Round two of the FedEx Cup Playoffs is next, with the Deutsche Bank Championship. It’s an odd Friday to Monday event, which came at a great time for me since I’ve been traveling and needed the extra day to get this masterpiece together.
The Deutsche Bank has been played since 2003, at the TPC Boston in Norton, MA. For past results, and a bit of data crunching to find best performers, please see my research page.
Before I give my picks, let me just say, please don’t yell at me for the big names on the list. It’s the Playoffs, and the fields are getting small, and sometimes it’s just not plausible to have a whole slew of darkhorses. Still, I’ve included a few names with longer odds, and as usual I’m not including Tiger because that would be too easy. So here you go, my list of 10 players to watch at this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship:
Robert Allenby: A great record at this event: 8th ’07, T4 ’06, T15 ’05, T19 ’03. And he’s playing well right now, with T2, T24, T15 in his last three events.
Jonathan Byrd: Byrd has some success at this course, with T23 ’07 and T13 ’03. He’s playing solid, reliable golf—in his last 14 starts, he has eight top-25s and only one missed cut.
Ernie Els: Els has a T3 here in ’08, but more importantly he’s playing great golf right now: four top-10s in his last six events, which includes a T6 and T2 in his last two.
Padraig Harrington: Harrington is too hot right now to ignore: T2, T10, T2 in his last three events.
Fredrik Jacobson: A T9 here in ’08 shows he can score on this course. He’s a inconsistent, streaky golfer, currently in the middle of a good streak: T17, T6 in his last two events.
Ian Poulter: Poulter seems just about back into top form, with T15, T19, T9 in his last three starts.
Justin Rose: Rose has success here at the Deutsche Bank, with T4 ’06 and 3rd ’03. He has underperformed this year, but he’s coming off a T5 and T41 in his last two starts that shows promise.
Steve Stricker: One of the big names this week, of course. Stricker at this event has a T13 ’08, T9 ’07, and T7 ’06. And we all know about the year he’s having, with two wins, two 2nds, one 3rd, and coming off a T2 at last week’s Barclays.
Nick Watney: Watney had a fantastic start to the year but then cooled down—I’m hoping that last week’s T6 at the Barclays is a sign he’s ready to heat up again.
Y.E. Yang: Why not? Yang has three top-10s in his last five events, including of course the amazing takedown of Tiger at the PGA Championship. It impressed me that he followed up that career-changing victory with a solid T20 at the Barclays; I’m expecting another good week from Yang.
Lefty Watch: Five lefties in the field this week: Greg Chalmers, Phil Mickelson, Nick O’Hern, Bubba Watson, Mike Weir. Go lefties.
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