Although he failed to pick up a win this year, Simpson does have a runner-up result and three other top 10 finishes to his credit. He finished alone in eighth place the last time The Barclays was contested at this track. He also has made 21 consecutive cuts and is coming off of a tie for 11th last week.
The first Aussie to win The Masters is having a monster year. He tied for fifth at the PGA Championship and tied for third at the Open Championship – so he’s shown up to play in big events. Scott is ranked second in scoring average and 24th in greens in regulation which means he should fare very well this week.
Woods is the odds-on-favorite to win this week and brings in a 766 point lead into the first leg of the playoffs. I expect him to finish in the top 25 but it wouldn’t be a shocker if he didn’t pick up the victory. He’s owned non-majors this year, having racked up five victories. He leads the Tour in scoring average and finished tied for second here in 2009. The stars are aligned for yet another weekend with Tiger lurking around the top of the leaderboard.
Maybe the hottest guy on the planet right now, Stenson has not finished outside of the top three in his last four events. The fact that he doesn’t have a win this year doesn’t bother me considering how well he has played over the last few months. He’s due for a win and it could very well come during this playoff run.
He doesn’t have to worry about major championship pressure this week, which should help him immensely. Six top 10 finishes in 17 events, 21 straight cuts made and the fact that he tied for 12th here in 2009 make me like Day’s chances a lot. The fact that he is 14th in scoring and 38th in strokes gained – putting is just icing on the cake.
This is the time of year when things start to get incredibly interesting on the PGA Tour – it’s playoff time. That means that the best golfers in the world will be gathering for the next several weeks to compete for a pretty nice $10 million bonus. The FedEx Cup Playoffs begin with The Barclays this week and will conclude in three weeks with the TOUR Championship (I’ll pause while you come up with your best Shooter McGavin joke).
The top 125 in the FedEx Cup rankings will get things started this week. That number will gradually be whittled down to the top 30 at the TOUR Championship where a victor will be crowned. With so much talent in this field there are any number of guys who could pull out a victory. For those golfers currently outside of the top 125, their main goal is to play well enough to move their ranking into double checks so that they can move on to the second leg of the playoffs.
The last time The Barclays was contested at Liberty National Golf Club was 2009 and the winner turned out to be Heath Slocum. That victory moved him from 124th in the standings all the way to third – so it’s clear that anybody can make a major move in this playoff format.
There will likely be some unexpected movement in the standings when this week is over, but these five players have a legitimate shot to pick up a win this week.
Carl Conrad is the Senior Golf Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter or add him to your network on Google.
Although he failed to pick up a win this year, Simpson does have a runner-up result and three other top 10 finishes to his credit. He finished alone in eighth place the last time The Barclays was contested at this track. He also has made 21 consecutive cuts and is coming off of a tie for 11th last week.
The first Aussie to win The Masters is having a monster year. He tied for fifth at the PGA Championship and tied for third at the Open Championship – so he’s shown up to play in big events. Scott is ranked second in scoring average and 24th in greens in regulation which means he should fare very well this week.
Woods is the odds-on-favorite to win this week and brings in a 766 point lead into the first leg of the playoffs. I expect him to finish in the top 25 but it wouldn’t be a shocker if he didn’t pick up the victory. He’s owned non-majors this year, having racked up five victories. He leads the Tour in scoring average and finished tied for second here in 2009. The stars are aligned for yet another weekend with Tiger lurking around the top of the leaderboard.
Maybe the hottest guy on the planet right now, Stenson has not finished outside of the top three in his last four events. The fact that he doesn’t have a win this year doesn’t bother me considering how well he has played over the last few months. He’s due for a win and it could very well come during this playoff run.
He doesn’t have to worry about major championship pressure this week, which should help him immensely. Six top 10 finishes in 17 events, 21 straight cuts made and the fact that he tied for 12th here in 2009 make me like Day’s chances a lot. The fact that he is 14th in scoring and 38th in strokes gained – putting is just icing on the cake.
