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What happens when you take an exclusive group of the top thirty golfers in the world from the past season and dangle a $10 million dollar carrot in front of them? Well, we're about to find out.
With the exemption of the Presidents Cup, this week's TOUR Championship will signal the end of a thrilling 2016-17 PGA Tour season. It also spells the culmination of the FedEx Cup (the $10 million carrot), meaning two trophies are up for grabs on Sunday. For the top five players in the FedEx Cup standings (Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman & Jon Rahm respectively), victory in the TOUR Championship will guarantee victory in the FedEx Cup.
Playoff Roundup
The FedEx Cup playoffs started in the tail-end of August with The Northern Trust and will finish at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club this week. DJ won The Northern Trust in New York, beating Spieth with some playoff magic, before Justin Thomas claimed the Dell Technologies Championship- with Spieth lurking in second-place again. The third playoff- Lake Forest's BMW Championship- saw Marc Leishman crowned winner. For Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, their respective first and second spots are results of remarkable seasons, with JT taking five victories and Spieth totalling three. Third-place DJ is in a similar boat, with four victories for the season. All three of these players, though, have required solid playoff form to consolidate their places at the top of the standings. DJ and JT both have playoff wins, whilst Spieth has two runner-ups and a T7. Like I said: solid. Australia's Marc Leishman has relied more heavily on playoff form to hold fourth-place, with the BMW Championship making it only two PGA Tour wins for the season. However, when paired with a third-place the previous week, the Aussie looks in good shape to challenge for the title. To roundup this roundup, Jon Rahm and Rickie Fowler sit in fifth and sixth respectively, despite only one victory each this season, thanks to consistently high finishes on Tour. Hideki Matsuyama, on the other hand, has suffered the effect of the playoffs' inflated points system as his late-season form has caused him to swap his fourth-spot with Marc Leishman's seventh-spot.
Now, who will come out on top in this thirty-man field?
Jordan Spieth
Spieth is the ultimate competitor. He wants to win everything, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. The East Lake course demands precision and isn't forgiving when it comes to errors, making it ideal for the young American. That said, the 24-year-old has the potential to win on just about any course. When the TOUR Championship, FedEx Cup and Player of the Year titles are all on the line, I expect this man to put aside his long-standing friendship with nearest rival Justin Thomas and become only the second player to win the FedEx Cup twice (he won it in 2015).
Justin Thomas
Perhaps the only man more deserving of the Player of the Year title than Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas can look back on this season with an extraordinary amount of pride regardless of his TOUR Championship result. That said, the rising star shows no sign of faltering. It's possible that he will be edged of by his close friend Jordan Spieth simply due to his opponent's strengths, as opposed to his own weaknesses, but I have him pencilled in for a top-five finish. Don't worry, I'll keep an eraser handy!
Dustin Johnson
For me, it's between DJ and Spieth for the top prize. It's rare to see the top players in the field actually finish where they should on paper, but at this stage it is as much about the state of mind as it is golfing ability. That is why I have DJ and Spieth as my top-two. You've got Spieth's superhuman competitive edge and DJ's superhuman prowess under pressure facing off head-to-head. We saw it in the opening playoff event in New York, when DJ produced his trademark off-the-tee magic to win a playoff in which Spieth did absolutely nothing wrong, so it could simply boil down to whoever is more suited to the course. In that case, Spieth has the edge.
Best of the Rest
How fantastic would it be if Jon Rahm capped off his first full season as a pro by winning the must lucrative prize in the sport? Despite only one win in 2017, the Spaniard knows that victory in this week's event would secure both titles come Sunday. Rickie Fowler also sits on a single PGA Tour win for 2017, but the Californian is the only player I give a realistic chance to. In fact, I favour Fowler over Leishman when it comes to winning the TOUR Championship despite Leishman's victory last week. I'm afraid I simple don't see much of a chance any outsiders, with the stakes for FedEx Cup front-runners too high for an outsider to butt in.
There you have it: my predictions. Spieth and DJ to clash for top spot and a top-five for Justin Thomas. Jon Rahm to challenge, but never ruling out Rickie Fowler. Basically, the best continue being the best... except Marc Leishman.
Written by Joe Carabini
