Sergio Coughs Up The Barclays - Vijay Says Gracias.

After a nearly perfect tee ball and an even better approach on the par five 17th hole, Vijay Singh stood and watched, for quite some time, Sergio Garcia hand him The Barclays title, first of the FedExCup playoff events. Sergio's tee shot on the same hole hooked when it shouldn't and his second from trouble refused to hook when it needed to. His hooked tee ball left him precariously close to the left side marked hazard. He intended to hook his second, but it failed to cooperate and ended up stymied behind a red oak on the right side of the fairway. In a strange sequence of events Sergio then called for a ruling from PGA rules official extraordinaire Slugger White. After a lenghthy discussion on the merits of burrowing animal condos, Garcia was allowed a drop. The time taken interfered with my viewing of Hawaii winning the Little League World Series, and I plan to file a formal protest. Sergio's gift drop gave him a clear shot at the green, but he came up short. He needed to hole a chip for birdie, but not to be. Singh's second shot was a beauty and left him a makeable eagle putt for the second time in a row on 17. He calmly lagged and tapped in for the win. Good thing too, as his putter has been as predictable as a single throw at the roulette wheel.

The real drama was the 1st hole of the playoff, 18. Kevin Sutherland, Singh, and Garcia had all finished at -8. Sutherland committed hara-kiri and that left Garcia and Singh with twenty foot or so birdie putts on the hole that had ceded precious few. When an elated Garcia holed his first it seemed the win was his based on Singh's putting woes. Nope, Singh's putt looked to be a tad off line, but fell in off the edge to send them to 17 and the final result. High drama. So, Singh leads the playoff points race and the field narrows to 120 for next week's Deutsche Bank Championship, 2nd of four stops in the playoff schedule.

Average Golfer question....After Hunter Mahan's opening round 62 put him at -9, who whoulda bet that -8 would get you into a playoff? Mahan sunk to T31. Not exactly the way to stay on Azinger's radar. 3rd round leader Kevin Streelman kept the overnight leader jinx intact with a 72 today to end up T4.

Til' next,