Playoffs off to thrilling, surprising start
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
PARAMUS, N.J. -- One down. Three to go. And if the first week of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup at The Barclays is any indication, we're in for an exciting, and unpredictable, ride.
| Playoff Standings | ||||||||||||||||||
| Top five players | ||||||||||||||||||
|
No less than 15 players performed well enough at Ridgewood Country Club to move from outside the top 120 and into the field for this week's Deutsche Bank Championship. A year ago in the inaugural Playoffs, only two managed to advance.
And as was the case for Steve Stricker a year ago, Vijay Singh took over the top spot in the FedExCup standings with his win at The Barclays, moving up six spots. Stricker's ride was short-lived, though, as Tiger Woods finished second at the TPC Boston and won the final two Playoff events.
Who knows what will happen this year, with Woods resting his surgically repaired knee, and Playoff points that have been restructured to increase volatility. One quantity is known, though -- Singh is red-hot with wins in two of his last four starts, and he is a former champ at two of the three remaining Playoff venues.
"It would be nice to win it," Singh said. "I've got a great start and I just have to go ahead and play hard for the next three events. The guys behind me, the way the system works now, the next guy that wins can just overtake you. it's going to be tough.
"But I'm ahead and I've got a head start. So I just have to go out there and play consistent, solid golf and hopefully, win at the end."
The big Fijian will be paired with Sergio Garcia and Kevin Sutherland, the men he beat in Sunday's playoff within the Playoffs, during the first two rounds at the TPC Boston. In a unique twist, players are paired based on their FedExCup standing in the first two rounds of each Playoff event.
The biggest mover on Sunday was Kevin Streelman, who missed a 16-footer for birdie at the 18th hole that would have allowed him to join the playoff with Singh, Garcia and Sutherland. The best finish, and second straight top-10, of the rookie's career boosted him from 102nd to 37th and all but guaranteed his playing privileges for next year.
"It frees me up a lot," Streelman said. "I wasn't expecting to be that high, so I really have nothing to lose. To get in next week is great. To get in the week after that would be great. To get in THE TOUR Championship would be a dream rookie season.
"So I just have to take it one week at a time. As we see the volatility in the points; if you miss a cut, you jump back and if you make, it you move way up. That's just the fact of the matter. If I make next week's cut and make a top-10 or so, put us in good position going into the last two."
Other big movers included Sutherland, who gained 54 spots and now stands third behind Singh and Garcia, and Mathew Goggin, who moved from 76th to 26th with his tie for fourth on Sunday, In all, nine players moved into the top 30 -- which is important since that's the magic number of players who will be invited to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola to end the Playoffs.
Paul Casey, who contended all week and eventually tied for seventh, jumped 52 spots to 38th so he likely will be safe through the third Playoff event -- at the least. He'd like nothing better than to follow an appearance at the BMW Championship by representing Europe in the Ryder Cup and his performance Sunday certainly impressed Captain Nick Faldo.
Four players dropped out of the top 10, including the former No. 1, Woods, who is now 15th. The other three played The Barclays and missed the cut with Padraig Harrington dropping from fourth to 23rd, Ryuji Imada dropping from ninth to 31st and Geoff Ogilvy falling 22 spots to 32nd.
A total of 15 of the players ranked Nos. 121-144 survived to play at the Deutsche Bank Championship -- Richard S. Johnson, Tim Petrovic, Jason Day, Martin Laird, Angel Cabrera, Ryan Palmer, Tim Herron, Michael Allen, J.J. Henry, Frank Lickliter II, Jesper Parnevick, Justin Bolli, Jeff Overton, Glen Day and Lee Janzen.
Laird made the biggest move from No. 128 to 67th. The rookie from Glasgow is obviously playing well after tying for fourth at the Wyndham Championship last week to move up 36 spots just to make the field for The Barclays and sharing seventh on Sunday at Ridgewood.
The other 14 players who advanced after starting the week between Nos. 121-144 are now ranked 93rd or below. All -- including Laird -- need a good week at TPC Boston to get into the top 70 and advance to the BMW Championship.
Get the best deals on the best equipment all at the SHOP.PGATOUR.COM.
MOBILE
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network