Woods misses chance to defend Tour Championship

Chicago - Woods will be disappointed not to get a chance to return to the scene of one of the most memorable victories of his career

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.
Meanwhile, Justin Thomas faltered in the final round at the BMW Championship on Sunday but held on for an ultimately comfortable three-stroke victory at Medinah in suburban Chicago.
He carded a closing 68 to finish on a 25-under-par total of 263, while fellow American Patrick Cantlay shot 65 for second place on 22-under.
Thomas started the day with a six-shot advantage but when he bogeyed the 10th hole the lead over Cantlay was down to two.
But Thomas steadied with clutch play over the next three holes, twice holing putts of around 12 feet to re-establish his authority.
"Patrick made that very interesting," a relieved Thomas said in a greenside interview after greeting his parents and girlfriend.
"I hit the ball so bad to start the day. I made it hard on myself because usually I'm pretty good at hitting fairways and greens and I couldn't hit a fairway ... but I stayed patient and that birdie on 11 was huge."