Deutsche Bank Matchups Hurricane Earl is going to make a mess of this tournament and it certainly curtails the number of matchups that we wanted to play this week.
The field is 100 players and yes, there is a cut, down to top 70 and ties, so only 22-30 guys will not be playing on the weekend. Position is everything in the Fed Ex Cup. The players at the bottom have to make a move to realistically have a shot at the title. The players that are already in the Top 5-10, do not have the pressure and urgency to move up, they can pretty much coast to the Tour Championship.
With heavy rain for Friday and Sat, with afternoon winds over 25 mph forecasted for Friday afternoon, we know that the PGA Tour is going to put players and spectators safety first and we could see a Tuesday finish.
[B]Camillo Villegas -130[/B] vs Geoff Ogilvy
Since winning the first tournament of the year, Ogilvy has not played any decent golf, has no passion to work on his game and has dedicated the past 8 months to his new child, his third, and is falling off the Fed Ex Cup board. He ranks 52nd, Villegas is at 26. Ogilvy missed the cut last week at the Barclays and has missed the cut in 4 of his L5 events, the one event that he did make the cut, didn't have one, the Bridgestone Invitational.
Villegas usually plays well at the end of the season, recall he won two tournaments in the 2008 Fed Ex Cup race. He has missed only two cuts this entire season and has 6 Top 10's, including a T8 at the PGA Championship.
Both players tee off late in the field around 12:15 (the PGA moved tee times up to try and avoid as much storm as possible) and we like Villegas in this spot in bad weather. He can hit the low stinger shots with the best of them, conversely Ogilvy is a high ball hitter.
[B]Padraig Harrington -125[/B] vs Ernie Els
Last week after two rounds Paddy was a couple shots out of the lead. Last year in this event he made a run at the Fed Ex Cup and was T4 here at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Els missed the cut. Els ranks 5th in the Cup standings and you could see by his play last week he just mailed it in. He could miss the cut this week and still be in the Top 10 for next week at the BMW.
We know the Irishman is a good bad weather and especially good wind player as we witnessed at The Open at Carnoustie and Royal Birkdale. Paddy currently stands at 57 in the Cup chase, therefore we expect a solid effort here.
