Top six contenders for 2010 Tour Championship (Part 1)
The 2010 Tour Championship is scheduled to start today, 23rd September 2010 at the East Lake Golf Course in Georgia. With the Championship being the last event of the 2010 FedEx Cup Playoffs, several players are in the spotlight to take the US$ 10 million
prize money home. Six players are especially on the watch. Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker are six of the thirty golfers who look really close to getting the cup.
Jim Furyk will be playing at the East Lake for the seventh time. The forty year old American had finished second in 2006 while he was third earlier in 1998, when he missed a play-off by just one stroke. Furyk
was disqualified from the Barclay’s because he couldn’t wake up in time to make it to his tee time for the tournament’s pro-am on 25th August, 2010. Poor Jim overslept as his dead cell phone didn’t ring the alarm. He was the one who had caused the
PGA to review its rules.
Another player in the limelight is Retief Goosen, who has won at the East Lake before also. Despite bagging no major win this season, Goosen is still in the top players and has a high possibility of taking the
cup home. He is a South African Golfer, who had remained in the world top ten for 250 weeks between 2001 and 2007. His big achievements include 2001 and 2004 U.S Open wins while also leading the European Tour Order of Merit in 2001 and 2002.
The winner of the second last play off event,
Dustin Johnson is also eyeing the cup. He won the BMW Championship at Cog Hill by a one-stroke victory two weeks ago. But, he was five points behind the leader in the U.S. Open, where he finished with an 82. Similarly, at the PGA Championship, Johnson
was penalized for ‘grounding his club on the bunker.’
This unlucky mistake had cost him two strokes and hence he didn’t end up very well. Johnson is called ‘PGA’s bounce back kid’ due to his ability to still lead the standings after not a very impressive year. He really hasn’t let the bad games bring him down.
This player from South Carolina now wants to finish the season with some good news.
Meanwhile, Barclay’s winner, Matt Kuchar is actually leading the FedEx Cup Standings. He has remained this season’s steady golfer. Kuchar beat the Scottish Martin Laird and had a great start in the FedEx Cup.
He has had an amazing 18 top 25 finishes.
A two time winner of this season, Steve Stricker is also one of the top six. During the opening three events of the FedEx Cup, Stricker’s finishes read T3-9-T8. His last best performance at East Lake was in
1998, when he had tied for the fifth place. At one point in time, Stricker was also in the hunt for the number one spot.
He also has had a good relation with the FedEx Cup. Steve won the first event in the history of the FedEx Cup when he was victorious at the Barclay’s. Ever since then, he has been doing well in almost every one of the post season tournaments. Even though,
he hasn’t won the FedEx title yet, he has been among the top players in the standings. In 2007, Stricker finished second in the overall points race while he landed at the 14th position in 2008 and came third last year.
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