FedEx Cup 2015 Stock Watch: Who's Up, Who's Down After the Deutsche Bank?
We’re halfway through the FedEx Cup Playoffs, so it’s time to take stock and see who’s worth buying and selling with two events to go.
Rickie Fowler is most definitely up after his Sunday run at the Deutsche Bank Championship (DBC), his second win of the year and third of his career.
Jordan Spieth missed the cut for the second week in a row and Henrik Stenson earned a solo second for the second straight week.
There’s no sense in wasting any time. Let’s see who’s up and who’s down with two rounds remaining in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Down: Phil Mickelson
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Phil Mickelson made the U.S. Presidents Cup team yet again, and at 45 he’s actually old enough to be POTUS.
Maybe since Jay Haas elected to put Lefty on the team, it will give him that extra bit of something-or-other that keeps him around through the BMW Championship and then on to East Lake.
“This means a lot to me, and I find that these events are where real relationships are formed with the players," Mickelson said in Kyle Porter’s CBSSports.com story.
As promising as that is for Mickelson to get a chance to be the senior player on the Presidents Cup team, his play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs isn’t turning any heads.
His most recent saw him finish in a tie for 65th at the Deutsche Bank with a tie for 50th in the Barclays.
Even: Rory McIlroy
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Rory McIlroy doesn’t have the swagger he had from last year. At this point, he’s a most unassuming world No. 1 (He will take over the No. 1 ranking after next week without playing*.) given that most of the talk centers around Spieth, Jason Day and now Fowler. Oddly enough McIlroy feels like a footnote.
He skipped the Barclays (a wise move given his points and that ankle injury) and resurfaced to finish in a tie for 29th at the Deutsche Bank Championship. That doesn’t look that good on paper, but when you look at this scores over the four rounds, you’ll notice the promising outlier: 70, 74, 71, 66.
McIlroy moved up 35 spots with that one round. Since he’s skipping the next tournament, McIlroy will need to remain sharp for the Tour Championship. That’s when the stars will come out and when the world’s best will turn the screws as tight as they will go.
*: Yeah, I don’t know either.
Up: Charley Hoffman
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The FedEx Cup Playoffs have a way of elevating an obscure golfer from the rank and file to the forefront. Look no further than 2014 when Billy Horschel won the entire thing.
Charley Hoffman, now sixth in the FedEx Cup standings, is that golfer. He hasn’t won a tournament in 2015, but his biggest distinction was his surprisingly strong effort at the Masters (T9) and tying for second at the Humana Challenge.
At the DBC, Hoffman had the lead after the second round, slipped in the third and bounced back on Monday to get into contention finishing alone in third.
“It’s just sort of what of I’m made of,” he said in Bill Doyle’s Telegram.com story. “I’m not going to let one round bring me down. I’ve played a lot of golf and I’m going to have another bad round sooner than later and hopefully the good ones outweigh the bad ones.”
Don’t overlook Hoffman; he may be the Horschel of this year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.
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Down: Bill Haas
4 of 10Bill Haas, a previous winner of the FedEx Cup, is hanging around in the top 30. He started the DBC in 25th and dropped to 27th, so he’s under the gun to stay right there for a trip to Atlanta.
Haas also benefits from being named to the Presidents Cup team this week. Not that that has any implication in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but it could have a carryover effect that may elevate his game.
How will Haas respond being so close to the cut line? If his chip from 2011 that led to his win is any indication of how he can play under pressure, then he must be respected.
Up: Henrik Stenson
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Henrik Stenson has the look right now. He had the lead in the DBC before ultimately losing to Fowler, but that’s not as troubling as it seems.
A solo second in the Barclays and a second runner-up a week later is the best two-week stretch of anyone on tour.
At the DBC, Stenson tied for first in total birdies at the DBC with 22 and, based on recent form, is the favorite to win the FedEx Cup, his second.
For Stenson, the DBC got away with him by hitting a 7-iron instead of a six on the par-three No. 16. His approach fell short and allowed Fowler the Prowler to pounce.
Stenson said in an Associated Press story (h/t ESPN.com):
"I obviously pulled the wrong club on 16 and was trying to get the most out of a 7-iron into the wind and ballooned that one a little bit, and that was the crucial mistake. Making double there was really a killer," I tried to get those two shots back or at least one to force a playoff on the last two holes and couldn't manage to do it.
"
Maybe he’s playing too well at this point, while players like Spieth and McIlroy take the week off before Atlanta, but the Son of Sten looks as poised as any golfer to win the FedEx Cup and become the first player since Tiger Woods to win multiple FedEx Cups.
Down: Jimmy Walker
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Jimmy Walker, a top-five player in FedEx Cup points most of the year, is tanking in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The two-time tournament winner in 2015 kicked off the Barclays with a tied-for-69th effort and then missed the cut at the Deutsche Bank. In six rounds of FedEx Cup-ness, Walker shot only one round in the 60s: a 69 in the second round of the Barclays.
While in Norton, Mass., for the DBC, Walker hit just 11-of-28 fairways for 39.29 percent. In four rounds of the Barclays, he hit 50 percent of his fairways: by no means great, but far better than his trip around TPC Boston.
Walker needs to clean up his game off the tee. He’s landed just 46 percent of his drives in the short grass in six rounds, and unless that changes, he’s tough to buy.
Up: Matt Kuchar
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Matt Kuchar made a big move up the standings from 27th to 20th with his top 10 at the DBC. If it wasn’t for a one-birdie second round, Kuchar may have contended for the win. He carded 16 birdies the entire tournament, good for a tie for 16th.
If you had to pick a sleeper or two, Kuchar deserves some attention. He performed well in the majors (T12 at the U.S. Open and T7 at the PGA Championship), and he ranks 10th on the tour in strokes-gained total.
In 2014, Kuchar finished in a tie for 46th at the BMW and alone in 13th at the Tour Championship, so he knows how to drill down late in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Even: Hunter Mahan
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As many slots as Kuchar moved up in the FedEx Cup standings, nobody elevated his standing better than Hunter Mahan.
Mahan jumped 39 spots from 91st to 52nd after firing a 64 in the final round at the DBC. He’s the only player to play in every FedEx Cup Playoff event. He’ll need to climb another 22 spots to make the top 30 and thus qualify for the Tour Championship.
He said in Randall Mell’s GolfChannel.com story:
"It's something I want to continue. I'm trying as hard as I can. I'm very proud of it. I feel like it's a sense of accomplishment to be the last person to have played in every single one of them. I know it's my goal every year to get to the Tour Championship and have a chance to win the FedExCup.
And the great thing about it is it does give guys like myself, who are kind of farther back, an opportunity to really move up there and have a chance. If you do win or place highly up there, you never know what can happen in Atlanta.
"
There’s a lot of work for Mahan, but he wants to keep that streak alive, so sleep on Mahan at your own risk.
Down: Jordan Spieth
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It was within plausible predictability to think that Jordan Spieth wouldn’t be playing quite as well in the FedEx Cup Playoffs as he was in the four majors, of which he won two.
Spieth has missed not one, but two cuts in the first two legs of the playoffs, falling from first in the standings alllll the way to second, 11 points behind Jason Day.
Golf financial advisors are yelling “Sell! Sell! Sell!” on Spieth, but they’d be sorely mistaken in their reactionary behavior. Take what Spieth said regarding the format of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The points, in effect, reset for Tour Championship, rendering much of the regular season and the playoffs at large moot.
He said in Kyle Porter’s CBSSports.com story, "It's pretty much, did you win East Lake [the Tour Championship]? It's a little odd that it just completely resets, because if you want it to be the true champion of the year, it wouldn't necessarily reset for the final, even if you do make it worth more points throughout the playoffs.”
So what’s happening? Spieth only played to keep his metal from oxidizing. He’s also only playing out of a sense of obligation to sponsors and not to discredit the playoff system that doesn’t require all its participants to play each event.
Up: Rickie Fowler
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What Rickie Fowler does as well as—if not better than—anyone on the PGA Tour is win on Sundays. If Tiger Woods was the greatest front-runner of all time (14-1 in the majors while leading after 54 holes), Fowler plays his best while lurking like a…puma.
His win in the Players while dropping six-under par through the final six holes to force a playoff against Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner? Legendary.
Folwer then buried them to win the unofficial fifth major.
In the Deutsche Bank, he stalked the pace-setting Stenson—a previous FedEx Cup champion—and passed him late in the round.
Fowler was deemed overrated by a poll earlier in the year. Fowler tacked that on his mental corkboard.
Fowler said in Helen Ross’ PGATour.com story.
"I definitely want to be the best player that I can be. I want to be the best player in the world at some point. But, yes, being called overrated, I won three times (worldwide, this year), so thanks for the poll, I guess. I've been playing very well the last couple of years, it was just a matter of time before I knocked on the door.
"
He’s got that "how-you-like-me-now?" look.
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