The Barclays at the FedExCup Playoffs scheduled to start this week
The FedExCup Playoffs will be swinging back to action this week at the 6,964 yards par-71, Plainfield Country Club, New Jersey where the top-125 players on the points table will be pitched for the first episode of the $10-million event, The Barclays.
Spanned over a period of four weeks, the championship will proceed to the next event the Deutsche Bank Championship where only the top-100 players from the starting round will qualify to play in the event. Top-70 from there onwards will proceed to the BMW
Championship and a final set of 30 players will head into the final event of the string, the TOUR Championship by Coca Cola with the winner taking down the coveted FedExCup.
Top ranking players from both sides of the Atlantic will be coming down to pull in their best swings and the field will include players of the likes of Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell, Steve Stricker, Nick Watney, Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and several other
established players of the sport.
Stricker, resting at number three in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) is the highest ranking American playing in the event and is currently in his best form over the past few months. Stricker pulled a majestic three-peat at the John Deere Classic
on PGA Tour just a month ago and has already won twice on the tour this season. He is currently ranked number two on the FedExCup Rankings, trailing Nick Watney on the top.
Stricker’s performance in the Playoffs has been phenomenal in the course of his career and has finished for a whooping ten career top-ten’s in the Playoffs. He has gone over to win three times and has a credible chance of pulling it again this week. Some
of the critics foresee at least one victory for Stricker in the coming four events string.
Rookie Keegan Bradley, winner of the PGA Championship for the season, will be hoping to continue with his winning spree in the season and remains pitched as a strong contender in the Playoffs. With the overwhelming success of rookies in the current season
might as well continue in the Playoffs and Bradley is hoping to post another win before calling it a day for the year.
Donald, logically, remains one of the foremost probable to win the Playoffs, comfortably poised at the top of OWGR for successive weeks now. The Englishman has played well in the season both on the American as well as the European turf but fears that he
has overplayed the sport and is in dire need of a break from his sporting obligations, which does not seem to be coming any sooner.
"I'm playing a lot more and that hurt me a little bit this year. I probably didn't prepare quite as well for the US Open - I felt over-golfed," Donald spoke before the practice round in NJ.
Australian Jason Day has mastered the art of finishing as runner-up in whichever event he digs his claws into and will be returning with his Aussie-Filipino charms yet again this week. Runner-up in the Masters and the US Open, Day started off the year with
a strong performance in the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship and has remained in contention for most of the events, although he still has to break the winless streak.
The Plainfield course is one of the most luring courses on the tour with some of its par-four’s play as formidable traps for the approaching golfers.
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