Winners and Losers from the 2015 Barclays
We have our first FedEx Cup playoff winner of the season. And he's a guy who's been playing some halfway-decent golf lately: Jason Day.
The Australian shook off an early-week back injury to dominate the competition at Plainfield Country Club. Day's final-round eight-under 62 bested Henrik Stenson by six strokes and Bubba Watson by eight.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, (now former) world No. 1 Jordan Spieth missed the cut in Edison, New Jersey.
Who joined Day and Spieth as winners and losers, respectively?
Click through to find out.
WInner: Jason Day
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"He's a golfing machine," Nick Faldo intoned during CBS Sunday's telecast.
Indeed, he is.
Day shot a Sunday 62 to win the first playoff event by six strokes over Henrik Stenson. The surging Australian has now won three of his last four starts.
A report on PGATour.com tallied the impressiveness of his big win at Plainfield:
"Day ranked first in a number of statistical categories including least bogeys (four), greens in regulation (83.33 percent), and Strokes Gained: Putting (8.781). He ranked T2 in most birdies with 21 and third in driving distance (326.3 yards), Strokes Gained: Tee-to-green (11.658) and putts per green in regulation (1.667).
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He's now first in the FedEx Cup standings.
Loser: Jordan Spieth
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Jordan Spieth's world No. 1 ranking was snatched out of his hands before he'd had any time to enjoy the prize.
Spieth never got on track at Plainfield Country Club, where he shot 74 and 73 to miss the cut by five strokes. It was Spieth's first missed cut since The Players Championship in May.
Said Spieth following the missed cut: "I'm definitely searching for answers. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do from here as far as how I get prepared for next week (when the tour progresses to the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston), but I have some time to figure it out."
WInner: Hole-in-One Harman
3 of 8PGATour.com's Helen Ross related Brian Harman's first of two holes-in-one Sunday.
"Harman, who closed with a 68, used a 7-iron to ace the third hole, which was playing to 183 yards. "(It) landed short, broke right in," he recalled.
Harman said he looked at his caddie, Scott Tway, and told him that was his first hole-in-one in competition.
"He's like, 'Well, they come in bunches,'" Harman recalled. "I was like, 'Yeah, whatever.'"
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The caddie's words must have seemed prophetic a short time later: Harman holed his tee shot at the par-three 14th using a hybrid.
Only one other player has made two aces in a round on tour: Yusaku Miyazato at the 2006 Reno Tahoe Open.
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Losers: Near-Missers
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Only the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup standings book passage north to TPC Boston for the Deutsche Bank Championship.
These two gentlemen made the cut at The Barclays, but didn't quite play well enough to advance.
- Stewart Cink (T39): 102
- Nick Taylor (T53): 101
These gents just missed the cut (plus two), and as a result, just missed moving on.
- John Peterson (+3): 105
- Adam Scott (+4): 106
- Charl Schwartzel (+4): 108
- Adam Hadwin (+5): 107
Winner: Season Extenders
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Unlike the golfers in the previous slide, who just missed out on the top 100. These golfers helped their causes in New Jersey, sneaking into the Deutsche Bank Championship field.
- Spencer Levin (T16): 80
- Jason Dufner (T30): 82
- Carlos Ortiz (T24): 83
- Mark Wilson (T24): 85
- Luke Donald (T24): 87
Loser: Sunday Bae
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Entering the final round tied at 11 under, Sang-Moon Bae ran out of gas Sunday.
The South Korean, who has made headlines this year more for his military-service saga than his work inside the ropes, carded a Saturday 63 that included nine birdies and 16 of 18 greens in regulation.
Bae, who has four top-10 finishes this season, fired an uninspired two-over 72 Sunday, which was 10 shots worse than his playing partner, Jason Day. He finished tied for sixth.
Anytime a player is in the final group and falls on his face in a final round, he'll earn "loser" status on this list.
WInner: The PGA Tour
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Overlord of the PGA Tour and guiding hand behind the FedEx Cup, Tim Finchem has to be pleased with the inaugural event of these 2015 playoffs.
The much-maligned season-ending competition got started with a star-storyline push.
First, Bubba Watson opened the competition with a five-under 70 to tie for the first-round lead. Big name at the top of the board: a good thing for the tour.
Then, Jordan Spieth imploded with a second-round 73 to miss the cut by five strokes. A bad thing for the tour? Not necessarily, as it cost the Masters and U.S. Open champion his top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking. Now, next week the second playoff event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, will be billed as a Spiethian quest for redemption and reclamation of the No. 1 spot from Rory McIlroy.
And of course, a Jason Day romp and resulting talk of the Big Three of Spieth, McIlory and Day is a good thing for the tour in general and storylines for the remainder of the playoffs in particular.
Loser: Jimmy Walker
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For a second season in a row, it's looking like a slow burn will characterize Jimmy Walker's late season form.
Walker, who held the lead in the FedEx Cup standings for much of last season, thanks to three early-season victories never threatened to win any of the four playoff events.
He begun his playoff campaign last year with a missed cut at The Barclays (albeit at a different venue). He begins this season with a tie-for-69th finish that didn't see him break par on the weekend.
If he's truly going to enter elite status, Walker, who hasn't won since February and is currently No. 14 in the Official World Golf Ranking, will need to start contending after this first half of the season.
Stats via PGATour.com.
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