The second FedEx Cup playoff gets underway at the TPC at Boston and is the Deutsche Bank Championship. Recent winners of this event reads like a “Who’s Who” of the modern game with the likes of Steve Stricker, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh amongst the names to have won this event.
Of the 125 players that began the series last week at The Barclays, only 100 remain in the series and after this week, the field will be whittled down further to 75 players. The 7200 yard, par-71 course at TPC Boston is a relatively straight-forward Arnold Palmer design where length of the tee is a distinct advantage, while wayward shots are not harsly punished. Expect scoring this week to be low.
We start off the shortlist with Australian Adam Scott, who emerged from a spell in the golfing doldrums earlier in the year to record his first win since 2008 in the Valero Texas Open. This course provided Scott with his first PGA Tour win in 2003, and he followed that up with a second place finish the following year. Although he’s struggled over the revamped layout, there have been excuses and he arrives here on the back of a strong showing at Ridgewood where he finished just four shots behind the eventual play-off contenders. 35/1 is an excellent price about a player who ticks all the right boxes for me this week.
World number one Tiger Woods has looked a different player in the past couple of weeks since his much-publicised divorce and opened strongly at last week’s The Barclays with a 65. He topped the driving accuracy statistics there, and was also 6th in GIR – a far cry from earlier in the year, and the green shoots of recovery continue to spring up. Woods spoilt his chances with a crazy triple-bogey on his first hole on the Saturday, but finished strongly on Sunday to suggest that he is on the way back. However, the bookmakers have taken few chances, and while he’s still longer than you might expect at 9/1, he was available at 12s for The Barclays.
Defending champion Steve Stricker is only kept out of top spot in the betting by Tiger Woods, and Stricker should once again be competitive here. The majors aside, few could argue that Stricker has been the most consistent player over the past two seasons and two wins this season as well as a string of placed efforts show Stricker continues in a rich vein of form. He’s 12/1 to continue his fine run, and is worthy of serious consideration this week.
Justin Rose will be keen to show Colin Montgomerie a thing or two after being overlooked for the European Ryder Cup team, and this course will suit the Englishman. A 3rd place on his debut in 2003 and a 4th place in 2006 here, Rose finished in an excellent 15th place last week in Ridgewood. Already twice a winner on the PGA Tour this season, Rose could well show Monty what he’ll be missing and he looks strong at 60/1 to reach the places this week.
Dustin Johnson was a serious consideration after excellent performances in recent times, including the US Open and US PGA and again last week in Ridgewood. However, I have concerns about his temperament under pressure now and 20/1 makes little appeal.
Selection: Adam Scott
Savers: Steve Stricker, Justin Rose
