Hunter Mann was not among the favorites listed to win this year’s FedEx Cup match at the Barclays in New Jersey. He was mentioned as a possible, but not seriously, all eyes were on Rory McIlroy and rightly so.
The FedEx Cup is somewhat of an enigma in that no one has ever come up with a satisfactory clear explanation as to how they distribute points within the system as it is currently set up. Putting up a $10 million purse for this event certainly got everyone’s attention, so let them sort out the details as they go along.
Mann shot a 66 on the first day and finished in a tie for second place with Cameron Tringale, with Bo Van Pelt in the lead with a 65. At the end of the second round on Friday, Hunter Mann found himself in a tie for 12th place with three others, but still, only 3 strokes off the pace, now led by Tringale.
Australian golfer Jason Day ended the action on Saturday at the Barclays tied for the lead with crowd favorite Jim Furyk at nine under par. But Hunter Mann was still hanging in there, only one stroke back. Hunter hadn’t won a major in this last 46 tries.
Mann’s strongest game was to show up on Sunday when he pulled away from the field with three straight birdies that locked up this FedEx match and assured him of making the Tour Championship, which he has done every year since the FedEx Cup began in 2007 and is the only player on the PGA Tour never to miss a playoff event.
You can be sure that Tom Watson and friends were looking on over the weekend. Watson still has a couple of Captain’s spots to fill on his Ryder Cup roster. Mann also walked away with a nice trophy and $1,440,000 in first place prize money.
The only pre-match favorites to place in the top ten at the Barclays were Matt Kuchar, who ended up in a three way tie for fifth place, and Jim Furyk who captured 8th place all by himself and still took home a nice $248,000 for his four days of golf. Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed tied for the 9th spot with Kevin Na and Morgan Hoffmann.
Among the other favorites at the event was Phil Mickelson, who achieved the unlikely record of hitting drives into, and back out of the hospitality tent, two days in a row. That’s not easy to do.
