Jumping for joy
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NORTON - His presence in the field at this week's $7 million
Then, Kevin Streelman flashes a smile and concedes that not everyone would view it that way, not with a player of his unheralded status - he has played just 29 PGA Tour tournaments - sitting 37th in the standings.
"If you ask the guys up front, they'll tell you they don't like it, because there's nowhere to go but down," said Streelman, referring to the catchword of the week, volatility. As in, a points distribution system that has put players in position to move up, and down, with unexpected ease. That was the story line that dominated last week's PGA Tour landscape after the first of the
Only two players moved into the top 120 at The Barclays last year, while 15 did so this time around, and thus does the Deutsche Bank field feature some names in surprising spots. In the column of those who dropped after missing the cut, Padraig Harrington went from fourth to 23d, Ryuji Imada from ninth to 31st, and Geoff Ogilvy from 10th to 32d.
As for the poster boys of those who represent the other side of the ledger, the guys who jumped forward, meet Streelman, and, while you're at it, a chap by the name of Martin Laird.
"Obviously, we're going to think it's good," said Laird, a Scotsman by birth, now a PGA Tour member via Colorado State and the Nationwide Tour.
OK, so when you mention Streelman and Laird you feel like Carl Spackler should be doing the voice-over - "Cinderella story. Out of nowhere. A former greenskeeper now about to become Masters champion." - their stories have such a long-shot feel. That is a good thing, suggests Laird. "I think it adds to the excitement. It's not predictable."
Glance at the FedEx Cup standings this week and you'll see so many of the familiar names that you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Vijay Singh sits in first, Sergio Garcia second, while Kevin Sutherland, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Anthony Kim, Kenny Perry, Ben Curtis, Stewart Cink, and Jim Furyk are in the top 10. So if it's easy to look over the names of Streelman at No. 37 and Laird at No. 67, it would be understandable.
It would also be too bad, because they've arrived at TPC Boston with those underdog tales that are tributes to a golfing spirit.
Only a year removed from a competitive golf experience in a Las Vegas production called "The Ultimate Game," Streelman, 29, will tell you that his 37th place is nothing when compared with the real stunner - that he isn't on the Gateway Tour. That was his tour in 2007 and "had I not birdied four of the last five holes in the last round of the first stage of Q-School, I would be on the Gateway Tour right now," he said.
Think about that for a moment. In line to pursue the FedEx Cup's $10 million prize, Streelman 11 months ago was five holes from kissing another PGA Tour dream goodbye. You fall short at the first stage of the annual Qualifying Tournament and you get your golf mail in Nowheresville. "Then I birdied the 14th and 15th and 16th and 18th," said Streelman. "I made the cut on the number."
He breezed through the second stage and shot 416 at the final stage to finish joint 14th and earn his PGA Tour card.
"Crazy, huh?" asked Streelman, who graduated from Duke. Yes, he knew it was a rhetorical question, but he also knows that despite what people might think of his 37th-place standing, he showed enough flashes of good play this season to provide confidence. There was a 67-69 start at the Buick Invitational before a slide into joint 29th, then in June at that same venue, Torrey Pines, Streelman was your first-round US Open co-leader. Again, he faded, this time to T-53, but with the playoffs in the air, he has not backed up.
Instead, Streelman has pushed forward. When he tied for sixth at the Wyndham Championship, he got himself into 102d place in the standings. Then at The Barclays, Streelman found himself the 54-hole leader. If he didn't ask if that sounded "crazy," it's because the wild part of that story at Ridgewood CC in Paramus, N.J., involved what sat next to the seventh hole.
"George Washington Memorial Cemetery," said Streelman, who knew the significance of the property but didn't quite understand the proximity to where he would be playing. Though he grew up in Wheaton, Ill., Streelman knew his parents were New Jersey folks and that his father's parents, Herbert and Margaret, were buried in a cemetery there. That's right, as he walked the seventh hole, Streelman only had to glance to his right to see their resting place.
"Honestly, it was just five paces over the wall," said Streelman, who went there one evening with his wife and parents to pay their respects.
All week, fans approached Streelman's father and asked if he knew of Hap Streelman. "Hap for short," said Streelman about his grandfather. "He was known as Happy." It made for great joy during a week when the golf was equally happy, even if Streelman did close with a 72 and finish tied for fourth, one stroke out of a playoff. Having come from the Gateway Tour, from the brink of Q-School elimination, from 102d in the FedEx Cup standings, Streelman embraced an appreciation for the roll on which he'd ride into TPC Boston.
Laird, a 25-year-old who has played in only 21 PGA Tour events, comes from Glasgow, but that's nothing compared with where he came from a few weeks ago. Sitting miles behind in the FedEx Cup standings, Laird moved to No. 164 with a fourth-place finish in Reno. Then he put up bookend 63s in Rounds 1 and 4 of the Wyndham to vault to 128. Of course, what seemed a breeze didn't come without some drama, because Laird nearly spoiled that first-round 63 by forgetting to move his coin back after marking a putt in Round 2.
"Two-shot penalty," said Laird, who signed for a 74, not a 72, and thus had to sweat out the cut. He made it on the number, then roared into a share of seventh, a momentum he carried into The Barclays. When he posted a final-round 67 at Ridgewood CC and secured a share of seventh, the Scotsman had barreled from well outside the FedEx Cup picture into 67th place.
Yes, he'd agree with Streelman. It's a crazy game. But there'll be no apologies for taking advantage of the system as it's been put forth.
"It's the playoffs," said Laird, who has made 12 cuts in 20 starts with just three top 10s. "It's like any sport. You play to get there and when you get there, you know, it's whoever is playing best at that time that comes out on top."
Those with established PGA Tour roots, the marquee names with lofty career earnings and multiple victories . . . well, they would tell you that the volatile nature of this year's FedEx Cup picture doesn't afford them a comfort zone.
Streelman smiles. He may be a PGA Tour rookie, but he's a longtime observer of the American pro sports scene, which explains the perspective he takes into this week: "The point is, you're never supposed to feel comfortable in the playoffs."
