Tiger Woods In 2010 FedEx Cup Preview, Schedule, Odds, and Predictions: Tiger Woods is single again and has the burden of the divorce behind him. Hopefully this will free him up to concentrate on his trade and build upon his thin hold on the World Number One Ranking that no one seems to want! The season long FedEx Cup Points race gets into playoff mode this Thursday at the Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey. Woods made the field by ranking 112th in FedEx Cup Points and tees off at 7:10 AM ET. Vegas odds makers at Bodog have Tiger Woods at 12/1 odds to win the Barclays.
The FedEx Cup playoffs are a four tournament elimination event culminating in an overall Champion and a whopping $10 million dollar prize to the winner. Tiger won the inaugural event in 2007 and again last year in 2009. In 2008 Vijay Singh held off Steve Stricker to win. Ernie Els has held the point lead most of the season and is still ahead going into the first tournament which includes the top 125 in points coming into the Barclays. The field is narrowed to the Top 100 point leaders heading into the second tournament Deutsche Bank Championship next week in Boston with points earned during the playoffs worth five times that of the regular season. Vegas odds makers have Ernie Els at 30/1, Vijay Singh 80/1, and Steve Stricker 20/1 odds to win the Barclays.
After the Deutsche Bank Championship the field is narrowed to the Top 70 going into the third leg the BMW Championship at Cog Hill in Illinois. The BMW finish sets the field to the Top 30 point’s leaders that advance to the big show at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola September 23-26 at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, Georgia. The Top 30 have the points reset prior to the finally but are still seeded 1 through 30 with the Top 5 controlling their own destiny, Win the tournament and the FedEX Cup as well. Players 5-10 also have the best shot at winning. Phil Mickelson won the tournament last year but didn’t have enough points to overtake Tiger Woods for the FedEx Title. Odds makers at Bodog have Phil Mickelson at 12/1 odds to win the Barclays.
The task to winning the FedEx Cup is simple, stay inside the progressive cut line each week, and try and get into the Top Five by the Tour Championship to have the best chance of winning. I predict that Tiger will do just that as he needs to just finish in the 50’s this week to move forward and these are courses he plays well. It will be an exciting finish again at East Lake with not only the FedEx Cup on the line but most likely the world number one ranking.