2009 FedEx Cup Preview: Tiger Woods Among Nine Contenders for Title

Okay, so we’ve moved on to round three of the PGA Tour’s ever-evolving FedEx Cup Playoffs.

After commissioner Tim Finchem was forced to awkwardly hand Vijay Singh the FedEx Cup while the likes of Sergio Garcia, Anthony Kim, and Camilo Villegas were still on the course battling it out for the Tour Championship, it was clear that another round of format tweaks was desperately needed.

The good news is that they’re moving in the right direction.

The bad news is that FedEx and the PGA Tour have taken yet another baby step towards the ultimate solution everyone is waiting for—the winner of the Tour Championship takes home the FedEx Cup title and the $10 million.

More volatility has been added to the 2009 playoffs. Any player who enters the Tour Championship ranked in the top five in FedEx Cup points can now automatically secure the title with a victory.

At first glance, this looks pretty intriguing.

At least we won’t have a similar situation to last year, when Vijay Singh needed only to complete four rounds at the Tour Championship without being disqualified to secure the title.

But take a step back and really think about this for a moment.

How likely is it that a player from within the top five in points will actually win the Tour Championship?

Unless your name happens to be Tiger Woods, winning a PGA Tour event is, believe it or not, a rarity for even the top players in the world.

It’s certainly possible that the FedEx Cup title could be awarded to the last man standing at the Tour Championship. However, it’s much more likely that the winner of the Tour Championship will not be the one seeing an extra $10 million on his next bank statement courtesy of FedEx.

Anyway, here’s a breakdown of nine players to watch during the 2009 FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Favorites

Steve Stricker

Steve Stricker finished second only to Tiger Woods in regular season FedEx Cup points. With eight top-10 finishes and a win in 2009, few players on tour have played as consistently well as Stricker.  

It’s very likely that the winner of the FedEx Cup will have to mix in at least one win over the course of the four playoff events.

If Stricker can capture a win, he has been consistent enough to combine it with three top-10 finishes, which would give him an excellent chance at the FedEx Cup title.

Padraig Harrington

Although Harrington has not had the type of season you would have expected from a guy who won the final two majors of the 2008 season, he has turned it on as of late.

Harrington was leading Tiger Woods by a stroke at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational before he carded an eight on the par-five 16th, while Woods calmly hit a 182-yard eight iron to less than two feet and tapped in for birdie.  

Harrington was also in contention on Sunday at the PGA Championship before once again carding an eight, only this time it was on a par-three.

In Western culture, the number 13 is thought to be unlucky. But for Harrington, his unlucky number has to be an eight.

Take away Harrington’s two nightmarish holes at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, and there’s a good chance he would have won both events.

Aside from Woods, who has won two out of his last three events, no one has been playing better golf as of late than Harrington.  

Tiger Woods

As is the case with virtually everything in the world of golf, the outcome of the FedEx Cup will largely depend on what Tiger Woods does. No one on the PGA Tour has even come close to winning as often as Woods.

Woods' missed cut at the British Open was the first time he finished outside of the top 10 at any event in two years.

There’s an excellent chance that Woods will, at the very least, finish within the top 10 at each of the four playoff events.

The big question is whether or not he will win an event early.

If Woods wins the Barclays or the Deutsche Bank Championship and combines that with two additional top-five finishes, that’s all she wrote—barring the unlikely event that one of the other top five players in the point standings wins the Tour Championship.

Despite some additional volatility being added into the format, the FedEx Cup Playoffs are still all about consistency and who in the history of the game has been more consistent than Tiger Woods?

Let’s also not forget that Woods lost a major championship while holding the 54-hole lead for the first time in his career less than two weeks ago. As we know, Tiger Woods is not one to let something like that slip by without seeking revenge.

The next major championship is more than eight months away, so decimating the field in the FedEx Cup may have to do for now.  

Contenders

Lucas Glover

Following his unlikely victory at the U.S. Open, Lucas Glover has kept an unbelievably busy schedule. Being the standup guy that he is, Glover honored his commitment to play four consecutive weeks immediately following the Open.  

By the time the John Deere Classic came around, it was clear that Glover was beginning to run out of gas. He tied for 66th at the John Deere and then missed the cut at the British Open.

After taking a couple of weeks off, Glover returned to action at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, where he tied for 19th, which he followed with a fifth-place finish at the PGA Championship and a tie for 24th at last week’s Wyndham Championship.

The Barclays will be Glover’s fourth consecutive event. So, the big question is whether or not he still has enough gas left in the tank to continue his solid play through the playoffs.

Zach Johnson

With two wins and five additional top-10 finishes, Johnson finished third in the 2009 regular season FedEx Cup point standings.

Johnson is known as a player who typically peaks around April and May and then tapers off towards the end of the season.

However, it’s now the last week in August, and he is showing no sign of slowing down. In fact, in his last two events, Johnson tied for 15th at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and tied for 10th at the PGA Championship.

Johnson has played consistently well all season, so what’s to say that he’s suddenly going to cool down now?  

Hunter Mahan

Hunter Mahan has just one PGA Tour win to his name, yet he has been one of the most consistent players in the game over the past two years. This season alone, Mahan has 13 top-25 finishes in 20 events.

He’s finished within the top 10 at four out of his last six events and is currently ranked fourth on tour in scoring average.

There’s a pretty good chance that Mahan finishes somewhere inside of the top 10 to top 25 in each of the four FedEx Cup events. If he happens to mix in a win along the way, his level of consistency should gain him a large number of additional points during the other three events.

Mahan is long overdue for a big-time win. Perhaps the 2009 FedEx Cup will be his coming out party, not to mention that it would make him an extremely wealthy 27-year-old.

Dark Horses

Robert Allenby

If Robert Allenby was even a decent putter, he would be a perennial winner on the PGA Tour. 

Allenby is widely regarded as one of the best ball strikers in the game, and he currently ranks 12th on tour in scoring average despite his troubles on the green.

Well, Allenby is still as good a ball striker as he’s always been, only now he can also putt. Taking a tip from Vijay Singh back in July, Allenby switched to the claw grip and has been draining putts ever since.

In his last two events, Allenby tied for second at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and tied for 24th at the PGA Championship.

If Allenby can combine his excellent ball striking with a solid putter, look out.

Singh may come to regret the day he kindly gave Allenby that putting tip.

Steve Marino

It’s difficult to believe that Steve Marino has yet to win a PGA Tour event. It seems like every time you turn around, his name is near the top of the leaderboard.

Marino has 10 top-25 finishes and has earned more than $1.6 million so far this season.

Although he missed the cut at the PGA Championship, Marino came back strong with a tie for 10th at last week’s Wyndham Championship, which included a 63 in the third round.

Marino may not be the hottest player entering the playoffs, but he has been solid all season, and he is long overdue for a win on the PGA Tour.

Having played 56 events over the past two seasons, Marino is also a workhorse who will have no problem with the grueling playoff schedule.

John Rollins

John Rollins was knocking on victory’s door early in the season when he finished second at the Buick Invitational and then finished second again just four weeks later at the Honda Classic.

Rollins finally entered the winner's circle for the first time since 2006 with his win at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open.

In his past three events, Rollins tied for eighth at the Buick Open, won the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open, and tied for 24th at the PGA Championship.

Rollins has earned more than $2.18 million this season and currently ranks 20th in FedEx Cup points.

Rollins’ chances of success during the playoffs will rest almost solely on his putter, which has been his Achilles' heel for most of the year.