Sep. 8, 2009
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What are our writers thinking about after the second event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup? Steve Stricker's Playoffs dominance, young two-time winner Dustin Johnson's ability to run with the big dogs and how Tiger Woods will fare at a tournament he has always played well now on a completely renovated course -- this week's BMW Championship.
PLAYOFFS PROWESS: Earlier this year, Steve Stricker gave Jerry Kelly a putting tip that helped him win in New Orleans. Sunday, Kelly waited by the scoring trailer to congratulate Stricker on his victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
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| Deutsche Bank Championship Replay |
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The two men and their families are extremely close. They traveled to Boston together and back to the Midwest Sunday night for this week's BMW Championship at Cog Hill outside of Chicago, but not before leaving with another piece of hardware -- the third of Stricker's season. The guy who was twice the PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year is suddenly making a case for Player of the Year. And he just might owe at least part of it to Kelly.
After shooting a 1-over 72 in the second round, Stricker, who a day earlier opened with a 63, got paired with Kelly. It was the best thing that could have happened to Stricker, and it may have been what saved him in this tournament.
"I found myself grinding and bearing down as hard as ever," Stricker said. "That's what [Kelly] does. He's fighting to the very end and grinding it out. I found myself doing the same. I think we complement each other well."
Playing with his pal by his side, Stricker bounced back with a third-round 65 before shooting a 67 on Monday that included a birdie-birdie finish that resulted in not only a win, but led to Stricker overtaking Tiger Woods in the FedExCup standings.
"He's [still] the man," Stricker said of Woods afterward. "We're just taking up space in his world."
After a win this week, a runner-up last week and a Playoffs record that has earned Stricker the nickname "Mr. September," I'd say he's taking up a pretty big space in that world. -- Brian Wacker
STRONG FINISH: Almost lost in the excitement of his buddy Steve Stricker's victory on Sunday at the Deutsche Bank Championship was the big-time push Scott Verplank made to tie for second. The former Oklahoma State All-American started the tournament battling food poisoning and finished it reeling off birdies on his final four holes.
Verplank admits he started out tighter than he wanted to be on Sunday, but he certainly rose to the occasion on the back nine. He tied Jason Dufner at 16 under, but Stricker passed them both with birdies to seal the victory.
"I don't know exactly what happened, but I kind of said, I've kind of wasted most of the day, so let's try to make some good swings," said Verplank, who shot four rounds in the 60s at TPC Boston. "And then I made a couple putts, and all of a sudden I was right there."
Verplank has now posted five top-10s in his last eight starts, including in both Playoffs events. Don't be surprised to see him be a factor at Cog Hill this week in the BMW Championship, either. -- Helen Ross
NOT JUST A BOMBER: When reading Dustin Johnson's scorecard from the Deutsche Bank Championship, it revealed a statistical anomaly not often seen on the PGA TOUR: First in driving distance and first in putts per round.
It's no wonder this 25-year-old has already won twice on TOUR and why he sits 10th in the FedExCup standings after a tie for fourth at TPC Boston.
Johnson has already secured a spot in the biggest and best events on TOUR, and when he hits it reasonably straight off the tee, he's going to be on the first page of the leaderboard on Sunday.
When Johnson hits around 60 percent of his fairways on any given round, it's highly likely he will get through that round without a bogey. He did that on Sunday at The Barclays (64 percent, bogey-free 64) and he did it Sunday at TPC Boston (57 percent, bogey-free 66). -- Ryan Smithson
WHAT'S NEXT: Until last year, Cog Hill had been an annual TOUR fixture for 17 years, and many of the golfers who advanced to the BMW Championship this week have significant experience playing the Dubsdread course.
But will it matter?
Extensive renovations since Cog Hill last hosted the BMW Championship in 2007 might make it unfamiliar to a guy like Tiger Woods, who said he will need to do his homework on the course, even though he's won four TOUR events there and shares the course record of 63.
If Cog Hill has changed as much as everybody says it has, with no one having a real edge in course knowledge, then don't expect anybody to run away with the title ... unless someone slips Tiger the answers. -- Mike McAllister
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| Road to THE TOUR Championship |
You could certainly make a case for Tiger Woods' eagle from the fairway in the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship being the shot of the week, but, to me, Steve Stricker's clinching putt was better. Better because it won the golf tournament, better because to get there he had to hit a tricky chip shot on the 72nd hole knowing he needed to get up and down to win, better because it was the second consecutive birdie and a clutch one at that.
Which did you think was the best shot of the week? Cast your vote here and check in each week on the Road to the TOUR Championship. -- Brian Wacker |
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| Stock up |
Padraig Harrington: Blow-up holes aside, few are hotter than Harrington right now, and he did an incredible job of bouncing back Sunday to finish in a tie for fourth, which was his fourth straight top-10 and third finish in the top four in the last month.
FedExCup rank: 7 (14 last week) |
Dustin Johnson: Not only did he move up 10 spots on the FedExCup points list, he moved that much further into Fred Couples' radar, or any future Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup Captain's. Johnson now has three consecutive top-15 finishes.
FedExCup rank: 10 (20 last week) |
Jerry Kelly: He won't be playing in The Presidents Cup, which is something he wanted badly this year, but Kelly can take solace in the fact he was a major reason his best friend on TOUR won again. It was Kelly's fourth top-11 in his last six starts, too.
FedExCup rank: 24 (28 last week) |
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| Stock down |
Boo Weekley: A year after galloping his way to golf stardom with the Happy Gilmore dance at the Ryder Cup, Weekley battled injury, fatigue and a balky putter. His Playoffs also came to an end with rounds of 74-71 on the weekend at TPC Boston.
FedExCup rank: 73 (64 last week) |
Kenny Perry: It has been a difficult year for Perry on and off the course, and all that finally has to be wearing on the 49-year-old's game. After two wins and seven top-10s, Perry's last three results have been a T46 in Boston, T52 in New York and a T43 at the PGA.
FedExCup rank: 6 (5 last week) |
Jim Furyk: It has been two years since Furyk last won, and though he got his eighth top-10 of the year in Boston, his weekend play (third-round 73) and ballstriking (98th on TOUR in greens in regulation) continue to stand in the way of ending that drought.
FedExCup rank: 18 (18 last week) |
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| A Quick 18 |
| Front Nine | Back Nine |
| NBC's Johnny Miller said this is the difference between contenders and closers as Steve Stricker stood over his birdie putt on No. 17 late Monday. Stricker, of course, closed. "I told myself to make a couple birdies," Stricker said. "I don't even remember last week." | Tiger Woods knew he couldn't win the golf tournament Sunday, but that didn't stop him from shooting a 63. "You play like you always do," Woods said. The difference? The ballstriking was the same, but Woods actually made some putts, something he didn't do all week. |
| Last week was when Stricker came up short on a putt that would have forced a playoff at The Barclays. With an extra day off because of a Friday start in Boston, it was easier to move on. "When the tee times came around, I was ready to go," Stricker said. | There's no doubt the Playoffs have created a lot of buzz among the players -- and that they're still trying to figure them out. "We don't know what the right answer is," Stricker said. "Heath made a great quote at the end of the tournament after he had won, saying that it was like a playoff -- like a wild card team that had just gotten into the Playoffs and then he won his first event, and now he's got a chance to win it all." |
| More Stricker: "Last week was disappointing. I tried to blow it off and say I've had a good year, don't worry about it. A couple days went by, and I was still thinking about that bunker shot out of the 18th fairway. That's the great thing about what we do -- we're able to come right back; we have a new week, and I was able to forget about that." | Perhaps 2008 FedExCup champion Vijay Singh summed it up the best, though. "I just have to go out there and just play and try to win the golf tournament and not worry about where I stand in the points," Singh said. Singh, by the way, was eliminated this week. |
| Stricker and Jerry Kelly's personalities may differ, but at the core they're the same -- good guys who want to win. "He was very supportive of me when I wasn't playing well," Stricker said. "I've always been there for him if he's won, and he does the same when I happen to win."
| Quote of the Week: "Ernie is not a big worker physically, and that's one of the things that you have to do with an ACL repair is you've got to really do a lot of work. I feel pretty good with what I've done, and I think Ernie, he could have worked a little bit harder." -- Tiger Woods on Ernie Els.
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| You could certainly make a case for Stricker as the Comeback Player of the Year (again) given the kind of season he's had. "I think I'm over that one," Stricker joked. He may be, but he's also climbed to No. 2 in the Official World Golf Rankings. | That quote raised some eyebrows, but don't read much into it. Woods was just being frank about Els' three-year plan to "catch him," and Els would be the first to admit he's not the biggest workaholic. |
| Scott Verplank on Stricker: "He's not Tiger, but you know what? He may be the second best player, at least on this TOUR." With Stricker reaching as high as No. 3 in the world last year and finishing fourth the year before, Verplank may be right. | Tweet of the week: "At the American football game, watching in Tom Brady's box, great food and company." -- Ian Poulter (@ianjamespoulter) on Thursday night. Click here for the picture. My question: Doesn't Brady's box look a little high up?
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| Why the sudden surge for Stricker, a guy who has been largely inconsistent for much of his career? "I think it's just confidence," Stricker said. "I started driving it a little better. My misses have been a lot better. As long as it doesn't kill you, you can play from there." | A fashion suggestion for Padraig Harrington -- how about wearing green in the final round (like Tiger's red)? Several fans following the Irishman on Monday wore green in his honor, making for a St. Patrick's Day atmosphere. Very cool. |
| Kelly isn't the only one Stricker is close to. Verplank, you may recall, got sick when he went out to dinner with Stricker earlier in the tournament. The two also had dinner the night before the final round, though they don't talk golf. "We talk about football, and all the other stuff," Verplank said.
| A green shirt might also change Harrington's luck. In his last 12 starts on TOUR, he has suffered at least one double bogey or worse. On Monday, his tee shot at the 12th hole caught the limb of a tree and was unplayable. "These things happen," he said. |
| With his win at TPC Boston, Steve Stricker now has at least a top-10 finish in every month this year ... except June (T27 at Memorial, T23 at U.S. Open). He has also finished in the top 10 (or better) 50 percent of the time this year (10 of 20 starts). | FedExCup Mover of the Week: Jason Dufner was already in the top 70 entering last week, but his final-round 65 not only netted him a tie for second, it moved him from 57th to ninth in the FedExCup standings, guaranteeing him a spot in THE TOUR Championship.
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| The Forward Spin |
| The top 70 in the FedExCup standings advance to the Chicago area for this week's BMW Championship at Cog Hill, where Tiger Woods has won four times. Though, as mentioned earlier, it's a completely different Cog Hill than anyone has seen before after Rees Jones was brought in to more or less make a case for a U.S. Open to be held there sometime down the road. |
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| That said, the most notable absence from Cog Hill this week will be 2008 FedexCup champion Vijay Singh, who was eliminated from the Playoffs after ending the week 81st in the standings. Sergio Garcia, on the other hand, is playing just well enough to keep advancing, though he admitted Sunday that six consecutive weeks has him fairly exhausted. |
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| This week's Bubble Boy? Chad Campbell. He fell 16 spots to 70th in the FedExCup standings after missing the cut at the Deutsche Bank Championship. With just one finish inside the top 25 since mid July, his opening-round lead at the Masters looks even further away in the rear-view mirror. |
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PGATOUR.COM'S Brian Wacker wrote Stock Up, Stock Down, the Quick 18 and Forward Spin.
Tiger Woods
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