Notebook: Baird not fazed by being on this week's bubble

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Sep. 4, 2009
By PGATOUR.COM Staff

NORTON, Mass. -- As the 70th-ranked player in FedExCup points, Briny Baird gets saddled with the Bubble Boy label this week at the Deutsche Bank Championship. But just because he straddles the fine line between advancing to next week's tournament or going home for the rest of the Playoffs, Baird doesn't see the need to complicate things.

"I definitely would like to play next week, but I can only control what I do," he said Thursday afternoon following his practice session at TPC Boston. "If I don't play well this week, I know I'm not playing next week. If I do play well this week, I don't have to worry about what anybody else does -- I will play next week."

Although Baird said he hasn't played particularly well of late, he should feel pretty confident about his chances at TPC Boston. He's played in every Deutsche Bank Championship and has finished T32 or better five of those six times. A year ago, he opened with a 7-under 64 and entered the final round in the top 10 on the leaderboard before fading with a 75.

Unlike the tough Liberty National course last week, Baird welcomes playing at a course that yields a lot of birdies.

"Everybody wants to set their golf course up in the worst word I've ever heard -- 'championship' style," Baird said. "... I'm not a huge fan of everybody wanting to set up their courses as hard as possible. So when you say this is a birdiefest, that's great.

"If the weather conditions are like this (sunny, no wind), 20 or 22 under should win. If (the wind) blows 20-25 (mph) two of the four days, it'll be more like 15 under. I'm a fan of that. Let the weather dictate how hard the golf course plays. Let's not trick it up before the tournament has even started."

Even on the bubble, Baird doesn't plan to stay up until all hours the first two days trying to calculate his chances. Being No. 70 is just a number -- albeit a very important one this week.

"If I was 69 or 71, it doesn't make a difference," he said. "It just happens to be the cutoff number. If I stay at 70, I get to play next week. If not, I've got a wife, three kids and a nice boat at home." -- Mike McAllister

TIGER AND TOM: Tiger Woods and Tom Brady are athletes at the pinnacle of their sports. Beyond their physical prowess, though, the two share another bond.

Woods had surgery to repair a torn ACL in June of 2008 -- mere days after he won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in a 19-hole playoff. Brady, on the other hand, blew out his ACL in the New England Patriots season-opener last fall.

"It's not a bond you want," Woods said after the Deutsche Bank Championship pro-am. "Blowing out ACLs is definitely not a bond you want. But certainly I've always admired him for what he's done."

So Woods, more than most, can appreciate the effort Brady has put in to get ready for the Sept. 14 opener with the Buffalo Bills. And in some ways, the world's No. 1 golfer thinks he had it easier than Brady.

"You have to understand that you've done the legwork, you've busted your butt all these months to get to this position, which I know Tom has,'" Woods said. "He's worked extremely hard. He's taken a few shots, and obviously I think it's good. He needs the experience. For me it was about being out here and playing under the gun, on the back nine on Sunday, and see how it feels.

"The thing is about my sport is I can continue to get better as the year goes on. He's going to continue to get hit pretty hard. That is always going to be the case for football players.

"For me you have days where you think there's no way it's going to get any better, and a week later it's unbelievable again, it's even better. Hopefully Tom will continue to get better throughout the season, and the line protects him."

Indeed. Brady's knee appears healed, but now he is nursing a sore shoulder after a bruising hit during a preseason game with the Washington Redskins. -- Helen Ross

THE FINE POINTS: The points system has been changed each of the first three years of the FedExCup, and count Steve Stricker among those who will be glad when it's more settled. And like some of the players, Stricker figures that the average Joe attending the Deutsche Bank Championship this week or watching on TV probably doesn't understand the fine points.

But that doesn't mean they can't get swept up in the action.

"I'm a NASCAR fan, and I don't understand their point system," Stricker said. "I watch guys who win races or lead a bunch of laps or whatever, and they don't move up as many spots as I thought they should move up when I look at the points the next week type thing, and I'm still a NASCAR fan.

"I don't know if you really need to understand it. You can just watch from week to week and see where the guy is at, and if you have a favorite player or whatever, you watch Heath jump up to where he is." -- Helen Ross

SOLAR ENERGY: Just outside the merchandise tent in between the ninth green and 10th tee box is a solar panel system, just recently installed at TPC Boston. The energy produced by the installation will be put back into the local power grid to help offset some of the power used throughout the tournament.

In addition to the solar panels, the Deutsche Bank also is unveiling its new Sustainability Tent, which features a replica of the world's first scientifically valid, real-time carbon counter.

The tournament was the first and remains the only carbon neutral event on the PGA TOUR.

"Deutsche Bank has long been a leader in environmental sustainability and is committed to be carbon neutral firm-wide from 2013 onward, so it was natural to extend that commitment to the Deutsche Bank Championship," Seth Waugh, CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, said in a press release.

"We are achieving our goal to continually reduce the environmental impact of our event, and to offset any remaining impact, so that the Championship can be enjoyed by generations of fans to come." -- Mike McAllister

THIS AND THAT: Phil Mickelson will make the 400th start of his TOUR career this week. With 36 wins in his first 399 starts, Mickelson has won nine percent of the TOUR events that he has entered. ... FedExCup First Tee Scholar Brent Edelman got a chance to shake hands with Ernie Els on Thursday. Edelman, one of two 2009 FedExCup First Tee Scholars, is an incoming freshman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. ... In case you didn't see it, the first 33 players on the FedExCup rankings have a guaranteed spot in next week's BMW Championship. For more on who's safe, who's in good shape and who must play well this week to move on, check out this week's Inside the FedExCup.