PGA Championship Comes to an End but The Drama Does Not

As the week of the PGA Championship comes to a close, we have to watch another season of majors fade

away. The 2013 Majors did not disappoint. As Charlie did a fine job of walking you through Jason Dufner’s victory, I would just like to recap my thoughts on this often overlooked tournament.

While I sat and watched, somewhat expecting a hiccup in Dufner’s excellent Sunday round, I could not help but find myself in awe of the control and poise he showed. Dufner was absolutely lights out down the stretch, especially with his mid-range irons. As Twitter was abuzz throughout the afternoon, I saw may quotes stating his round could have been one of the best ball striking displays we have ever seen. Now that Duff Daddy has broken through for his first major victory, we can finally see how his game will adapt as he strives to add to his trophy case. As Jim Furyk stated after his second place finish, he did not feel like he played bad golf, and he did not make any major mistakes. He was right; he ran into a freight train that was not going to be derailed.

Now that the major season is over, the Tour will take a slight break of sorts this week before starting the

FedEx Cup Playoffs. I do not mean to understate the importance of any given week on Tour but here at SnoTap, we want to be sure to keep you up-to-date on what to watch for each week. The most important focus of this weeks’ Wyndham Championship will be those players attempting to lock their place in the Top 125. If the playoffs were to start this week, we would see big names like Nicolas Colsaerts, Padraig Harrington, Shawn Stefani, Ricky Barnes, and previous FedEx Champion Vijay Singh all miss the cut. These players will be fighting for every stroke as they are all valuable when trying to advance in the ranks.

It took me a bit of time to truly figure out how the FedEx Cup Playoffs work, and I am still learning, but once you get a grasp it is one of the coolest championships in sports. The process kicks off at The Barclays Championship where the top 125 compete for points to climb the leaderboard, with the winner taking 2,500 points. The rankings following the tournament are then reordered and the top 100 advance on. This same process will continue at the Deutsche Bank Championship but following this, only the top 70 will advance to the next stage.

I will leave it there for now, as the next two stages become more crucial and therefore more detailed. The essential idea that is important to take away is that the higher a competitor places in the events, the more points they will receive. These points may be more valuable than in the past as they are once again chasing Tiger Woods. Tiger won the FedEx Cup in its inaugural year (2007), and once again in 2009. There are three other men who have found themselves a ways in front of the field; Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker, and Phil Mickelson.

Snedeker will be the only one of those men teeing it up this weekend at Wyndham, and he will once again find himself the favorite. If he were to reel in the victory this weekend, he would have the momentum he needs to catch Tiger and look to defend his FedEx Cup Title. 

Bryan