PGA Playoffs Begin with Drama

The first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs began this past Thursday with the Barclays, the tournament where the top 125 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings battle to position themselves in the top 100 to advance to the Deutsche Bank Championship, which will be played next weekend.  Tiger Woods found himself outside the top 100 entering the tournament (112), and needed to play well this weekend to move into the top 100 and advance to next weekend.  Ernie Els led the FedEx Cup standings entering the week, and was assured a spot in the top 10 regardless of his performance this weekend.  Jim Furyk was 3rd, but dropped 5 spots in the FedEx Cup standings after he was controversially  disqualified for not making his Wednesday Pro-Am tee time.

On the first day of the tournament, Tiger Woods looked to make a Herculean climb in the FedEx Cup standings.  He shared the lead after Round 1 with a score of -6, and if the first day results held, Woods would have moved into the top 5 in the standings.  This type of climb would have been shades of Heath Slocum last year in the Barclays, who by winning the tournament moved from out of the top 100 to 3rd in the FedEx Cup standings.  However, Tiger would come back to Earth in the next 3 days.  Tiger played the final 3 rounds at -1, and finished 5 strokes back on Sunday.  This was good showing compared to some of Tiger’s recent tournaments, however, and Tiger moved to 65th in the FedEx Cup standings as a result of his Barclays performance.  If the results hold, he will be safe to advance past the Deutsche Bank to the BMW Championship, which hosts the top 70 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings.  Phil Mickelson was cut this week, but due to his good performance during the regular season, remains at 10th in the standings, and only dropped 6 spots.

The Barclays leaderboard remained very tight through the first 2 days of the championship, and on Saturday Martin Laird began to separate himself from the field.  He moved to -12 and 3 strokes ahead of 2nd place.  He was in control of the tournament, and a sizable comeback was needed from a competitor to challenge Laird for the title.  Matt Kuchar took that challenge.  Starting on Sunday at -7, 5 strokes behind Laird, Kuchar played an impressive round at -5 to take the lead in the clubhouse at -12 while Laird was completing his last few holes.  Through 17, however, Laird had a 1 stroke lead, and only needed to par hole 18 to win the Barclays and assume the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings.  Kuchar was given his shot to win the tournament after Laird 3 putted from about 20 feet on 18 to choke away his 1 stroke lead and enter a playoff with Kuchar.

On the very first playoff hole, Kuchar hit a punch shot from the left deep rough that rolled up to the back right of the green, where the ball played the ridge perfectly and rolled to about 2 feet from the hole for a tap in birdie.  Laird could not birdie the hole, and Kuchar won the Barclays thanks to his unbelievable 2nd shot on the playoff hole.  Kuchar became the FedEx Cup points leader with his victory, and leads 2nd place Steve Stricker by just under 1,500 points.  Kuchar has a big lead and a big advantage over the rest of the field, but the interesting aspect of the FedEx Cup playoffs is that next week’s Deutsche Bank winner will almost certainly climb at least into the top 10 or even top 5 in the points standings.  Kuchar needs to continue to play very well for his points lead to remain comfortable, and this makes the FedEx Cup postseason so exciting.

With the conclusion of the first round of the playoffs, there are only 3 events remaining before the FedEx Cup Champion is crowned.  This coming weekend, the Deutsche Bank Championship will be played, and the top 70 in the points standings after the tournament will advance to the BMW Championship, which will be held 2 weeks from now.  The top 30 players in the FedEx Cup Standings after the BMW Championship will advance to the Tour Championship, the final PGA event of the season.  The Tour Championship will be held two weeks after the BMW Championship (Sept. 23-26, East Lake G.C.), and the leader in FedEx Cup points after the Tour Championship will earn the title of 2010 FedEx Cup Champion.  The 2010 FedEx Cup Champion will join Vijay Singh (2008) and Tiger Woods (2007, 2009) as the only winners in the 4 year history of the FedEx Cup.