BMW Championship Preview
We are down to the penultimate event in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, which means only two more weeks to see the big names on tour like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in a tournament setting before 2010.
There are 70 guys in the field this week at Cog Hill in Chicago, and that number will be whittled to 30 for the Tour Championship in Atlanta, which is in two weeks.
Obviously Woods is the favorite as usual this week, at +175 on WagerWeb.com. He has yet to win a major or FedEx Cup event this season, but he caught fire Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston, firing an 8-under 63. Woods has won at Cog Hill four times — the Western Open in 1997, ‘99 and ‘03 and the ‘07 BMW.
After finishing 10 shots off the lead at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Mickelson will play this week – that was up in the air due to the health of his mother and wife, who both are battling breast cancer. Lefty (+2500 on WagerWeb.com) really hasn’t looked the same since taking time off after the U.S. Open.
Mickelson, who ranks 12th on the FedEx Cup points list, hasn’t played well at Cog Hill, finishing no higher than a tie for 17th in 11 Western Opens.
Steve Stricker, not Tiger, is leading the points race after winning last week’s tournament. It was Stricker’s third victory in 14 weeks and the seventh of his career, and it gave him a legitimate shot at being named player of the year. He has 10 top-10 finishes, tying a career high, and has earned a career-best $6,045,006.
Stricker likes Cog Hill (he is from nearby Wisconsin), having won at the course in 1996, finished 10th in 2007 and third last year. He is No.1 in scrambling and putts per green in regulation this year, and these are two key stats that will be needed to win this week.
He shot a 4-under-par 67 in the final round at TPC Boston last week and finished at 17-under 267. He now has won two of the 10 FedEx Cup playoff events since the series began in 2007 and has 28 rounds in the 60s (out of 40 total), more than any other player. He is the second-favorite on WagerWeb.com this week at +1200 with Padraig Harrington, who has four consecutive top-10 finishes overall.
Golf Betting at WagerWeb.com
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