The Barclays, 30 August

I was really looking forward to a good week at Ridgewood. I love what Barclays do in golf. They sponsor tournaments around the world and do such a great job, which I know is appreciated by all of the players. And I like these old, traditional style golf courses and coming to the New York area. The people here love their sport; they get very vocal at times and that always creates a lively atmosphere. Then I shot an easy 67 in the Pro Am and was feeling great. Despite all the positive vibes, though, it turned out to be a disappointing week for me. 

I didn’t play great the first couple of days, but it was okay and I made a couple of sweet putts in my last two holes late on Friday afternoon when I knew exactly what I had to do to make the cut. At that stage the field was pretty bunched up, so I felt like I could push on and have a good finish. But over the weekend I played scrappy golf, to be honest. It’s a tournament to forget, so I’ll just move on. 

Obviously I had a good start to the season, with a couple of early wins and then some decent top-10s and top-5s through the summer, which meant that I went into last week at the top of the FedEx Cup points’ list. But now we’re in the playoffs this is a whole new ball game. I mean, I made a little over 1,800 points the whole season and you get 2,500 just for winning one of these events. 

A poor showing at the Barclays wasn’t the end of the world, but I can’t afford another week like that. As I said, the points system is so crazy that if you don't play well you're going to get left behind in a hurry, so it's important for me to bounce back and play well at this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship. I’m in fifth place now and basically, I need to score big points to maintain my position at least near the top of the FedEx Cup list and therefore give myself a chance of winning this thing when we get to the Tour Championship. The race is really on. 

We’re back at TPC Boston again for this week’s Deutsche Bank. It is an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course and opened for play barely 10 years ago, but you wouldn’t know it. This place has a mature, almost traditional feel about it. It’s in a beautiful setting, too, in the lovely New England landscape. I really like it. 

It’s tough to say whether the course favours any particular style of play. I’d say probably not. There are a lot of holes where you can be aggressive or you can play conservatively – basically, there are a lot of choices out there. But I need to drive the ball better than I did last week at Ridgewood, because that part of my game more than any other was really hurting my ability to score. 

Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll write again next week.