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PGA Playoffs begin in Edison Thursday
By: Freddy Wander - StatFox
Published: 8/25/2015  at  11:06:00 AM
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The Barclays

Tees Off: Thursday, August 27th
Plainfield Country Club – Edison, NJ

Odds to Win Tournament

(For the latest Odds, connect to Sportsbook.com)

The first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs kicks off this week at Plainfield Country Club as 119 of the top-125 players from the regular season meet up and attempt to move up the ladder and eventually compete in the TOUR Championship in the end. After last week, five players (Jason Gore, Davis Love III, Jonas Blixt, Camillo Villegas and Ryo Ishikawa) used the Wyndam Championship to jump into the top-125 as Love III made the largest move, going from 186th to 76th after posting a 17-under score and defeating another bubble-buster in Jason Gore by a single stroke. The field will also feature plenty of first-year players as nine rookies are making the trip to their debut in these playoffs and are led by Justin Thomas (36th), Tony Finau (39th) and Daniel Berger (46th) in the top-50. The top players in the FedEx Cup standings are quite impressive heading into these events, which count for four times the amount of points as a typical PGA event, as world No. 1 Jordan Spieth sits 1,710 points ahead of world No. 3 Jason Day for the current lead. The rest of the top-five features world No. 4 Bubba Watson, No. 14 Jimmy Walker and No. 5 Justin Rose. A win in a playoff event will earn the victor 2,000 points, so with the top-25 all within 3,000 of Spieth, there will be a lot of movement if someone can get hot in the next month. Last year, it was Hunter Mahan who was able to grab the trophy at this event, defeating three golfers by two strokes and jumping from 62nd to 1st in the standings. He was not the eventual winner of the whole thing, though, as Billy Horschel won both the BMW and TOUR Championships to be crowned the FedEx Cup Champion. A different player has won here in each of the past six seasons, with five being from the United States and the exception being Adam Scott in 2013. There will be one multiple-time winner here with Vijay Singh (1993, 1995, 2006, 2008) returning to an event where he is obviously comfortable. The par-70, 7,012-yard course has hosted this tourney just once in the past (2011), and there was plenty of scoring to go around as Dustin Johnson posted a tournament record tying score of 19-under-par despite the event being shortened to 54 holes due to inclement weather. There were another four players who were at 15-under or better, a score that would have won this event in the past six seasons not including 2011. So with the competition heating up, let’s look at a few players who could do well in New Jersey come Sunday afternoon.

Justin Rose: Rose has been able to maintain his high standing in the OWGR thanks to yet another impressive season in which he has been in the top-three four times; including getting his seventh career victory at the Zurich Classic. He has been lighting up the TOUR recently, getting a sixth or better in five of his last six times out and was 25-under between the Open and PGA Championship as he is coming off a fourth at Whistling Straits. Rose has had no problem performing each and every year since 2010, making it to the TOUR Championship every season and if he can continue to perform he should improve on his career-best fifth-place standing. The Englishman should have no issues doing well once again as he ranks in the top-10 in GIR (70.62%, 8th on TOUR), strokes gained from tee-to-green (1.457, 5th on TOUR), sand save percentage (63.1%, 5th on TOUR) and scoring average (69.830, 7th on TOUR).

Jim Furyk: Furyk is one of the steadiest players on TOUR and has been for years, so it was no surprise that despite being 45-years-old and in the middle of a youth movement, he has been able to finish the regular season in 18th in the standings while holding the sixth spot in the OWGR. The 17-time PGA TOUR winner already has a victory on the year, and in his 14 made cuts has been able to finish in the top-25 eight times. Furyk didn’t exactly tear it up in the two most recent majors, tying for 30th each time, but put up a third at the RBC Canadian Open and a fourth at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He plays a precision game, hitting 68.61% of fairways (21st on TOUR), 69.25% of GIR (28th on TOUR) and has gained 1.585 strokes on the field from tee-to-green (4th on TOUR). With the top players in the game being young enough to be his sons, it is no surprise that Furyk often gets overlooked, but he will almost always be in contention and is a safe bet every week.

Bill Haas: Haas has managed to put together a solid 2015 campaign with made cuts in 16-of-21 events (76%) and is turning it on of late with three top-25s in his past four events. He tallied two top-sixes in that recent stretch and is coming off a great performance in the Wyndam Championship, racking up a score of 14-under-par and finishing in a tie for sixth behind 77.78% of greens hit in regulation. He’s always been a strong contender in the FedEx Cup, coming away as the champion in 2011 and has done no worse than 31st each year since 2010. Haas will look to build on his tie for 24th that he earned here in 2011 as he is currently one of the best ballstrikers in the game (0.841 strokes gained from tee-to-green, 26th on TOUR) and hits tons of GIR (68.81%, 36th on TOUR).

Russell Henley: Henley is a former Web.com standout, winning three times on the lesser tour before bringing his winning ways to the PGA. Since joining the TOUR, the 26-year-old has finished the weekend on top of the leaderboard twice and was very impressive in 2014 with a final standing of 19th in the FedEx Cup. He has been more consistent this year with 18 cuts made in 21 events (86%) and has been playing great of late with a top-20 standing in each of his last four outings. The last three were major events, The Open Championship, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, and in those tough tourneys was able to post a combined score of 18-under-par. His biggest strength is with the flat stick as he ranks seventh in strokes gained putting (0.621) and that should aid him in having another big week amongst a strong field.

Greg Owen: Owen has been all over the place in 2015, making just 9-of-18 cuts, but has improved leaps and bounds since missing the weekend in six of his first nine tournaments. Since the Zurich Classic, the English-born 43-year-old has a runner-up performance at the FedEx St. Jude Classic and another three top-20s in the last four events. One of those was on his European soil as he tied for 20th at the Open Championship with a score of seven-under. He is able to get on greens in regulation plenty (69.25% GIR, 28th on TOUR), but will need to improve his putting (-.721 strokes gained putting, 188th on TOUR) in order to compete this weekend. Owen has yet to lock down a victory on the PGA TOUR in 219 career attempts, but is playing at a high level and is worth taking a chance on with the large odds.


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