in Golf Articles

Tiger Woods made his Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston over the weekend, but it was rival Phil Mickelson who walked away from that tourney with the first-place prize money and the lead in the postseason standings.

So if you’re planning on doing some golf betting this week, do you go back to Woods? The world’s top-ranked player ended up in a three-way tie for second place at the Deutsche Bank Championship, posting the same -14 score as both Brett Wetterich and Arron Oberholser (Lefty finished at -16). Woods now trails both Mickelson and Steve Stricker in the FedExCup standings, thanks in large part to him skipping the first tournament of the playoff schedule two weekends ago (The Barclays at Westchester).

Aaron Baddeley, Geoff Ogilvy, Rory Sabbatini, and Robert Allenby rounded out the Top 8 at TPC Boston, while Stricker, Fredrik Jacobson, Sean O’Hair, Camilo Villegas, and Troy Matteson ended up in a tie for ninth place. Vijay Singh finished way back in 60th place on the weekend, while K.J. Choi withdrew after the first round with a back injury.

So here’s how the FedExCup standings look after the first two playoff tournaments:

01 Phil Mickelson --- 108,613

02 Steve Stricker --- 106,200

03 Tiger Woods --- 103,733

04 K.J. Choi --- 102,900

05 Rory Sabbatini --- 102,388

06 Vijay Singh --- 99,108

07 Jim Furyk --- 98,963

08 Geoff Ogilvy --- 97,954

09 Adam Scott --- 97,827

10 Zach Johnson --- 97,623

Ernie Els skipped the Deutsche Bank Championship, and as a result he dropped four spots in the standings to 14th place (with 96,967 points). Els, though, is expected back for this week’s FedExCup tournament, the BMW Championship at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Illinois, and he’ll be looking for a big finish to move up the list.

But Els won’t be competing against both Woods and Mickelson. Tiger will be present, but Lefty implied that he might miss the event in his post-round comments in Boston – and then confirmed his absence on Tuesday afternoon. Mickelson cited family reasons for skipping the event and losing a chance to pad his lead atop the FedExCup standings.

Also not heading to the BMW Championship this week are many top names who failed to crack the Top 70 of the FedExCup standings at Labor Day’s conclusion. Heading that list is Retief Goosen, who fell to 89th in the standings after missing the cut over the weekend. Others not qualifying for this week’s tournament at Cog Hill were Davis Love III, Chris DiMarco, Mike Weir, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tom Lehman, and Justin Leonard.

Who won last year’s BMW Championship? Technically, nobody. This tournament is new for 2007, as it replaces the Western Open on the PGA Tour’s schedule. However, the Western Open was played at Cog Hill from 1991 to 2006; Trevor Immelman won that event last year, Furyk won in 2005, and Stephen Ames won in 2004. Woods was the Western Open champion in 2003, 1999, and 1997, while Stricker was first back in 1996.

So who is leading the golf odds list for this year’s Cog Hill event? Here are the favorites:

• Tiger Woods +125
• Ernie Els +1200
• Jim Furyk +1400
• Geoff Ogilvy +2200
• Adam Scott +2500
• Vijay Singh +2500
• Rory Sabbatini +2800
• Sergio Garcia +3000
• Steve Stricker +3000
• K.J. Choi +3300
• Justin Rose +3300
• Trevor Immelman +3500
• Arron Oberholser +3500
• Luke Donald +4000
• Scott Verplank +5000
• Lucas Glover +5500
• Hunter Mahan +5500

After competing at Cog Hill this weekend the golfers of the TOUR Championship. Or, rather, 30 golfers of the PGA Tour will make that trip – the Top 30 in the FedExCup standings. The player atop those standings after Atlanta will head home with an extra $10 million.

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