Much Ado In BeanTown

September 2nd, 2010 No Comments
deutsche bank image

Steve Stricker Defends at the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship

With Hurricane Earl threatening to affect play on the opening day on Friday, it could just be the start of unsettled times for a few PGA Tour players this week in Norton, Massachusetts.

With just 70 players of 100 advancing from the field of the Deutsche Bank Championship to the BMW Championship the fight will be on at the TPC Boston top earn the coveted spots.  And with another 2,500 points up for grabs, with a win any of the top 14 players could jump up and grab the #1 spot away from Barclay’s champion Matt Kuchar.

Undoubtedly many eyes will still be on Tiger Woods, who showed fine form in two of his Barclay’s rounds but did enough to advance to 65th place in the FedEx Cup points, his highest ranking all year.  With wide fairways and past winning form at Deutsche Bank many expect he has a great chance to finish between 52nd and 57th or higher this week and advance to the BMW.  Depending heavily on what other players do he will need a minimum of two 8th place finishes or a single 3rd place finish (or better) to earn his way into the Tour Championship field at East Lake.

Experience is paramount at this time of year on the PGA Tour.  Even though many players say they are immune to extra pressure being put on them by the “playoffs” it is clear that those having the most success in these events have been veteran players.  Of the 99 players left (Kenny Perry withdrew Thursday morning citing exhaustion) there are just five rookies among them: Rickie Fowler (22nd), Rory McIlroy (28th), Josh Teater (75th), Alex Prugh (95th), and Blake Adams (98th).

The Deutsche Bank Championship has seen a bastion of successful drive to the podium. In the seven-year history of the tournament there have been six different winners (Vijay doubled up in ’04 and ’08) with a combined total of 162 PGA Tour victories among them. Steve Stricker (9), Vijay Singh (34), Phil Mickelson (38), Tiger Woods (71), Olin Browne (3), and Adam Scott (7).

The odds indicate that trend will continue in 2010.  Six players did play their way into the field this week – Kevin Streelman, Andres Romero, J.P. Hayes, Ryuji Imada, Troy Matteson, and Tiger Woods.  Among those Woods has a valid chance to win this week after his notable performance in New Jersey.  Woods says he was close at Barclays, marred only by poor putting in the middle rounds, but he indicated he was eager to get on with the playoff test.  “I’m looking forward to it,” said the World’s #1 player. “The next three events, the next three venues, I’ve won on.”

Last year Steve Stricker made birdies on the final two holes to get past Jason Dufner and Scott Verplank and I will not hesitate to bet that Stricker will be in the mix for the Monday finish, barring any further delays caused by Hurricane Earl.

Watch as well for Kuchar to have another strong event.  A win might be tough after the euphoria of last week’s win but his 11 top ten finishes show he is in the finest form of his career.  Prior to 2010 he had just ten top-10’s in 149 Tour events played.

Who will be the top 70?  Will Tiger get his first win of 2010?  Can Stricker defend and move from #2 to #1? And will Hurricane Earl wreak havoc on the golf course and play at the Deutsche Bank Championship?

Hang on tight; it’s going to be a heck of a weekend.

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Another Reason To Smile For Kuchar

August 30th, 2010 No Comments
Matt Kuchar Wins the 2010 Barclays Championship

Matt Kuchar Wins the 2010 Barclays Championship

By the time Sunday was over Matt Kuchar had yet more cause to flash his pearly whites, as if he did not have enough motivation to do so before the Barclays Championship began.

The 32 year-old Floridian has been crushing it this year, with 10 top ten finishes to his credit but just one wrinkle at that impressive slate – the lack of a victory.  He took care of that blemish at the Barclays with a closing round of 66 and a one hole playoff conquest over the man who let the tournament slip from his grasp on the final hole of regulation, Martin Laird.

Laird, the Glaswegian Scot, had nothing but two putts between himself and the 2nd PGA Tour win of his career, but let that slip through his fingers with a three-putt bogey on the 18th hole of the Ridgewood Country Club.  “I knew 2-putt was going to win and these greens right now, as you can probably see, are very, very baked out. And the last thing I wanted to do was trickle it down there, leave it three, four feet short and have a 3-, 4-footer down there. Around those holes it’s a little sketchy being the last group in the field,” said the 27 year-old who blew his first putt past the hole and missed the return affair, creating the playoff with Kuchar.

“And as I said, I was just, I was trying to stay calm. I felt good. I had obviously holed a big putt on 17. And I had been holing good putts all day. And the first one I was — I felt like I had it all read and the piece and everything. And as I said, now after seeing Kuchar’s ball on the fringe (in the playoff) going down to the hole I understand how fast it was. The second one I saw it go left, right past the hole. I thought it was on the way to the hole, on the way back with a nice down speed and the putt just didn’t move.”

In the extra frame both players peppered the rough with their tee shots but Kuchar, firing his approach first, came out the better of the two as his unlikely strike worked its way to the hole in an unlikely fashion.  Skimming low along the ground it backed off the right, back fringe to ultimately settle two feet from the cup where he would make the birdie to beat out Laird’s par.  “I knew I had to keep it low under some limbs, and just kind of chase it up and run it on,” said Kuchar of the 192-yard shot that changed the course of his year.  “I saw Martin play his 72nd hole and it looked like he a similar shot. Looked like he was in the left rough, looked like he chased one up to the back. I was basically trying to hit a similar shot. I was looking to have it just land 15 yards short of the green, start chasing up.  And I went with a 7-iron, the lie was pretty good. I was kind of deep enough in the rough that it ended up being a pretty good lie. And the shot came out beautifully. I ran up to that back right bank and saw the crowd just all of a sudden, the momentum build and they went just like a wave   of people standing up and cheering. I knew it was getting good.  That was an exciting way to kind of cap off this tournament.

The winning blow from the rough was an impressive ending to a tournament that saw plenty of ebb and flow from a mix of players.  Names like Woods, Day, and Laird had flitted across the scoreboards all week but in the end it was a five birdie, no bogey round by Kuchar and a timely birdie on the extra hole that pushed the man with the golden grin to the #1 FedEx Cup Ranking

With so many high finishes in 2010 Kuchar was content with his season but the climb to the top of the board at Barclays brought it to another level.  “I would have shut down the year had I not won and been very pleased with my year,” he said when asked about how a win would shape his outlook on the season.  “To win, it’s an incredible year. There’s nothing like the feeling of winning a PGA TOUR golf tournament. You feel like you are the best player in the world for this week. I mean, it’s just an amazing feeling to think there’s 125 of the best players in the world started this week and I came out first. And it’s an amazing feeling and one I’m awfully proud of,” he said, of course, with a smile.

With the victory Kuchar guarantees himself a spot at East for the Tour Championship, one he calls a “home game”.  With his streak of play this year, the momentum of victory, and his level of comfort and familiarity with East Lake you can expect his name to be in the PGA Tour Playoff mix for the next three weeks.

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PGA Tour Playoff Time: The Barclays

August 25th, 2010 No Comments
Heath Slocum is the defending champon at The Barclays

Heath Slocum is the defending champon at The Barclays

For most golf fans the concept of “playoffs” in golf is still not a highly accepted one.  The first incarnations of them haven’t exactly brought forth the drama you might find in the NFL, NHL, or MLB, but in spots there have been a few glimmers of hope.

The run to the 2010 FedEx Cup starts in New Jersey this week and brings with it more than a few questions – most of them surrounding Tiger Woods.  How will the World #1 play in his first week after his divorce was made official?  And better yet can he pull himself out of the basement of the rankings to actually advance his way through the four playoff tournaments.

Currently 112th in FedEx Cup Points, the PGA Tour estimates that he will need to finish between 50 and 57th at The Barclays to advance to the BMW Championship.  He tied for 2nd last year at Liberty Nationals but missed the event in 2008 (the last time it was held at Ridgewood) due to a knee injury.

Tiger, and a whole lot of other players, have a long road ahead if they want to work their way into a Top 5 position in the FedEx Cup points standings, the position you need to be in heading into the Tour Championship if you want to have a chance to take home the big prize.

But before the pros think of the Tour Championship, they have to get themselves into the top 100 to make it into next week’s BMW Championship.  Currently, only the top 42 players at The Barclays are assured mathematically to advance.

Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, and Jim Furyk lead the point standings as The Barclays begins but due to a missed pro-am tee time and subsequent disqualification, Furyk will not much of a chance of securing the position through this week at Ridgewood G&CC.

The player with the longest climb this week will be Scott Piercy.  As the only player who worked how way into the field via his play at the Wyndham Championship is looking to improve on his 88th place in the FedEx Cup standings from last year.  He advanced from The Barclays in 2009, even after missing the cut at Liberty National.

Watch the young’ns at The Barclays.  Twenty-eight players in their 20’s have made it into the field and with so much in the playoffs weighing on your ability to move up the standings, you can expect aggressive play to be in full force.

Resisting that will be Ridgewood, the A.W, Tillinghast design that opened in 1929.  With a potential length of 7319 and playing to a tight par of 71 the constant “59” watch of recent months on the PGA Tour might be taking a vacation this week.   The course has a huge mix of holes ranging from 155 to 626 yards, meaning a large variety of shots will be necessary from the winner.

The hole to watch for excitement will be the one known as “Five and Dime,” the 5th, which is the shortest par four at Ridgewood.  At only 291 yards from the back tees it is also the shortest par four on the PGA Tour.  Whether players try to drive it or lay up and hit a tricky wedge shot to a small, narrow green, the results at this hole could eventually sway the final result.

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