Want to win on Labor Day? You better be aggressive
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor
NORTON, Mass. -- Take a quick peek at the top 20 names huddled closely together on the Deutsche Bank Championship leaderboard.
There are savvy veterans and young stars in waiting. Guys with multiple PGA TOUR wins and guys still looking to break through. Guys who've won majors, guys who should've won majors, and guys who may one day win majors.
There are 12 Americans, three Australians, one South African, one Argentinean, one Canadian, one wildly popular Irishman -- we are, after all, just on the outskirts of Boston -- and one guy born in South Korea who moved to the U.S. at age eight.
There are guys near the top of the FedExCup points standings and guys hoping to just hang on and advance to next week's BMW Championship.
One of those 20 guys may be wearing a red shirt in Monday's final round, but it won't be the guy you're used to seeing. Tiger Woods will start the Deutsche Bank's traditional Labor Day finish nine shots off the pace, much to the relief of the contenders who'll get a rare final round to themselves.
"It's always nice if you're up around the lead, that he's not there," Steve Stricker said.
But while those top 20 names -- three of whom are leading and the others within five shots -- don't have to worry about the current FedExCup points leader, they do have to worry about each other.
And with that many names on a TPC Boston course that is quite capable of being tamed, especially if the wind doesn't blow, the eventual winner Monday will likely need to do one thing.
Go low.
"You could see somebody shooting (7 under) 64 tomorrow," said Padraig Harrington, currently one shot off the lead.
"I don't know what the conditions are going to be like, obviously, but with seven or eight guys with a chance, or maybe more, of winning, you've got to expect somebody is going to play well and shoot the number.
"It's going to be a day tomorrow for being aggressive."
And each of those 20 names at the top have a reason for pulling out all the stops.
Take the three names at the top of the leaderboard -- Steve Stricker, Retief Goosen and Sean O'Hair, each at 13 under. Stricker has two wins this year; Goosen and O'Hair, one each.
Win on Monday, and one of those three should be sitting pretty in the top five on the points list. Stricker, in fact, would move ahead of Woods into the top spot.
"I don't expect guys like Stricker and Harrington and Goosen ... to fall backwards, that's for sure," O'Hair said. "I don't know how low you're going to have to go, but you're still going to have to have a nice round of golf."
Or take someone like Korean-born Kevin Na, who grew up in California and could be a future President Cup/Ryder Cup candidate on the U.S. side. Although he's still young -- he'll turn 26 in nine days -- he has already played 157 PGA TOUR events. But he doesn't have a win yet.
You can bet he'll be aggressive, especially with his confidence overflowing after a second consecutive 66 on Sunday.
"I've got nothing to lose," he said.
Or take veterans Jim Furyk, Mike Weir, Scott Verplank. Combined, they've won 26 PGA TOUR events but none since 2007. Each is desperate to end his respective drought.
"The greens are probably going to be hard and fast," Verplank said, "and you're still going to have to make birdies."
Or take Harrington, who won three majors in the previous two years but hasn't won anything this year except the Irish PGA Championship, an event not sanctioned by any of the major tours.
Harrington has been a constant presence on the leaderboard in recent weeks, including a tie for second at The Barclays last week.
"I won't say I'm desperate," Harrington said, "but I'm certainly pushing hard to get that win."
If there is a crowd favorite on Monday, it likely will be Harrington. Like the New York galleries with Phil Mickelson, the golf fans here in Massachusetts seem to have adopted Dublin-born Paddy, and he's obliged with plenty of autograph-signing and handshakes.
As he walked off the 18th green Sunday after making birdie to give him his third consecutive 67, Harrington was low-fiving fans. And as he walked out of the scorer's trailer, he doffed his hat, a huge smile breaking over his face as the fans cheered him on.
"There's a saying -- there's five million people in Ireland and 40 million in the States, and I think those 40 million live in Boston," Harrington said. "There's great support here. I'm getting great encouragement and it's very positive.
"When you get people supporting you, you do feed off it and try to go with it, and it's certainly helped me over the last three days."
But will it help him shoot 64 or 65 or whatever is needed to emerge from this bunched-up pack on Monday? Or will it be one of the other guys who will attack TPC Boston, knowing that 2,500 FedExCup points and a prestigious tournament title are on the line?
One thing's for sure -- the winner won't be applying the brakes very often.
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