybody’s got to play it.  I don’t look negatively on the course; it’s just not one of my favorites.  That’s just my opinion.”

When Tiger was asked what his thoughts were on Liberty National holding future events, Woods simply smiled while not saying a word, which spoke loud and clear as to what his thoughts were on that matter.