Itâs been more of the same theme in the race to capture the US$10 million season-ending FedEx Cup prize as the PGA Tourâs youthful stars continue to shine
t's been more of the same theme in the race to capture the US$10 million season-ending FedEx Cup prize as the PGA Tour's youthful stars continue to shine.
After two events and halfway through the FedEx Cup playoffs, the two winners have been 27-year-old Australian Jason Day and 26-year-old American Rickie Fowler. Day has been nothing short of phenomenal of late, winning two events in a row.
First he bagged the PGA Championship on Aug. 16 for his maiden major championship win and then followed up with a convincing six-stroke win on his next start at The Barclays, the first event in the FedEx Cup playoffs. He's undoubtedly been the best player in the world since the Open Championship in Scotland in July.
Fowler for his part won the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs on Sept. 7, beating Henrik Stenson of Sweden by one stroke. Day has already won four times this season ' something no Australian has done on the PGA Tour in 40 years.
Commenting on this milestone he said: 'Thinking about it, I mean, it's just fantastic. I mean, I've always wanted to be one of the best Australian golfers. I didn't know I had the opportunity to win major championships, like I have just recently. But to be able to put my name with the likes of Adam Scott, Greg Norman, not there with Peter Thompson yet, but it's just an amazing feeling.'
Fowler has won twice on the PGA Tour this year and three times worldwide after his win at the Scottish Open in July. After his win at the Deutsche Bank, Fowler was once again asked about the informal PGA Tour player's poll earlier this year where players voted Fowler as one of the two most overrated players on tour. Greeted by laughter, Fowler amusingly responded: 'Yes, being called overrated, I won three times, so thanks for the poll, I guess, sure.'
The top five players going into the third event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the BMW Championship beginning Sept. 17, are Jason Day, followed by American Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson and American Bubba Watson.
The field for the BMW Championship has been narrowed to the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup points standing. Only the top 30 FedEx Cup points winners will move on to battle it out for the $10 million first prize at the Tour Championship in Atlanta beginning Sept. 25.
A victory at the Tour Championship by any of the top five players going into the Tour Championship will result in that player winning the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus. Henrik Stenson had a one-stroke lead and was only two holes away from victory at the Deutsche Bank when he hit his 7 iron tee shot into the water on the par 3, 16th. This resulted in a double bogey handing the lead and eventual win to Rickie Fowler.
A still positive and hopeful Stenson, the 2013 winner of the FedEx Cup, commented about his game afterward: 'It's in the right direction, for sure, and the main goal would be in the top five heading into East Lake. Always disappointing when you can't finish the job when you're in good position. But you have to take the positives.'
Spieth, the 2015 Masters and US Open champion, has struggled in the FedEx Cup Playoffs thus far, failing to even make the cut in either the Barclays or the Deutsche Bank. His remarkable play in the majors this year still leaves him in second place in the points standing. In departing the Deutsche Bank Championship the 22-year-old Spieth said: 'So fortunately this year has gone the way it has, and it really doesn't make a difference, as long as I go ahead and make up for it in the last two [FedEx Cup] events.'
Bubba Watson is also in good shape heading into the BMW Championship and will surely bring his A game to try to maintain his top-five position going into the Tour Championship and control his own destiny to win the $10 million FedEx Cup. A deserving champion will be crowned in the season-long FedEx Cup in two weeks at East Lake's Tour Championship and the stakes could not be higher.
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