Francesco Molinari makes his debut in the Playoffs, the four final tournaments of the American season which offer a total of around 60 million dollars and which proceed by elimination until the last match. We begin today with the Barclays Championship, on the Black course of Bethpage State Park, on Long Island, a few kilometers from New York City. The course is a long par 71 of approximately 6.700 meters designed to put the game of champions to the test. The qualifiers for this competition are the first 125 players in the Fedex standings, among them the blue, who has been playing permanently on the PGA Tour for a couple of years.
Molinari starts from position 105 and, if he also wants to play in the next rounds, he must get a good placement in this first round, in order to climb at least ten places in the standings and get back into the top hundred. In fact, the Playoffs work like this: 125 players are admitted to the first match, after which the Fedex ranking is rewritten and the field is limited to one hundred players for the second match, the Deutsche Bank Championship, from 2 to 5 September in Boston.
The same thing happens in the following competition, the BMW Championship, from 8 to 11 September, where 70 players are admitted. For the fourth tournament, the Tour Championship, from 22 to 25 September, there are 30 players and the scores are reassigned. with a new criterion in order to give everyone the opportunity to win the annual leaderboard. At the end of this test, the annual bonus of 30 million dollars is also distributed, ten million of which goes to the first, that is, to the winner of the US golf season. It is a race for survival like those of the turtles towards the sea, but at stake there are money, sponsors and international prestige.
The Long Island event is also a grand gala, where the best players in the world parade, starting with Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, the leading group in the world rankings. On the track we then find Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, gold and silver medal respectively at the Olympics. This small group also includes the big favorites of the event: Day is the reigning champion, this year he won three tournaments and is currently number one in the world and number one in the Fedex standings; Johnson in 2016 won his first major, the US Open and finally found the necessary security to make a qualitative leap; Spieth has never recovered after the disappointment of the Masters and hopes to redeem himself in the Cesarini area; Rory sul hasn't yet kicked off the right gear and, at 27, needs to regain some of the polish that at 25 had already made him win four majors.
Among the favorites also Stenson, the Swedish giant who never ceases to amaze, with his extraordinary character and the maturity of his game. This year he was the protagonist of two of the most beautiful matches ever seen: the duel with Phil Mickelson for the Open Championship and the one with Rose for the gold medal. Finally Justin, in Rio, appeared in better shape than ever, even if in the Fedex standings, for now, he is only 51st. There are also great expectations for the Australian Adam Scott, currently third in the Fedex standings; Phil Mickelson, eighth; Matt Kuchar, 18th and Olympic bronze medalist. The prize pool for the race is $8,5 million; 1,5 million for the first.
