So the Fed Ex Cup comes to an end this weekend at the Tour Championship. This week the 30 players will be faced with East Lake GC, which has hosted the tourney since 2004 (it alternated before that).
East Lake has been redesigned four times, most recently in 2008 by Rees Jones. The course is a Par 70 for the Tour Championship and measures 7154 yards with the rough and greens being Bermuda grass, throw in 72 bunkers and it's a tough task if you're not at the top of your game. That said the course record is 60, shot by Zach Johnson in 2007, so there's low scores possible too. Last year the toughest hole on the course was the 5th, a 520 yard Par 5 which is converted into a Par 4 for theTour Championship. The easiest hole was the Par 5 15th hole which measures just 5 more yards than the 5th, so the players can get home in two, expect a few eagles.
My first selection this week is sure to be a popular one, at the prices (only 30 man field) I think Tiger Woods is the bet this week. Tiger has won two Tour Championships before ('99, '07) but only one of them came at East Lake. Of his 48 rounds at the Tour Championship 31 have been in the 60's. In the Fed Ex tourneys so far he was T-38th at the Barclays but then more promising finishes of 3rd at the Deutche Bank Championship and T-4th at the BMW Championship. The most notable aspect of Tiger's game has been his poor scoring over the weekend. He's ranked 2nd in 'Pre cut' scoring average but only 53rd in the third round and 23rd in the final round. As a performance stat the part of his game that as pleased me the most this year is his driving, he doesn't have as many wild ones, he ranks 6th in 'Total Driving'. Of course there will be plenty pointing out that his three wins this season have all came on courses he has won before; let's hope that continues this week.
My second selection this week is Sergio Garcia. Sergio has had a win and a 3rd place finish in his last three tourneys, in that time he has also had a week off (Deutche Bank) and a T-24th in the BMW Championship. He has past form at East Lake when he got beat in a play off by Camillo Villegas and with the Ryder Cup on the horizon he'll want to continue his late summer form which saw him land a Ryder Cup place with a win at the Wydham Championship. The Europeans are getting plenty of W's enroute to Medinah and there's no reason why Sergio can't continue that run this week, hopefully he's not too rusty with limited golf in recent weeks.
My final selection is another Ryder Cup player, Jim Furyk. I've backed Furyk numerous times this season but no avail, he's winless this year with only six Top 10 finishes. He's thrown away a couple of of tourneys this year, the US Open being one, another being the WGC Bridgestone when he made a mess of the 18th and Keegan Bradley picked up the win. Davis Love III will be hoping Furyk continues to find his touch on the greens, he led the field in 'Strokes gained through Putting' at the BMW Championship. He's also a past winner of the Fed Ex Cup and Tour Championship in 2010 and had Top 10's in the two years prior to that. His driving accuracy has been his biggest weapon when he has put himself in position this year, he's 3rd on tour in Driving Accuracy and with plenty of green side bunkers at East Lake his 3rd in Sand saves is a pleasing stat to read.
My selections are:
Tiger Woods 11/2 Outright with Betfred
Sergio Garcia 25/1 each way with Paddy Power
Jim Furyk 25/1 each way with BetVictor
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