The opening tournament of the 2015 FedEx Cup Playoffs brought fans low scores, big names, surprise cuts, and one champion who rose above the rest.
Jason Day won The Barclays for his third victory in his last four starts. The 28-year-old closed off his weekend with an eight-under bogey-free round of 62, winning by six shots over 2013 FedEx Cup-Champion Henrik Stenson. The Aussie, who withdrew from Wednesday’s pro-am due to a bad back, earns $1.485 million and 2,000 FedEx Cup points, placing him in the top spot of the FedEx Cup standings, leading Jordan Spieth by 290 points going into next week’s Deustche Bank Championship.
Statistically speaking, Day is the hottest golfer right now, and it only takes a player who is playing great at this time of the year to win it all, so he is definitely peaking at the right time. Day’s rankings this season in the major categories have shown remarkable consistency as well:
Jason Day’s ranks this season: Birdie avg: 1st Putting: 2nd Driving distance: 3rd Scoring avg: 3rd Scrambling: 4th pic.twitter.com/1Y5qgcO1lI
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 31, 2015
The field of 125 has now been cut to 100 of the world’s best. For some players, their opportunity to hoist the FedEx Cup still lives; for others, they missed the mark by the smallest of margins. A total of eight players moved into the pack, including 2013 PGA Champion Jason Dufner (103rd -> 82nd), Luke Donald (119th -> 87th), and Camilo Villegas (123rd -> 99th). Perhaps the biggest mover was Zac Blair, who finished tied for fourth at The Barclays allowing him to jump from 106th to 45th, and he will likely be guaranteed a spot in the third leg of the playoffs.
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Among the eight players who were knocked out of the Top 100, in addition to the 17 others who missed entirely, were three-time major-champion Padraig Harrington (87th -> 103rd), 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott (94th -> 106th) and 2014 Web.com Tour top-graduate Adam Hadwin (95th -> 107th). Hadwin’s fellow Canadian Nick Taylor finished 101st in the standings and will miss the second leg of the playoffs by a single point behind of Jason Kokrak.
Notables:
Jordan Spieth missed the cut after Friday’s second round, shooting a combined seven-over and finishing five shots back of the cut-line. Unfortunately for him, the 22-year-old also loses the world’s number one ranking. Rory McIlroy, who decided not to play this week, will retain the top spot on Monday.
Spieth becomes the first player since the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) were introduced in 1986 to miss the cut in his first start after becoming the top player in the world. Only Tom Lehman and Bernhard Langer have spent less time in the No. 1 than Spieth; Lehman held the top spot for one week, and Langer did for two.
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Brian Harman, despite starting with two straight bogeys, recorded two hole-in-ones in the final round of The Barclays on Nos. 3 and 7. The Savannah, Georgia native finished The Barclays tied for 30th, moving up seven spots in the FedEx Cup standings from 69th to 62nd.
Harman became the third player in PGA Tour history to record two aces in a single round. Here’s a look at his second one coming at the 14th hole:
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The current top ten in the FedEx Cup standings:
1) Jason Day, AUS —
2) Jordan Spieth, USA -290 (Points Back)
3) Bubba Watson, USA -1,292
4) Henrik Stenson, SWE -2,307
5) Zach Johnson, USA -2,410
6) Dustin Johnson, USA -2,431
7) Jimmy Walker, USA -2,439
8) Justin Rose, ENG -2,503
9) Robert Streb, USA -2,621
10) Danny Lee, NZL -2,750
The Top 100 in the FedEx Cup Standings will now head northeast to Boston for the second leg of the four-tournament playoffs. The Deutsche Bank Championship will tee off at TPC Boston from September 4-7 (Friday to Monday, Labor Day weekend).
