- FedExCup Points: 50,000
- Purse: $7.0 million
- Winning Share: $1,260,000
- Yards: 7,415
PGATOUR.com Interactive Producer
NORTON, Mass. -- There might not be a single player in the PGA TOUR FedExCup Playoffs licking his chops more than Adam Scott for the ensuing three-week stretch.
Scott, currently No. 9 in the FedExCup standings and trailing leader Steve Stricker by 7,800 points, has been a winner at two of the final three venues. The 27-year-old Australian won the inaugural Deutsche Bank Championship in 2003 for his first career victory on the PGA TOUR and also won the 2006 TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, which is the final Playoffs event.
"I'm obviously excited to be back here in Boston having won an inaugural event here," Scott said. "I'm excited because I've been playing well the last couple months, positive signs at the PGA and then again last week in New York, so I'm looking forward to keep moving forward with that."
Scott tied for 14th last week at The Barclays in the Playoffs opener. In his only start at the next week's BMW Championship in 2006, Scott tied for 21st.
Although he's had five top-10 finishes this season, highlighted by a win in Houston, Scott has been disappointed with his season as a whole. He was in contention several times in 2006 -- 10 top 10s -- before finally breaking through at THE TOUR Championship. He made it clear on Thursday that he'd much rather have the occasional win than consistent high finishes.
"Winning is more rewarding, there's no doubt," he said. "I would have been happier to win this year in Houston and not play any good anywhere else than nearly win every week last year and not get over the line. I mean, at the end of the day, I think we're all out here to win, and that's what we base our performance on. Winning is important."
LOST IN TRANSLATION? MAYBE NOT:
During a pre-tournament interview at the Deutsche Bank Championship on Thursday afternoon, South Korea's K.J. Choi -- a two-time TOUR winner in 2007 -- admitted that his family speaks English at their home in Texas.
Choi has been working on his English for several years now and has improved drastically, not relying as much on a translator now as he did in the past.
"Very comfortable, my family," Choi said abut speaking English at home. "A little less in Korean and more so in English."
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Choi also talked about orange being a favorite color of his -- it was actually the color of the shafts on his clubs for some time.
"My favorite colors are orange, white and black, so now it's a little change - my hometown, neighbor next door says, 'K.J., you very strong in black in the final round, character, very strong face,'" he said. "I try, and weather doesn't matter, I try in black. But very hot (laughter). Hot in a couple tournaments, white shirts in the final round. It's a little cooled down, hopefully this week in black again."
GETTING A GRIP:
Choi said that his putting has greatly improved thanks to a new way-oversized grip.
Before, Choi said he always felt that with the way a conventional grip sat in his hands, it was too narrow and too thin, and because of that, he was never 100 percent satisfied with the way his putts felt.
Then came an epiphany.
"I always thought, what could it be that's wrong, that I'm lacking?" Choi asked. "One day through an infomercial on The GOLF CHANNEL, I saw the Super Stroke? grip commercial, and just watching it, it kind of clicked in my head, it all made sense what they were saying, and I wanted to give it a try. So I called them up, ordered it, and actually received it and tried it out. But I didn't have the guts to take it out to a tournament because it was so big. But the week of the AT&T National, I told myself, hey, if you feel like this is really working for you, why not just take it out and have the guts to try it, which I did, and it's actually helped me a lot in my tournaments and I'm very happy with it."
Choi, by the way, paid for the grip himself, "$39.99, two payments of $19.99," and went on to win the AT&T National.
Not a bad investment.
