Matt Kuchar for Player of the Year!!

Posted Sep 15 2010, 10:03 PM by Cathy Erickson
It's been a hectic few weeks in my little part of the world...just as I am entering my favorite golf month of the year my work world gets very busy.  Usually I'm sort of giddy when it comes to talking about school taxes, but this year has been a combination of challenging and maddening...not to mention overwhelming enough that it's elbowing into my golf time!

In the past few weeks we've lost a good 45 minutes of daylight and there is definitely a chill in the air now when the sun disappears past the horizon.  Turtlenecks have come out and I feel a little more zip in my game in order to make sure I can get in as many holes as possible.  A sense of urgency has popped up and sometimes I get so caught up in how much time I'm losing out on that I almost forget about the joy I should expect when I have soft spikes on my feet.
 
But as I sit here tonight, going through my notes for my work presentation tomorrow, I find my mind wandering back to golf.
 
In my little part of the world I've got a fun scramble coming up on Saturday and it sounds like we should have nice enough weather that I might be able to get a few more rounds in over the weekend.
 
In the professional golf world we're in the "lull week" before the Tour Championship.  As you probably know, we're down to the top 30 heading to East Lake to battle for not only winning a hefty check for the final event of the "Playoffs" but several guys have a good shot at winning the FedEx Cup and getting a huge $10 million payoff down the road.
 
One guy that won't win the FedEx Cup this year is Tiger Woods.  He was unable to advance enough at the BMW to make the Top 30.  Rumor has it that he is going to spend his next few weeks getting ready for the Ryder Cup, and as a huge fan of team events (and the Ryder Cup), I'm hoping that everything finally clicks for him before he heads for Europe.
 
My candidate for Player of The Year, Matt Kuchar, will be heading over to East Lake to get some practice in before he steps on the first tee as top seed in the final FedEx Cup event.  He has played this course many times in his home state of Georgia, but it will be his first time playing it as a player in the Tour Championship field.
 
The other 4 players "controlling their own destiny" for the FedEx Cup title besides Kuchar include Dustin Johnson, Charley Hoffman, Steve Stricker, and Paul Casey.  If any of these guys win the tournament, they also win the FedEx Cup title.  The other 25 guys have a chance, but they need other players to finish lower in order to leapfrog to #1.
 
If you remember last year, Mickelson won the Tour Championship but was unable to overtake Tiger's point total to win the FedEx Cup. Stricker was in a "control your own destiny" spot and he made things exciting, too.  So math nerds all over the world have to be excited about calculating the probabilities of each player's chances to win "the Cup".  (for the record, I am sort of math nerd, but I'm waiting for someone else to do the work!)
 
I know Sam Johnson is unimpressed with the whole FedEx Cup structure, but it looks to me like the structure is so close to "money and wins" that I think he just needs to stop resisting and join in on the fun!  I'm guessing he might be a little more interested now that Dustin will be a major factor going into next week.  I sort of feel like a boxing coach putting my player, Matt Kuchar, in the ring against Sam's DJ.  The funny thing is that I really like Dustin...but my heart is definitely with Kuch (and of course Steve Stricker)  winning at East Lake.
 
This sends my brain into the whole Player of the Year discussion...after Dustin's win at the BMW last week he as become the media's pick for POY...but I am NOT giving up on Matt!!  Sure, DJ's story is a classic - talent coming out of his ears, a driving distance stat that borders on "crazy long", and a win last week that seemingly erases his "almosts" at the US Open and PGA this year.
 
But Matt, in my mind, deserves it because he's worked the hardest...he's number one on the money list even after Dustin's win last week.  Kuchar is first in scoring average and first in the "All Around" ranking.
 
He's also first in Top 10 finishes for the year...11 out of 24 events he started in.  And he's only missed 3 cuts this year.  He might not be a "flashy" player, but he's got the game that has made him #1 through the FedEx Cup.  If he wins next week at East Lake, or at least finishes better than Dustin, there is no one else that deserves the POY title more than Matt Kuchar.
 
If Dustin wins at East Lake, then, yes, I'll agree that he's earned POY, but if things ended today, Matt gets my vote.  I hope he gets yours, too.  Go Matt!!
 
I'll wait until next week to talk Ryder Cup, but it's safe to say I'm VERY excited about it!  I'm really hoping we can throw together a little Ryder Cup competition at our home course before the end of the season, too.
 
Wow, I feel a lot better now!  See what a little golf on the brain can do for you??!!  Well, I can hear the Twins game in the background (they are currently beating the White Sox 9-3), my washing machine is telling me that it's done, and I really need to get back to tax world...but I'm sure glad golf will be waiting for me this weekend!  Happy September!

Filed under: Sam Johnson, Steve Stricker, Matt Kuchar, FedEx Cup, Cathy Erickson, Dustin Johnson, Ryder Cup, Tour Championship, East Lake