Advertisement

Inside the Ropes: PGA Tour playoffs could be packed with surprises

The PGA Tour and its television partners understandably play up the FedEx Cup standings every week during telecasts from the start of the season.

Most of the top players in the game probably don't pay all that much attention during the regular season as long as they are in good shape in the points standings. But that all changes once the playoffs start, as they do this week in the Barclays at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., site of U.S. Opens in 2002 and 2009.

When a big-name player such as Ernie Els struggles to get into the top 125 and is in danger of missing the playoffs, it puts the spotlight on what most PGA Tour members go through.

Most top players skip the Wyndham Championship, the week after the PGA Championship and the week before the Barclays, but Els needed his tie for 30th in Greensboro last year to climb to 118th in the standings and make the playoffs. Then he needed to keep playing well to advance through the playoffs toward the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

"It almost feels like you're trying to make the cut (every week), the way I played," said Els, who gave himself no such problems this year by winning the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes and enters the playoffs 11th in the standings.

" ... It's basically the same stuff that goes through your head when you've got a one-shot lead or you're trying to win a tournament. (But) I think it's worse. You screw up on the 18th (while) leading, and now you're going to finish second and you're going to have a $600,000 check.

"Here, I'm going home."

Els, who led the regular-season FedEx Cup standings in 2010 but finished ninth at the end, played well enough last year in the playoffs to make it into the top 100 who qualified for the Deutsche Bank Championship and the top 70 who played in the BMW Championship.

However, he was only 67th after the third playoff event, far short of the top 30 who advance to the Tour Championship. He had missed just once previously in his career, following knee surgery in 2005.

Els got more notice than others who made bigger moves in the playoffs, such as Chez Reavie, who last year finished the regular season 76th but, after missing the cut in the Barclays, lost in a playoff to Webb Simpson in the Deutsche Bank. Then he tied for eighth in the BMW to earn his first trip to the Tour Championship, where he tied for 26th and wound up 10th in the point standings.

Three years ago, Heath Slocum sneaked into the playoffs at 124th but claimed his third PGA Tour title at the Barclays and rode it all the way to his second Tour Championship, where he tied for 26th and finished eighth in the FedEx Cup race.

In 2010, Martin Laird of Scotland qualified 95th and needed a strong finish in the Barclays to advance -- and got it when he lost in a playoff to Matt Kuchar. He went to make his first appearance in the Tour Championship, and even though he finished last at East Lake, he wound up 11th in the final standings.

Els found out what it's like for lower-tier players.

"It's good for me," Els said while he was going through it last year. "When you're on top, you don't feel this. ... It's good to be on the bottom of the pile."

And it probably helped him appreciate what he had once he made it back to the top this year. Now he has a real chance to join Tiger Woods (2007 and 2009), Vijay Singh (2008), Jim Furyk (2010) and Bill Haas (2011) as FedEx Cup champions.

Furyk did it the hard way -- he was disqualified from the Barclays for missing his pro-am tee time because his alarm didn't go off but wound up holding two trophies after capturing the Tour Championship.

Woods leads Rory McIlroy, coming off his PGA title, in the standings heading into the playoffs. Jason Dufner (who is skipping the Barclays), Zach Johnson and Masters champion Bubba Watson round out the top five.

Haas ranks 21st and has some work to do in the playoffs to ensure his trip to Atlanta to defend his title.

"The playoffs should be interesting," Haas said recently. "Two of the courses, Bethpage and Crooked Stick (site of the BMW Championship), are new. I was at Bethpage for the final round in 2002 when my dad tied for 12th but otherwise, I've only seen it on TV.

"I know it's an Open-style golf course, big, and the rough can be pretty nasty. I think it'll be good, though. I think it'll be one thing where it'll weed out people who are struggling, and the guys that play well, I think, will excel in the playoffs."

The PGA Tour has tweaked the playoff format since the beginning but seems to have gotten it right the last two years, when Furyk and Haas captured the Tour Championship to take home the FedEx Cup and the $10 million prize.

The only other time that happened came when Woods won the finale in 2007, but no matter what the outcome, there always seems to be someone who believes there is a better way.

In 2008, Padraig Harrington captured the Open Championship and the PGA Championship to finish the regular season fourth in the FedEx Cup standings. However, he missed the cut in the first two playoff events, tied for 55th in the BMW, fell to 50th in the standings and missed the Tour Championship.

There was a huge outcry, but Paddy didn't complain.

"(The playoffs have) a little reflection of the year, but it's really a four-week event, and it's the guys that do the best in those four weeks who should be there," said Harrington, who is 62nd in the standings and needs some good finishes to reach Atlanta.

" ... We need to have players get knocked out. That's what happens in a playoff."

It's the same in all sports in the postseason: Play well or go home.

COMING UP

PGA TOUR: The Barclays on the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y., Thursday through Sunday.

TV: Thursday and Friday, 3-6 p.m. EDT on the Golf Channel; Saturday, 1-2:30 on the Golf Channel and 3-6 p.m. EDT on CBS, and Sunday, noon-1:30 p.m. EDT on the Golf Channel and 2-6 p.m. EDT on CBS.

LAST YEAR: Dustin Johnson shot 6-under-par 65 in the third round, finishing two strokes ahead of Matt Kuchar at Plainfield Country Club, and was declared the winner when the final round was canceled because of the impending threat of Hurricane Irene. DJ, who will defend his title in the first event of the PGA Tour playoffs, started the third round by going birdie-birdie-bogey-eagle-birdie. After the rain came again and threatened to make it a 36-hole tournament, he came back with birdies on the seventh and ninth holes before holding on with nine consecutive pars. Johnson, who opened with 66-63, recorded the sixth of his seven PGA Tour victories.

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Boeing Classic at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge in Snoqualmie, Wash., Friday through Sunday.

TV: Friday, 6:30-8:30 p.m. EDT; Saturday, 6:30-9:30 p.m. EDT, and Sunday, 7-9:30 p.m. EDT, on the Golf Channel each day.

LAST YEAR: Mark Calcavecchia claimed his first victory on the Champions Tour in his 31st event on the senior circuit by making a two-putt birdie on the first playoff hole to turn back Russ Cochran. Calcavecchia, whose 13 victories on the PGA Tour included the 1989 Open Championship at Royal Troon, seemed to have locked up his initial Champions Tour title by finishing off a 7-under par 65 in the final round with three consecutive birdies. However, Cochran forced the playoff by holing a 12-foot eagle putt to cap his own 65.

LPGA TOUR: CN Canadian Women's Open at Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, Friday through Sunday.

TV: Thursday, 6:30-8:30 p.m. EDT; Friday, 12:30-2:30 a.m. EDT; Saturday, 3-6 p.m. EDT, and Sunday, 2-6 p.m. EDT, on the Golf Channel each day.

LAST YEAR: Brittany Lincicome got up and down for par from about 40 yards on the final hole to hold off defending champion Michelle Wie and Stacy Lewis by one stroke at Hillsdale Golf and Country Club near Montreal. Lincicome, who claimed her fifth LPGA Tour victory, posted three rounds in the 60s before closing with a 2-under-par 70 in heavy rain caused by the remnants of Hurricane Irene. She pulled her drive on the 18th hole into a hospitality tent and got a break when she received a free drop. That enabled her to get her third shot close to the green and hit her chip to within three feet of the hole.