Good momentum vital during Playoffs

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Matt Kuchar has it now. Heath Slocum found it for a week exactly a year ago. And all of the 123 players headed into this week's PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup want to get it -- sooner rather than later.

So just what is this hot commodity? It's simple -- momentum.

"It's everything," Davis Love III said. "It's the one thing you always look for. It's the chicken or the egg. You want to get on a roll but how do you get on a roll? How do you get that confidence?

"And once you get it --- whether it's two good putts in a row or two good days in a row or two good weeks in a row -- if you get on a little bit of a roll, it's easier to keep it going. Some guys like Tiger do it for years and years, but you see it with everybody."

Sometimes a player finds momentum and has staying power -- like Nick Price did when he won six times, including consecutive majors, in 1994. Or Vijay Singh, who went on a tear a decade later and won nine times.

For others, though, momentum is more fleeting. A week here, another there. In those cases, it's usually the ability to keep building on birdies or the power of positive thinking gained after a clutch 10-footer for par.

"You start thinking about winning rather than making cuts or you start thinking about shooting 65s rather than shooting 70s and your whole mindset changes," Love said. "It's like a football team and you fumble twice, it just deflates you -- but you pick off one and score a touchdown and then you score another one and the ball starts rolling.

"Momentum, confidence, in the zone -- it's all the same thing. Once you get it going, it's easier to keep it going."

Slocum showed how quickly momentum can change a year ago. He came to the Wyndham Championship ranked 117th in the FedExCup and missed the cut despite a second-round 66. So he watched the projected standings with more than a little interest on Sunday until learning he was safely the Playoffs in at No. 124 of 125.

And then what happened? Well, Slocum went out and beat a field that included Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker at Liberty National and advanced all the way to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, eventually finishing eighth in the FedExCup.

Not bad for a guy who hadn't finished higher than 34th in his seven starts prior to the Playoffs last year. So do you still think momentum is overrated?

"I think it's huge," said John Rollins, who has some after that tie for third at the Wyndham Championship. "The way this points system and the FedExCup and the way it's all set up now, if you really want to be playing well, the best time to be playing well is from now through the Playoffs.

"Heath Slocum last year, wasn't playing great; (he) was really battling his game. We played a practice round with him last year at The Barclays and the guy goes on to win. It's like it just completely took him from barely making it in to being at the top of the list."

As the Playoffs begin this week at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramas, N.J., the usual suspects at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking will be among the favorites. But a player like Kuchar, who has a TOUR-leading nine top-10s this season, can't be overlooked, either.

"I think Matt Kuchar could win the first Playoffs event and no one would think anything about it," Brandt Snedeker said. "Or Dustin Johnson, he's been playing great for a long time. Now, somebody -- use Heath as an example -- he hadn't played great last year and then he won The Barclays. He probably found something on Tuesday or Wednesday that felt great and he made the best of it.

"It can happen both ways -- but either way it happens you just want it to happen."

Can you win without momentum, though? Players actually say yes, and many point to Tiger Woods as an example -- even though, as Rollins says, "he's a freak of nature in this sport."

"I think he's proven, he hits it in some of these crazy places in some of these weeks and the guy still wins tournaments," said Rolliins, a three-time PGA TOUR champ. "... It definitely happens that you see a guy miss three cuts in a row and then, boom, he wins. That's obviously the opposite of momentum. He just found something that next week and he was able to ride that. I guess you could say he had momentum for those 72 holes of that week."

Anthony Kim agreed. More important than finding something on the range sometimes is turning things around when you're actually out there competing -- and not everyone can make that switch.

"I think if you're going down the wrong path, you can slow it down," he said, "I think that's what Tiger does so well. He makes a bad swing, his momentum's going the other way and he makes a 20-footer for par. He's not gaining a stroke back but he's hanging in there.

"But if your momentum is going the opposite way and you hang in there, it's a lot different story than just throwing in the towel."

The ebb and flow of the game is actually a very natural cycle for pros and amateurs alike. The ones who manage it the best, though, are the ones who are the most successful -- and during the Playoffs, where the field is cut every week, momentum is more important than ever.

"I think if you take ... some of the top-ranked players in the world out of the equation, I think that you look at most guys and they play in waves," Rollins said. "Very rarely do you ever see a guy play great golf all season long. You get hot with a putter or something feels really good in your swing or whatever you're doing, and you get comfortable and it just sort of rides itself on for a while. ...

"That's really all golf is, is a game of momentum."