Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Two-man horse race?

Barring an amazing back-to-back win performance over the next two weeks, the chase for the FedEx Cup has pretty much become a two-man race between Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods. Based on their play over the past two weeks, Stricker goes into this weeks' BMW Championship outside of Chicago with the advantage.
Stricker's win on Monday at the Duetsche Bank Championship put him in first place by 909 points over Woods. While Woods usually does well at Cog hill, the simple fact is he is struggling with his game, Monday's 8-under, 63 notwithstanding. Woods' balky putter either runs red-hot or ice-cold and it not only cost him a chance to put the FedEx Cup out of reach, it has opened the door for Stricker to cruise right on by.
Stricker has been the more consistent of the pair in recent weeks by far and now only has to make sure he finishes no worse than tied with Woods at the end of the next two tournaments to claim the $10 million bonanza.
Unless, of course, one of the players currently running in the Top 25 catches fire and wins the next two events and collects 5,000 points in the process. British Open champion Stewart Cink is currently 25th at 1,435 points, trailing Stricker by 4,170 points.
Back-to-back victories by Cink would force Stricker or Woods to finish in the top 5 in both of the next two events to capture the Cup.
So while it looks pretty good for Stricker and Woods right now, there is still enough time and points left in the chase for a dark horse to steal away with the Cup. Remember, Camilo Villegas won the last two FedEx Cup events last year, so it is not unprecedented.
Which naturally begs the question: Which of the players from No. 3 Heath Slocum on down to Cink has the best chance to pull off the miracle comeback?
I'll put my money on Jim Furyk and his eight Top 10 finishes this year. But realistically I don't see Stricker giving up this lead too easily and I will go out on a limb and say that Stricker will wrap up the FedEx Cup this week in Chicago.

No comments:

Post a Comment